A beginner's guide to Burgundy (France)

Dijon is to mustard what Wellington is to boots. And tough-as-old boots is what the beef was like that went into the first Boeuf Bourguignon. Faced with an inedible lump of 95% beef gristle, an enterprising Burgundy chef decided to cook it very slowly in red wine until it was really sorry. After 3 days in the pot, the lump of gristle relented. This contingency recipe for intractable steak was adopted and made famous by France's celebrity chef, the Delia of Dijon, Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier, the Nigella of Nîmes (I could go on), also created the Peach Melba in honour of the Australian soprano Dame Nellie Peach. Escoffier's last job was at the London Carlton, where one of his pastry students was the future Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh (the Sophie Grigson of Saigon).

Which bring us on to Gustave Eiffel, who built the General Post Office in Ho Chi Minh City. Gustave was born in Dijon. His family name was not originally Eiffel, but one of Gustave's ancestors changed it to Eiffel because he was fed up with the French mispronouncing his real name - Bönickhausen. Inseparable from his Meccano from an early age, Gustave went on to build a tower in Paris, the railway station in Santiago and the gas works in La Paz, Bolivia. He also provided the internal structure for New York's Statue of Liberty. You can read about the oedipal inspiration behind the Statue of Liberty in our guide to Alsace.

Also born in Dijon was the sculptor François Rude, creator of "Napoleon Awakening to Immortality", "Neapolitain Fisher Boy Playing with a Tortoise" and "Mercury fastening his Sandals". Rude, the Tracy Emin of Trouville, sadly died in 1855 before he could finish either "Immortal Napoleon Realising He's Left His Wallet Behind" or "Same Neapolitain Boy Discovering that Tortoises are Really Boring During the Winter Months". No trip to Dijon is complete without a visit to the The Rude Museum.

Burgundy wines have been described as "varied", "complex", "human" (?) and "sophisticatedly homely" (like Armani dishcloths or Rolls-Royce slippers). You should, however, beware spending more than half the value of your house on a bottle of Bourgogne Grand Cru. The most expensive Burgundy wines have also been described as "Veblen goods" after the Norwegian economist Thorstein Veblen. Veblen identified the phenomenon of "status symbol" goods and pointed out that a nice pair of £9.99 slippers from BHS will keep your feet just as warm.

Then, there's the bishop and the actress...