You can smell the anis just walking along the streets of this pretty Burgundian village. Odd then,…read morethat, at least among foreigners, it is less well known for this candy, its specialty, than for the chocolate made here by the incomparable actress Juliette Binoche in the 2000 movie Chocolat. This village of 243 people (24 km sq.) started off somewhere around 714AD as Flaviniacum, a fortified Benedictine Abbey. Its location on an outcrop by the Ozarain River brought its first boom, as a overnight stop on the pilgrimages that were the tourist trade of the Middle Ages. Even the English came here, although as conquerors who quickly overstayed their welcome in the Hundred Years War. More peaceful tourists crowd its tiny streets today in summer, their cars and buses lined up outside the city walls. The village itself is off-limits to automobiles, an irritant that drives us away during the warmer months. One of these days we expect to arrive here and find Binoche's chocolate storefront, like the Mona Lisa, under heavy guard behind bullet-proof glass. But in winter, Flavigny is a pleasant place to wander, alone, unbothered, and unhurried. We would stay here in the local relais, except that there really isn't much to do when you're finished walking.