Hotel Dieu in Beaune

Beaune, at the heart of Burgundy, is a lovely ancient village complete with ramparts and a 15th century Hotel Dieu, a public hospice, which provided care for the sick and dying, mostly the poor of the region. The building has the trademark multi-colored geometric tiled roof of Burgundy. The hall of the needy, pictured above, is lined with beds. The Pharmacy which used locally-grown and found minerals, herbs and spices, is beautifully recreated with hundreds of vials holding all types of strange potions, including the one above -- if you take its contents, do you become a Catholic?