Wednesday 9 July 2014

Dijon

We had a 9am departure this morning and after our issues with the metro yesterday there was a unanimous decision to get a taxi to the train station rather than have to try and get on a crowded train with suitcases and backpacks.  

After a restorative coffee at the station we boarded our train and sped south to Dijon, which is in the Burgendy region.  After the hustle and bustle of Paris, Dijon is a welcome change of pace and it's a really charming town.  

We left our bags at the hotel and set out on foot for an orientation walk and some lunch.  It's pretty easy to get your bearings and the town is full of charming buildings of cream or grey stone with distinctive roofs of multicoloured tiles in patterns.  We stopped at the famous owl sculpture (it's good luck to pat it and make a wish) and walked around the farmers market, vowing to come back to buy some goodies very soon.

For lunch we had a gallette (savoury crepe) and then we scattered for a free afternoon to explore. We wandered further towards the residential end of town, looking at charming curved streets and window boxes of red geraniums before stumbling on an Australian bar called the Byron Bay bar.  It was closed, but the menu of beer cocktails wasn't promising anyway.

It's become our custom to end the afternoon in a patisserie with coffee and cake, and we'd already staked out several contentors for the title and chosen our favourite.  I finally found the ideal place for a chocolate eclair and it was the perfect accompaniment to a bitter noisette (espresso with a little milk).

We had dinner in a fabulous restaurant that had a giant underground space decorated with lots of interesting objects and then wandered down to the supermarket to pick up some wine, pretzels and chocolates. The whole group ended up sitting in a park near the hotel, pouring wine, passing around snacks and laughing and talking.  

I'm sure that all this wine is taking its toll somewhere, but right now it's just so nice that I have no intention of stopping! A little more sleep would be nice though :-)
  

Sitting in the park.







1 comments:

Jen said...

did you get to one of the wineries? I recall a long day sampling... and still have the wine stained tasting notes... which start off rather informative notes of my interpretation of the wine to a scribble of some form of writing and wine stains after tasting wine #45... yrah you were proveded with spit jars..... but what self respecting Aussie spits out french wine... way too posh for that!!! ok... I was a backpacker and getting my money worth.... love your travel stories!!

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