Dijon (famous for mustard) is only 60km away, accessible by numerous roads. As we had no social or indeed any other commitments today, a visit to that fair city was agreed.
Mary had done some research and identified that a self-guided tour of the pedestrianised old centre was available. All we had to do was get to the Tourist Office, pay a couple of euros for an explanatory brochure and follow the “owls” path, with numbered stops along the way which were explained in English, in the brochure.
Clearly we’d have to park the car near the centre and walk to the Tourist Office, and back to the car later. We quickly found and bookmarked the Tourist Office and embarked in the Clio with its Tom Tom commanded to direct us to Dijon City Centre.
An hour or so later we’d parked the car, about a kilometre from the Tourist Office, as close as we could reasonably get, marked the car location and set off for the target on foot, as directed by iPad. This all went easily, even in drizzling rain (yes, still raining). Brass pointers inscribed with Dijon’s owl symbol and embedded in the paving pointed the way. Fully one hundred metres from the start we’d interrupted the trek having succumbed to the temptation of hot chocolate in a brasserie housed in a largely intact 14th century building. Some pics from the walk:
Typical. Kev at left, the one with the smaller nose. Pic by Mary
More, great roof tiling job in the background. Pic by Mary
Mary wondering… On the huge semi-circular plaza facing the Duke’s palace.
Mannequins hoping to attract customers to a ladies clothing shop along the way.
A late lunch was taken at a small bistro named after a French Admiral after which we agreed that, as we had a dinner reservation back in Flavigny, perhaps we'd better hit the road. Again the iPad showed the way on foot, guiding us unerringly to the multi-level carpark we'd used. Having chosen to return to Flavigny by a different route we spent more time than we expected trying to exit the centre by following the Tom Tom spoken instructions (in English). The problem appeared to be that Tom Tom was unaware that certain streets we were told to use could not in fact be entered. I just kept driving, following any “Toutes Directions” signs and eventually the TT settled down once we cleared the centre. Mary drove a good part of the way home to get her hand in as she fully expects to be driving more in the next few weeks. At last we could give the windscreen wipers a rest as the sky started to clear.
Back in Flavigny the weather was still fine, for a while, so we took the opportunity to get outdoors on foot with the camera.
Our back yard, sunny version. Pic by Mary.
Flavigny cemetery. Memorial to five local members of the French Resistance, killed in combat nearby on 30 March 1944, about ten weeks before the Allies invaded via the Normandy beaches. Their ages: 17, 17, 19, 20, 20.
Flavigny cemetery. View to the east.
Written on morning of Friday 24 May, and the sun is out again. We're off to the local (a large barn-like structure next to the church) for a traditional lunch, apparently there's a crowd expected and we’re lucky to have got a reservation. Boning up on our French right now.
Thanks for reading.
Kev and Mary
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