Mustard anyone?: Dijon Day 1 (14 Sep 2013)

This will be a short post: We got the bus to Avignon railway station and caught the TGV to Lyon (apparently crossing paths with Marie and Bill who were in Lyon on their way south to Italy), and then caught another TGV train to Dijon, where we had lunch and checked into our hotel. That took us up to the mid afternoon. But, you don’t get off quite that easily!

Wherein we reflect briefly on trains and Spain

Our first train was running 10 minutes late – a rare experience we’ve found with all our bus and train travel to date. Why was it late? Because of forgotten luggage. Security is taken seriously here on trains. In some Spanish stations our luggage had to go through x-ray machines.

This is the point at which we finally make the comment we meant to make in Spain, and that was how efficient and organised things were there despite the “crisis” (as they apparently call their economic situation). There were quite a lot of beggars, but the cities ran smoothly, with some wonderfully efficient metro, tram and bus systems.

…. And first impressions of Dijon

It was a very pleasant 10-minute walk to our hotel from the station, mostly down what we later discovered has only just become a pedestrian plaza in the old town, probably also main town, area. Dijon is a small city of only 150,000 or so.

Our walking route took us through the stunning Place de la Liberation, past the Palais des Ducs (not des Papes!). It also took us past the Moutarde Maille shopfront. Now that looked familiar!

By the time we found our hotel, it was after 2pm and we hadn’t had lunch, so we settled for La Comèdie in the smaller Place du Théâtre just down from our hotel. It was buzzing with locals and tourists alike, and we had a very cheery server. Sue tried a Bourgogne Chardonnay, which was a little disappointing despite the chardonnay bouquet and colour. She found out why – that is, why it was likely to be disappointing – the next day, which is when you’ll find out too (if we can get the Internet to work In Biberach an der Riss)!

We then checked in proper and had a bit of a rest … coughs slowly going … before heading out to dinner, walking through Place de la Liberation again on our way. It was Saturday so, as we expected, our preferred choices in the vicinity were all booked out, but before we had to succumb to the generic huge tourist oriented restaurants in the square (the “place”) a little restaurant in the back streets called Carpe Diem took pity on us and said that if we came at 7 and were out by 9 they could fit us in. Of course we could. And, we had a pleasant meal which turned out to be pretty close to what we thought we were ordering (and most of which was very tasty)! Sue, for example, knew her main course was lamb but didn’t realise it was going to be shanks, and, being out of French cuisine practice, we somehow forgot that rognons were kidneys. Len didn’t mind though because he likes kidneys and these were veal, as he expected.

Our server, who was probably the owner, was attentive and pleasant. It was a small narrow restaurant and very busy by the time we left. Many would-be walk-ins and phone callers were turned away. We were grateful that he took pity on us. Sometimes it’s good being an early-eating tourist!

Oh, and as for that mustard …

… we barely saw any, except for the Maille shop. Dijon mustard did originate here – and was created in the 1850s by the addition of verjuice to mustard – but, unlike many other French products, it is not protected, so these days it can be made anywhere. Certainly, it was clear to us that it was not up there among the specialties promoted by places we went to!

Three-words

SUE: French food fun
LEN: French architecture, Rain

and the stills…

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