Since it is considered to be one of the main wine centres in France, it will come as no surprise that Beaune was the next stop on our trip. We had been on the road for 5 weeks and as we were sadly approaching the end of our holiday, we decided it would be best to sample as many of the local offerings in the time available..! Also I particularly wanted to visit the Hospices de Beaune, which I had seen in online images while researching this region, and which as an architectural photographer naturally drew my interest. Most, if not all the images were taken in between the bouts of rain that dogged our visit, however the rain added a lovely shine to the stunning roof tiles.

The actual tiles themselves are relatively new, dating from approximately between 1902 – 1907, however the design itself dates from the mid 1400 – 1500’s I believe; the Hospices were established by Nicolas Rolin, and opened the doors to patients in January 1452, following Rolin and his wife’s decision to create a Hospice for the largely destitute local population.

The audio guide that accompanied our visit furnished a very interesting insight into Rolin, whose incredible philanthropic dedication to the the unfortunates of the time such as the sick, poor, disabled, elderly, orphaned children and single mothers was moving  and most laudable indeed.

All the interior images were naturally taken at a higher ISO setting, which I then had to  increase for the details images since I switched from the 17mm lens to the 70-200mm, which required a faster shutter speed and steady hand (and of course the IS switched on!)… Since these images were only for me and web viewing I only applied a minimal amount of noise reduction, hence some grain may be visible in some shots… (can’t stop calling it ‘grain’…hangover from my days shooting film…)