A Day in Dijon

The first weekend in Besancon, Katie, Miranda and I made plans to go to Dijon for the day on Saturday. I met Katie in town that morning and we went to the SNCF (France's train company) office to buy our tickets. Miranda wasn't feeling well that day, so she wasn't going to come with us. Katie and I headed to the train station to figure out how to get to Dijon. Since both of us had fairly limited French skills, it was a little difficult to get our tickets and our reduction cards. (The SNCF has reduction cards based on age group. Mine cost €50 and definitely paid for itself many times over). There was a train to Dijon that left too soon for us to make it, and the next one wasn't until half past noon. So Katie and I bought our tickets and then called Miranda to see if she wanted to come with us, since the train was so much later than we thought it would be. She said she wanted to come and that she'd be into town in about an hour. So Katie and I walked around centre ville, looking in the shops, and killing time until Miranda got there.

The inside of the first church we visited.

Miranda had an easier time of ordering tickets than Katie and I did since Katie just showed the SNCF worker our tickets and said “Elle voudrait acheter the meme, s'il vous plait.” (She wants to buy that same, please). Once we all had our tickets, we headed to the train station. We got on the number 10 bus first, since that bus goes to the train station. But after all of five minutes on the bus, I thought that we might not be going the right way. So I asked the bus driver if the bus stopped at the train station, and he said that we were on the wrong bus—we should have gotten on the bus going the opposite direction. So he stopped the bus and let us off there, so that we wouldn't get further away from the train station than we already were. I had a general idea of where the train station was by foot, because I'd come across it accidentally after getting lost on the walk to school one day. So we started walking, hoping that we'd make it to the train station in time to catch the train.

Thankfully, we made it to the train station just in time. I think we got on the train maybe two minutes before it left. But all that matter was that we'd made the train and we were headed to Dijon for the day—baguettes in hand. The train ride wasn't too long, and we were in Dijon around 1:30. Our train back to Besancon wasn't until 9:30 that night, so we had almost eight hours to spend in town. We accidentally took the long way into town—walking all the way around the opposite side of the train station just to end up in front of the train station—a walk that would have taken less than three minutes if we'd just gone the right way. But it was a nice little walk and we got to see the skyline (and by that I mean a few church steeples) of Dijon before we headed into the center of town.

Our first stop was at a church near the train station. It was from Katie's France tour book, and it seemed like as good a place as any to start our trip. The church was under construction, so there was scaffolding up with banners over the scafolding that showed pictures of what the church looked like without any construction material in front of it. The inside of the church was beautiful, with gorgeous statues and intricate carvings throughout the church. Across the street from the church, we visited the weirdest little museum I've ever seen. There wasn't much in the museum, just a couple paintings, an odd display of horse hair, and glass panels on the floor that may have been meant to show off something special—I really don't know.

Part of the front of the Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne. 

After leaving the odd little museum, the three of us headed towards centre ville to find something for lunch. We'd bought baguettes before leaving Besancon, but that was more for snack food on the train...and while just walking around. I saw the McDonald's sign as we neared centre ville and thought that I'd really love a chocolate milkshake. So, naturally, we went to McDonald's (or MacDo's, as the French call it) for lunch. And then after lunch, we continued to absorb the French culture by stopping at H&M for some shopping. We were there for over an hour, but in the end, I only bought a pair of light sneakers, since I'd only packed hiking shoes, running shoes, and sandals.

Once we'd had enough of shopping (or, more accurately, once we'd felt we'd spent enough money), Katie, Miranda, and I continued on down the road to try to find the Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne (Palace of the Duke of Bourgogne). On our way there, we caught the final part of a set of dancers performing on a stage in a grand square. I think they were a troop of gypsies, since they didn't seem to be connected to any kind of event. It was a really cool thing to watch—a pleasant surprise. Sometimes, those are my favorite things about vacation—finding really fascinating things when and where you least expect them.

The Saint-Michel church in Dijon.

After we left that square, we found the Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne pretty easily. It wasn't open for tours when we got there, but it was still a pretty cool building to admire, even just from the outside. Some of the intricate interior work was visible through grand glass doors, but even the architecture itself was something to be admired.

From there, we went to the Saint-Michel church. (I think those are the French's two favorite church names—Saint-Michel and Notre Dame; they're everywhere!). The Saint-Michel church was another prime example of impressive architecture in Europe. No matter how many churches I visit, I feel like there's always at least one special thing about each church that makes it stand out, even a little. This church had some of the most intricate carvings I've ever seen clustered around the main doors, with a little tower that may have once housed a bell atop the middle door.

After visiting Saint-Michel, we went to see—wait for it—le Cathedral Notre Dame. (I told you, the French love naming churches after Mary). The inside of the church wasn't anything to fawn over, but there was a little owl carving on the side of the church. Local legend says that visitors who touch the owl with their left hand will have a wish come true. The owl's features have been completely worn away by so many people touching it, but the three of us made our wishes—hopefully that little owl can still work his magic!

Yes, this is supposed to be a lucky owl.
(Thanks again to Miranda for the pic!)

At that point, we were all starting to feel a bit worn down by our day of walking, so we headed back towards centre ville, since it's so close to the train station. When we got to centre ville, we realized that we'd stumbled upon some kind of bike expo. There were people doing demonstrations with unicycles and people showing off their weird or unique bikes. It was really cool. We sat on a massive planter in the middle of the square and just watched everything for a while. It was nice—we could just chill out and watch the people doing tricks, but after a while, the three of us all got a bit bored. So we headed out—first to one park, were we took some pictures and played on the roundabout at the playground.

Finally, we headed to the grand park right next to the train station—our final stop of the day before we got on the train back to Besancon. Overall, it was a perfect day trip. We got to see the sites, do some shopping, and just hang out and talk. It was a good way to start what would soon become a tradition of traveling somewhere new and exciting every weekend.