Dijon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
After a couple of disturbed hours, it was good to sleep in a little, although we did have to be at the tourist office at 10:25am ready for our tour of the Tour Phillipe le Bon (tour = tower). After breakfast, we hurried down the road, getting there in about 3 minutes. We needn’t have hurried, because they didn’t start checking our tickets until about 10:30 anyway. I think the guide said that there were 316 steps to the top, We completed these in stages so that she could give us some information about the tower and Dijon. We were the only English speaking tourists in the group, and so she would speak to them at length in French first and then give us a very brief translation! We learned that the Palace and tower were built for the dukes of Burgundy who had more wealth than the King of France. The steps narrowed above the level of the duke’s apartments, as only the guards/soldiers needed to climb to the top. The top of the tower did provide us with a great view of the city. We were so lucky to have seen it bathed in glorious sunshine, as by the time we came down, the dark clouds were accumulating above us.
(They only hung around for a few hours — by late afternoon it was sunny again.)
Our next destination was the market — not only was the indoor market open, but there were also lots of outdoor stalls as well, selling clothing, food, tablecloths, etc. Michael bought himself a wicked chocolate treat, and then we headed back to the apartment via a toy shop where I picked up a present for Oaki (a construction set that integrates with Lego, but which lights up when buttons are pressed — the sort of thing that Oaki loves, and not widely available in Australia.
Sufficiently refreshed, off we set again, stopping to buy me a treat and a small patisserie (the treat was mostly flaky pastry and butter, and was not quite sweet enough for my liking). I was impressed by the machine the store used for customers to insert their coins for making payments. If you also paid with a note, as we did, the shop assistant simply manually added this to the computer somehow, and then the machine spat out our change. What a great way to eliminate handling all those germs coins! (The yiros shop we later bought tea from should get themselves one — I was hurried when the man handled our bread without washing his hands after having just handled some money!) The Musee des Beaux Artes was next on our agenda — this is one of the oldest and largest museums in France, having been founded in 1787 in the Age of Enlightenment.
It is located in the former palace of the Dukes of Burgundy and in the eastern part of the Palace of the Estates and houses houses objects from the Antiquity, Middle-Age, and Renaissance periods, as well as masterpieces stretching from the 17th century to the 21st century. However, the galleries containing the latter were being renovated. It was free to wander through the few galleries that were open. Portraits of the dukes were displayed in one room, and some of their tombs (restored after being damaged in the French Revolution) were on show in another. there were enough items to entertain us for a while.
Back at the apartment, Michael cooked up the remainder of our potatoes and then we went out to buy some yiros to have with it, having ascertained that the restaurants were all a little on the expensive side — and why go out when you have such a cute apartment with a kitchen?! I ate the meat and salad, but left the bread — not merely because the cook hadn’t washed his hands to assemble it after having handled some money, but as I thought it might help me sleep better if I were to consume less gluten! Michael was pleased that we had consumed almost all of our leftover food.
Our day in Dijon had come to an end. We had walked around and around, and had certainly seen most of it, although there were many more museums that one could explore. It was certainly a lovely city to visit, but two nights felt like enough for us.
2025-05-22