Dijon

Dijon, home of famous Maille Dijonaisse mustard, nestled amongst the hills about 316 km south east of Paris is a very picturesque town although my first impression was that it is a lot smaller than I had pictured it to be.

I arrived in Dijon around 11:30 AM after having carpooled from Paris with three other people, the trains here are very expensive and as I have learnt the hard way in Dijon, Avignon and Montpellier (all yet to be blogged) almost all of the backpackers in France close down from the beginning of December until mid-January. Hence to try save money, I have been using an awesome website, Covoiturage.com.fr, which allows drivers to post their proposed car trips and then for users such as myself to ‘buy’ a seat in the car for a much cheaper price than a train seat.  I did this before going to bed in Montmartre, paying 12 Euro to go from Paris to the Dijon train station the next day.

Waking up in Montmartre on the 12^th, I had to quickly have a shower, get dressed and get on train to get to the drivers agreed upon meeting place outside a pharmacy near Porte d’Orleans, a metro station quite a distance from where I was staying. I must admit that my first time using Covoiturage was slightly worrying, as I stood outside the only pharmacy I could see that was close to the metro station, and waited for Nourik, the driver, to turn up not knowing what he looked like or what his car looks like either. Finally, 15 minutes after the agreed upon meeting time, a red people mover stopped on the road outside the pharmacy and I heard my name called out, at the same time two other people came out from the pharmacy and quickly threw their bags in the back of the car. So I introduced myself, did the same and finally we were off. Weaving through Parisian traffic was very interesting and everyone commits to these kamikaze dives into lanes, which always resulted in a lot of swearing and horn honking, but after 30 minutes we were finally out of Paris and doing 140 kph along an Auto-route towards Dijon.

If I thought the temperature in Paris wasn’t cold enough, we stopped at a petrol station and when I stepped outside it was snowing very slightly and was -6.5 degrees according the thermometer at the station. Not long after this stop, we stopped off at a small town to drop one of the other people off; he’d slept the whole time, and then continued through foggy valleys toward Dijon.

Finally, as afore-mentioned, I arrived in Dijon around 11:30 at the train station, I set off toward the town centre, following the tram tracks, signs and also heading toward the largest cathedral I could see (generally a good indicator of where the centre-ville is) and then used the free McDonald’s wifi to try and find some accommodation. I settled on Hotel Victor Hugo, as it included breakfast and wasn’t too far away, so I headed there and checked into a decent sized room with a BATH and dropped my bags off and headed out with my camera to get some photos. The actual centre-ville of Dijon where all the main monuments, churches and public squares are isn’t overly huge and I followed the Owl Trail which is a path consisting of bronze owl plaques set into the footpath which leads past Les Halles (a huge and very old open plan marketplace where farmers used to sell their goods in the Medieval ages and even nowadays), and then past the Cathedral Notre Dame (not quite as large, famous or architecturally impressive as Paris’ but still a very impressive sight and easily seen around the town by its tall steeple).

With the light now fading and temperature approaching -5 as it began to snow slightly again, and it was only around 4:00 pm, I continued on the path and went through Palais des Ducs (Palace of the Dukes) in the very centre of town, this has now become a museum documenting the history of the Dijonaisse region. Just the other side of the Palace’s courtyard and through a medieval gateway I emerged into a beautiful semi-circular courtyard in front of palace, in the centre of this courtyard, sat a rectangular ice rink which was surrounded by a set of small Christmas trees, shrubs and life sized penguins and polar bear covered respectively in a light dusting of frost and blue and white LED lights. The warm light thrown from the shopfronts, the blue and white light from the surrounds of the ice rink bouncing off the icy ground and French folk music playing created an indescribable ambiance which I attempted to capture in many photos (see below).

While I was tempted to try ice skating, I decided I would save breaking my legs to the snowfields in early January (just kidding Mum) and finally continued on my way through the small alleyways and past the centuries old buildings with their Tudor and Georgian style exposed wooden frames and white render.  

After grabbing a bite to eat from a patisserie and taking yet more photos I headed back to the accommodation and started planning my next day, which involved reserving accommodation in Avignon (see footnote) and also a ride to Avignon on Covoiturage.

Originally my next stop was going to be Nice, via an afternoon stop in Monaco, to see the famous city that hosts Formula One’s most grandiose race however given my tight time frame, only having 9 days between arriving in Paris and getting to Caen, I decided to instead head straight to Avignon and spend two nights there so I could enjoy the sights and visit some of the Rhone Valley’s most famous icons, the Pont de Benezet (Pont d’Avignon) and the Palais des Papes. Was this a good decision? Find out next time on Keeping Up Foreign Relations :P