Dijon France

Day 119/France 20

Travelled:200km 

Visited:Dijon historic centre

Stay: Etaules- picnic area N47.4040 E4.9434

After a beautiful day and night spent with family in Montluel, we said farewell late Sunday morning to make our way to Dijon. 

It is always easier to visit a big city on a Sunday due to reduced traffic and easier parking. We decided to not travel on the motorway so we could enjoy the countryside and smaller villages along the way. Although there were fewer kilometres it probably took us 45mins longer. In the Bresse area there were many free range chicken farms of which they are well known for.  The architecture was also dominated with half timber buildings. We saw a few coloured glazes tiled roofs. We liked the church spire in Mervans. 

Crossing the Doubs River

We arrived in Dijon around 2:30pm, parking in the street about 10min walk away from the historic centre. During the 12th the Dukes who ruled Burgundy, had a simple residence here. From 1365 the “Great Dukes of the West” endowed their capital with an architectural ensemble worthy of their ambitions. In 1477 Burgundy became part of the Kingdom of France and the head of parliament was setup in Dijon. A new social class developed resulting in the nobility building over a hundred town houses before the Revolution. After which many became public buildings, used in various capacities. As we walked into town we found out that many of these buildings were open to the public as part of the Patrimonial weekend. 

The Templar Knights



Seals.

We visited l’Hotel de Vogüé built during the 17th C. 

We then ventured around the Dukes Palace that has been the town hall and museum since 1799. Some rooms still had their original décore but most had been modernised for office working conditions and also to give better protection for the valuable artefacts. 

After our visit we exited on to the Place de la Liberation. 

Today’s promised rain finally came but we continued on sharing the one umbrella. We had a look at the Notre-Dame church.

 We then made our way to the Cathedral and listened to the organ concert. 

By the time we came out the heavens had really opened up. Luckily it eased a bit and we walked 20mins back to Bluey avoiding the puddles as much as we could. We managed to visit a couple more places along the way. 

Bluey was still nice and warm from the sunny 31°c we had earlier. We headed 20km out of town to a Park4Night spot in the small village of Etuales that was on our route for tomorrow.