Dijon

Today we decided to be a bit independent and take a train by ourselves into Dijon which is about 20 minutes away by train. It turned out to be a pretty challenging experience although my French is coming back to me a little I think!

First we took a wrong turn walking to the station. We were running late anyway so we were just about jogginf to get there in time. Unfortunately it was in the wrong direction! And it was already very hot.

Eventually got the Beaune Station, dripping with sweat. The train departed as we watched! Managed to buy the tickets with my limited French. Quite expensive considering it was only a 20 minute journey.

We got there without incident and got some information about a self guided tour of the old town. First stop was the St. Benigne Cathedral to see the wonderful crypt but only to be told it was now shut until 2pm. Caught again! So we thought that's ok. We will go instead to the Museum. Not likely. They are having a lie down as well. Strange way to run a tourism industry.

So we thought we would embark on our self directed tour we had purchased from the Tourist Information centre that was actually quite easy to follow.

So far the buildings in towns we have visited have been far less maintained thanks one of similar ages in England. But it lends a very nice, different atmosphere to the towns.

This is the 18th century triumphal arch. Not sure what it was celebrating victory over.

We saw Dijon's Notre Dame. This is a masterpiece of Burgundy architecture of the 13th century.

We bought some lunch and found a park which happened to be outside of the Museum of Fine arts AND that was open!

The museum gave us more of an understanding of Burgundian history and some context to what we had been seeing so far in Burgundy. This is a great site to learn more about the history of Burgandy.

This grand banqueting hall in the palace had the tombs of 2 of the Dukes and their wives. Most ornate tombs we have seen so far and the carving of the figures underneath were amazing as each figure was different.

Amazing medieval art and sculptures in this museum which is actually the Palace of the Dukes itself.

We then continued our tour in the blazing sun. We saw the Palais de Justice above, built in the 16th century. It was built for the old Burgundy Parliament and the palatial old residences surrounding it were owned by the parliamentarians.

Nearby was the Place de Liberation which was designed in 1685 to house the statue of Louis XIV. Apparently it is one of the finest royal squares in France. By the time the statue arrived in 1725 (delayed due to transport difficulties) it wasn't in situ long before it was melted down to make canons for the revolutionaries in 1792!

We made our second attempt to see the Cathedral now siesta was over. When we walked in this time, the organ was playing so we sat awhile and listened.

The first church here was a basilica built over the sarcophagus of Saint Benignus, which was placed in a crypt constructed for it by Saint Gregory of Langres in 511. This building became the centre of a monastic community. In 871 Isaac, Bishop of Langres, re-founded it as a Benedictine abbey, and restored the basilica at the same time. The Musee of Archaeology is now housed in the abbey building and it is amazing.

A new Gothic Abbey church was built in 1281-1325 when the old one started collapsing.

The abbey was secularised during the French Revolution, but the church was made, firstly, a parish church, and then in 1792 the cathedral of the Diocese of Dijon.

The rotunda was however destroyed at that time; all that remains is the lowest storey, which was excavated in the 19th century and has since been reworked as a crypt which we visited. It was a mortuary chapel built on a Roman graveyard.

The sculptor had 3 practice attempts of depicting a man praying before he did his final attempt on the front side.

We left the crypt in enough time to catch the next train back to Beaune. But when we got to the station it was like the 'last train out of Berlin' there were hundreds of people milling everywhere and the indicator boards were going crazy. We asked a few times but no one seemed to understand English so we had no idea what was going on. Eventually we realised there was a problem on our line. After about half an hour they decided on a platform that our train would leave from. Then we just happened to realise they had put us on the wrong train and we had to run to catch the right one. Finally we thought we were right but then the train stopped and an announcement made and everyone groaned and half the passengers got off and wandered away. Everyone was on mobiles. Eventually we ascertained the lines had been damaged and it would take a couple of hours to repair. According to the net there was a bus we might catch from the station but after roaming around we realised this was not the case and got back on the train. Eventually, the train arrived back to Beaune and we staggered home, hot and tired. But we felt we had seen a lot of the old part of Dijon so it was worth the struggles of the day!