Today we left Tours, France after a great night of sleep (though the AC was out and was a little warm). Our goal was to get to Dijon by night after a scenic drive through the center of France. We drove through a park called the Park du Morvan.
To start the day, the early sunrise was accompanied by multiple hot air balloons lifting into the sky, while we stood outside of a local cafe, after getting our hot coffee in the morning. So we took time to enjoy a nice view before we hit the road, with the intention of ending in Dijon, France. Funny enough, upon leaving this cafe, we mistakenly grabbed a croissant from a tray, not realizing that they were not for everyone, nor free. The position of the tray seemed to lend one to think they were for anyone, and when I realized someone was paying for their croissant we had to go back and pay. One of the most memorable parts of this morning was the hot air balloon you can in the sky below!
The first part of this drive was a back woods winding road that meandered through the forests of the Loire valley. Had it been any other time, it would have been nice to stop at one of the streams and enjoy the sunlight coming through the trees. Nonetheless we had to keep our itinerary on track in order to connect at the right points for the trip. Remember, timing is the most important part to the success of this major endeavor we were pursuing. After this we came upon rolling hills of mustard seed flowers, which as you can imagine are yellow plants that are cultivated in France. If these were the mustard flowers where Dijon mustard was created, I was not sure, but they added a beautiful visual to the rolling hills.
As it would seem, you would think Dijon would have these as indigenous plants, and you would be correct, but there are similar mustard fields just outside of Paris as well. The rolling hillsides with the flowers are some of the most amazing sites with the bright yellow leaves dazzling in the sunlight, to add to the glory of a morning drive around France.
This allowed me to take some great pictures, and after an hour of driving we reached a town by mid morning for us to take a rest. This town was Sancerre, and it was an unexpected highlight of the day, and one of the pleasant surprises we encountered on this trip! We had many pleasant surprises on this epic adventure, but coming upon cities, and views that are unexpected add a level of satisfaction that is unexpected on this journey.
Sancerre was a great surprise, as this town is in the Loire region of wine, and it becomes evident you are in wine country well before the town, as the rolling hills of mustard plants change to rolling hills of vineyards similar to Napa Valley in California, or Tuscany in Italy. The town itself sits on a hill that overlooks the valley beneath for many miles. This was the surprise I was writing about when I realized this town was a perfectly quant French town that few people have ever heard of.
Upon stopping in the town square, I observed the overlook, and the girls took a bathroom break. This town center had a few shops and one restaurant which seemed to be the local gathering place during lunch, and it would have been the perfect setting for a movie about the french countryside. If you ever find yourself in this area of the world I suggest checking this town out!
After filling up gas in this town we decided to head eastward to continue the itinerary for the day. The next part was to go through the Parc Du Morvan and take a scenic backroad through the valley. This was an area that did not have any reviews but I found it on google maps and decided we should check it out, as part of our driving route to Dijon. This area has many small villages and towns among rolling hills, lakes, and streams that litter the landscape. It is a quaint and simple countryside and everyone seemed in great spirits there.
I realized this after stopping in the town of Champeau-en Morvan. This was a great stop, as we were able to stop at local farmers markets and pickup some fruit, vegeables, breads, meat, and cheeses for lunch we could eat in the car. It was about as authentic as you could get for locally grown and cultured products of the French Countryside.
We spent the next hour meandering the backroads, and the rolling hills of the park. I did run into a car that seemed to have road rage, and when they approached our car, they almost seemed to threaten us, but I believe they realized we were American, and must not have known any better for what they were saying, and what we or they may have done wrong. Eventually they left and we made it to an open freeway, where we were able to head to Dijon quickly. This freeway meandered through some wonderful cliffs and natural areas as well.
We finally arrived in Dijon. This was about 2 in the afternoon, and we checked into our Micro-hotel of the night. For $60, we were able to get a room for all three of us, granted, with limited space. This was the first time we ever had to check into a hotel with an emailed code, as opposed to a front desk host. I realized this as I walked to the entrance, as we could not even enter the building without our code. This allowed us to enter, and gain access to our room. I found this to be a great way they reduced costs to us, and the consumer.
We were to spend the rest of the day walking Dijon. Of course it was beholden to us to try to world famous mustard from the namesake of the city, but also we were to see the historical squares and cathedrals which are located in Dijon.
We decided to drive into the city as the hotel was still about 3 miles from the town center, and thus we needed to once again pay for parking. We parked about half a mile from the famous town square, where the Palace of Dijon is located. This required us to walk a bit, but the walk had multiple stops along the way. The Church of Our Lady was the first thing we came by, and it was unexpected, as it was a Gothic Cathedral created in the early 1300’s! We walked into this amazing structure, and though there seemed to be little use of this building now, the interior was well decorated, adoring Christ.
It was time to head to the Place Du Liberation, which is the center piece of the town. This is where the palace I had mentioned was located, and where we decided to spend a piece of the afternoon relaxing at a bar. It was about 3pm now, and we were ready for a libation. There were many to be found at this place. We determined that having lunch at a place called Le Petite Reine, was the perfect location to spend an early dinner. We ended up sharing a meal and an appetizer, and determined it was enough to fill us up for the last bit of the day.
Our next part of the afternoon was spent meandering around city parks, and to another cathedral called Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne de Dijon. The par we enjoyed was called Darcy Park, which featured a wonderful terraced, man-made waterfall, and marbled architecture. We spent about 30 minutes sitting on the park bench, and absorbing the local scene, and the natural beauty of this park, until we were ready to head back to the next set of Gardens. This was called L’Arquebase Botanical Gardens, which was the perfect stop on our way back towards the Cathedral. These featured lakes, and natural flora. This would be a wonderful area for a picnic during the cooler months as the sun was beating down heavy that day. From here we headed to the Cathedral, as mentioned earlier.
When we arrived at the cathedral, The building was a surprise, as I had not expected to see this beautiful church in the vicinity of Dijon. Since we had walked off a bit of our drink, we decided it was time to relax again, and stopped at a bar called Flannery’s across the street from this Cathedral. One interesting part of this bar, it was self serve! We ended up getting into a conversation with locals about what to do, and it seemed that we had seen about everything we wanted to in a half day expedition of Tours.
At this point was starting to get late, and the sun had begun fading behind the larger buildings of downtown, so we decided that we should head back towards the Palace Du Liberation, and enjoy a cocktail before we headed to the hotel. This bar we ended up in had a retro 80’s feel with an arcade scene as well. The name of this bar was Les Enfants Du Rock, and it was incredibly out of place among a metro French town. It was very interesting to see this however.
It was time to head back to the hotel, as the rain was starting to pick up, and we were thoroughly exhausted with this travel we had done today. I was happy with the results however, as we saw everything on our bucket list, and were able to stay on target with our schedule, and budget. Time to head to Germany tomorrow!
HOTEL: BB hotel Dijon Nord CONFIRMED (60.91)
EXPENSES-
2.40 coffee
33.76 gas and snacks
7.63 Lunch foods
3 parking dijon
11.70 drinks
7.60 beer
12.60 beer Dijon Nord
12.60 beer
4.50 baguette sandwich
12.50 dinner
Total- 108.29
+60.91 hotel