Dijon is such a beautiful city, it deserves a blog page to itself. There is so much to see here, you would need a month to cover it all.
The weather, thankfully, is back to normal, hot, hot, hot, and we cycled on Monday morning into the centre of the city to the Office de Tourisme. We then chained the bikes up and took the free bus around the centre to acquaint ourselves and after that, we did the Owl’s Trail walk recommended by the Office De Tourisme. Basically you follow the brass Owls on the streets and they take you to all the interesting sights. With a handy booklet to accompany the Trail, it really is first class.
The walk takes in the Jardin D’Arcy, the Hotel de la Cloche (where famous people like Grace Kelly and Napoleon III have stayed), The Porte Guillaume, Place Francois Rude (named after a famous Dijon sculptor who was also the author of ‘La Marsellaise’), Notre Dame with its stunning clock and fascinating interior, The Owl (over the centuries the owl has become a good luck charm for passers-by who rub it with their left hand to make a wish), Place du Theatre, and the Palais des Ducs et des Etats de Bourgogne.
The streets are so quaint with fabulous designer shops, beautiful restaurants and bars, it was hard to choose where to stop for a refreshment!
The weather, thankfully, is back to normal, hot, hot, hot, and we cycled on Monday morning into the centre of the city to the Office de Tourisme. We then chained the bikes up and took the free bus around the centre to acquaint ourselves and after that, we did the Owl’s Trail walk recommended by the Office De Tourisme. Basically you follow the brass Owls on the streets and they take you to all the interesting sights. With a handy booklet to accompany the Trail, it really is first class.
The walk takes in the Jardin D’Arcy, the Hotel de la Cloche (where famous people like Grace Kelly and Napoleon III have stayed), The Porte Guillaume, Place Francois Rude (named after a famous Dijon sculptor who was also the author of ‘La Marsellaise’), Notre Dame with its stunning clock and fascinating interior, The Owl (over the centuries the owl has become a good luck charm for passers-by who rub it with their left hand to make a wish), Place du Theatre, and the Palais des Ducs et des Etats de Bourgogne.
The streets are so quaint with fabulous designer shops, beautiful restaurants and bars, it was hard to choose where to stop for a refreshment!
On Tuesday, we started to get organised for our Sky Digibox arriving - buying an 80cm satellite dish - what a laugh we had getting it back to GG on the bikes from the DIY shop 2 miles away. See photo of Jim with his ingenious idea of transporting it back!
On Wednesday, we decided to do a bit of exploring by bike, along the towpath of the Canal de Bourgogne to see where we could take Charlie and Elaine, who arrive next Wednesday, on GG, weather permitting.
We headed West which is really beautiful, but there are not many facilities(showers and electricity) on offer. We cycled to Plombieres Les Dijon, 5 locks away, where there were a lot of boats permanently moored to the side of the canal, a couple of restaurants, but the place looked a bit run down. We then continued to Velars sur Ouche, another 6 locks away, which has one primitive stopping place and a gourmet restaurant 1km walk away. Then we went to Fleurey sur Ouche, another 4 locks away, which was a lovely little village unfortunately with no set stopping places, but it did have a lovely little Stella Artois Bar and a nice restaurant at the side of the canal. So there are a couple of options at least available to us, and we are glad we explored this by bike first, even though it was 24km round trip and we were knackered after it in the hot sunshine!
We have decided to stay here in Dijon another week, until our guests arrive, and then, we will take them west along the Canal, and then we will return to Dijon and spend a further week here (Jim is heading home on 23rd September from here, back 27th). With so much to do here and with good facilities on our doorstep, it will be impossible to get bored! And it is only 45€ for a full week including electricity and water, a great bargain to say the least.
On Wednesday, we decided to do a bit of exploring by bike, along the towpath of the Canal de Bourgogne to see where we could take Charlie and Elaine, who arrive next Wednesday, on GG, weather permitting.
We headed West which is really beautiful, but there are not many facilities(showers and electricity) on offer. We cycled to Plombieres Les Dijon, 5 locks away, where there were a lot of boats permanently moored to the side of the canal, a couple of restaurants, but the place looked a bit run down. We then continued to Velars sur Ouche, another 6 locks away, which has one primitive stopping place and a gourmet restaurant 1km walk away. Then we went to Fleurey sur Ouche, another 4 locks away, which was a lovely little village unfortunately with no set stopping places, but it did have a lovely little Stella Artois Bar and a nice restaurant at the side of the canal. So there are a couple of options at least available to us, and we are glad we explored this by bike first, even though it was 24km round trip and we were knackered after it in the hot sunshine!
We have decided to stay here in Dijon another week, until our guests arrive, and then, we will take them west along the Canal, and then we will return to Dijon and spend a further week here (Jim is heading home on 23rd September from here, back 27th). With so much to do here and with good facilities on our doorstep, it will be impossible to get bored! And it is only 45€ for a full week including electricity and water, a great bargain to say the least.
When Jim returns on the 27th, we will head back South shortly thereafter towards St. Jean de Losne, Chalon sur Saone, and then down the Rhone to Tournus, Macon, Lyon, etc. reaching the very south of France November/December.
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