Ed Space: Dijon

So I've decided to start writing about some of my travels. Here goes:

After the grandeur and hustle-bustle of Paris, I decided I needed to visit somewhere a little more quiet and laid-back. I settled on Dijon. I knew nothing about Dijon except the mustard.

I arrived in the evening when it was dark and most things were closed and graffitied. Hungry, I ventured into the nearest “Quick” burger joint, bought the cheapest hamburger available and asked for directions into town. I managed to somehow make my way to a bus stop in the town centre and asked a lady which bus to take. Naturally, we had to converse in French, so I tried my best to keep up. “Ask the men in black,” she said. I looked around, there were a group of men huddled about but they weren’t wearing black. “You know, like the colour of your backpack,” she explained further whilst pointing at the group of men.

“Oh, you mean the Black people,” I said with a sigh of comprehension. I thanked her then went over to the group of tall, burly black men who I was pretty sure were going to mug me. But they didn’t and were really friendly and told me which bus number to catch.

We got on the bus together, bonded a bit, then they got off. I watched the screen on the bus as it announced the stops and learnt that “’prochaine arret’ means ‘next stop’”, thus widening my French vocabulary a little bit more. I got off and so did another guy who turned out to be a fellow Aussie.

It was one of those Hostel International hostels which are really clean and host school groups and old people. And it was the only one in Dijon, so no other choice, but it was nice anyway. When I arrived at my room, someone was sleeping in my bed, so I got upgraded to my own private suite with two single beds and a bunk bed. Score.

The next day, after a hearty meal of a bread roll, yoghurt, piece of fruit and a bowl of coffee (yes, a bowl), I took the bus into town and started my adventure into Dijon. Dijon was lovely with its cobbled stone streets and flower-boxed windows and gothic church towers. I kind of decided to do a bit of a walking tour and first stopped at what looked like a beautiful, old church. I walked into the quaint little courtyard complete with old, stone well and flower beds. I went inside and was greeted by some nice, old French people. They informed me that it wasn’t actually a church but an archaeological museum. Crap, I don’t like archaeology. But I felt really bad and they were really nice, so somehow they shoved a ticket into my hand and I walked up the stairs to the start of the exhibit. It was a nice enough museum, though once you’ve seen one mummified corpse, you’ve seen them all, eh? The museum route then took me down into the basement, and that was pretty cool. Soaked in this eerily green light, there were all these decapitated statues and things and I thoroughly enjoyed that.

After thanking the museum staff and back in the dull, morning sunlight, I continued my walk along the back streets of Dijon. I passed by beautiful Renaissance buildings, through churches and shops and gradually made my way to the Palais Des Ducs et des Etas de Bourgogne where the Musée des Beaux-Arts was housed. It was an impressive gallery and the highlight for me was seeing the beautifully carved marble Tombeau de Philipe le Hardi.

In the afternoon, I decided I’d had enough of museums, so thought I'd try some of Dijon’s local cuisine. And what better way to experience it than to join a tour group of old French couples? The tour was titled “The tastes and flavours of Dijon”, and thankfully was bilingual. There were only two other people in the group who spoke English – an elderly English couple who informed me that their son had gone to Canada and everything was “lovely”. The tour itself was pretty good – the tour guide was brilliant and explained everything thoroughly. Haha, I just remembered, there was this journalist guy in the tour group and he interviewed me and the English couple. So who knows? I might have my name printed in some random French newspaper!

We started the tour in the most famous/ original mustard shop in Dijon. We taste-tested all different types of moutarde, my favourite being one with champagne in it. Next, we went to some bakery/ store where they made ginger bread or pain d’epice. They let us nibble on thick, fresh slices and they were really good. We then got to sample (I think) choc-chip ones and they were pretty tasty too. After stuffing our faces with gingerbread, they let us taste-test some crème de cassis – blackberry liqueur. It was sickly sweet but enjoyable nonetheless.

After the tour, I decided to continue my walk around town before having dinner. I stumbled across a bookstore and thought I’d brush up on my French a bit. And I found Harry Potter in French. Looking back on it, it’s not really that exciting is it? I mean, you’d expect that a French bookstore would have a French translation of Harry Potter. Nevertheless, I still smiled excitedly to myself and snapped a photo. And btw I’m not a Harry Potter fan.

It was getting late, so I decided to find a place for dinner. After numerous menu perusals, I settled on a nice little restaurant just away from the town centre that offered a menu – set menu of three courses. The staff were incredibly friendly and the food was fantastic. I swear, I have never had a more interesting salad in my life (see photo). This was followed by a sumptuous steak and chocolate mousse cake for dessert. The waitress was so friendly, that she even wrote me a little note in broken English on the receipt wishing me a good evening and good travels. Aww.

Arriving back at the hostel, I met two new roomies – Steven from America and Clement from a small village in France. They were in Dijon for work and study respectively, and we had a bit of a chat before calling it a night.

Some photos - enjoy!

Archaeology Museum