Fields of Mustard

As Jules mentioned, Dijon was a nice break from busy Parisian life. The train ride there was particularly beautiful - fields of mustard seed abound! Dijon is the captial of the Burgundy region (Bourgogne), as well as the historic capital of the Province of Burgundy. From the 11th-15th centuries this province (located in what is now France and Switzerland) was home the Dukes of Burgundy and was a very wealthy and influential place.

Fun fact: 90% of mustard seeds used in dijon mustard are imported, mainly from Canada.
The shops were crazy-cute and chock full of mustard and herb-flavoured goodies.So... If you like decorative owls, you should probably check out Dijon. After walking around for about 10 minutes on the first day it was clear that they had a thing for the wise bird of the night. I busted out my francais and asked a shop owner,"Le owl c'est le animaux du Dijon?" and miraculously he understood me. It turns out that after the construction of the city's Notre Dame church, a small owl carved in the side of the church gained the ol' European rub-for-goodluck reputation, and ensures you will return to the city one day. There's the rub:
On my second day in Dijon, I took the Owl's Trail (Le Parcours de la Chouette) which guides tourists though the city's highlights.Get ready for more owls.
Anis and cassis are also grown around Dijon, and make tasty candies. Check out the candy-making machine. Still in use since 1850!A foreign, yet oddly familiar landscape near our Hotel. I guess a stripmall's a stripmall. It took 20 minutes to get to the city centre by bus.
Just a sample of the dijon selection at an average grocery store.

Part of the Owl's Trail went through the city's Museum, the Musee des Beaux-Arts. Some portraits of Burgundy nobility.

Wicked painting.Portrait of Hugues de Rabutin and Jeanne de Montagu.
The museum also holds the stunning tombs of Dukes Philip the Bold and John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria. The tombs took decades to complete and were sculpted by Flemish masters Jean de Marville, Claus Sluter, and Clause de Werve.

Tomb of Phillip the Bold.

Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria.
The definition of detail.
Notre Dame church.


Polar bear in a park.
Leaving Dijon, the only train we could catch to Munich left at about 5:30am so we had to leave at an unforgivable hour from a hotel in the middle of nowhere that had Do-It-Yourself night staffing - that is to say, a pitch dark reception area and a keypad lock on the front door between the hours of 10-6am. The cab we ordered the night before didn't show up in the morning so we got a bit freaked out that we wouldn't be able to get to the station since payphones in europe don't seem to like us. However, we thankfully stumbled into HotelF1, where a delightful receptionist made us coffee and called us a cab. Love you HotelF1!

Much needed coffee and the beam of cabbie-promise.