France July 2007 Page 6 Dijon

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JOURNEYS BY PAUL

Page 6

Dijon

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July 16 Dijon Man it's hot. It was 90 degrees yesterday but it was only 89 or so today. My hotel is great. It's the Hotel Sauvage, and beneath my window is a roof of grapevines covering half of the courtyard. The room is big, and I even have a big desk. Too bad there is also a restaurant in the courtyard where people eat and talk until midnight. Oh well, if I wanted a good night's sleep I would have stayed at home. But it did get quiet at midnight - no cars or trains coming by at night. Today was a museum day. I went to four museums. The Museum of Fine Arts, the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of City Life in Burgundy in olden days, and the Museum of Sacred Arts. The best was the fine arts museum - lots of paintings. I posted a few. The city life museum was good, too. I was handed a notebook that explained every display in English. The lady at the front desk made an effort to make sure I understood how to follow it. There were mannequins in glass booths representing different stages of growing up in Burgundy in the 19th Century. It started with birth, then continued through old age. The upper levels had full-size facsimiles of stores such as furriers, watchmakers, barbers, and an interesting display (and a black and white) video showing the evolution of a famous biscuit maker here in Dijon at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). There was one manufacturer whose wife was recorded in the 1950s telling the story of her and her husband's fur business. She died around 1980, and she ended up living about 115 years. I video recorded the visual but I don't know how it will look. I might add it later. The archaeological museum had a great film showing the creation of Dijon's famous chateau (castle). That was around the 14th Century. The Romans took over this place around the 1st Century (like they did Orange and Lyon).

And the best part of all the museums was that they were completely free. You heard it right. My cup of museum.

The city itself is nice. It's a lot bigger than Beaune (which is only 10 minutes from here by train), but it's a lot smaller than Lyon and Toulouse. By the way, when they do kiss on the cheeks here, they do it two times. When I first got here, I didn't think there were any stores to buy water and fruits and such, and that I would be at the mercy of the sidewalk cafes at 20 euros a pop. But today I ran into all kinds of stores, and I even found a huge Monoprix, and stored up on food and water. There's a couple internet cafes here but I couldn't connect with an ethernet plug to their system. (There's wifi but only private.) I found a hotel near the train station that had free wifi it you have a room there. The hotel seemed nice. I think it had air conditioning (though you probably don't usually need it here). Their rooms cost 61 euros for a single. I'm paying 43 euros here. I would have stayed there if I'd known about the ac and wifi. I asked the clerk if I could sit in the lobby and use the internet if I paid for it, and he just smiled and said, 'no, no, monsieur, it is only for our guests." So I thanked him, then went out and sat on some nearby steps and tapped into it. That's how I hope to get this online this evening, too.

It's pretty hot here, and I'm not really into walking city streets in the heat. I like my Europe a little cooler - unless I'm on a beach. I checked the weather and it seems like it's supposed to cool off a little tomorrow but I'm not going to wait. I'm going to head north. I'm not in the mood for Paris, but the temps there are supposed to be in the upper 70s the rest of the week. So who knows?

thanks for reading,

Paul Ogier