After spending two weeks of our holiday in Italy near the Garda lake me have moved to France for the last week of our holiday.
We're on a campsite in the Jura region.
From here we are doing some daytrips. And one of them is a visit of Dijon.
Dijon is quite a large city that serves as the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France (according to wikipedia).
A lot of people that travel from thr northern countries in Europe to the south take the route du soleil and drive by Dijon. Dijon is probably most know for its mustard, but the city has way more to offer which I will show in this blog.
As we see in a couple of other French cities Dijon also has a port. We parked the car just outside the old city center, and we entered the city by walking under this port de Guillaume which was built in 1788.
I was really surprised by the style of architecture of this city. It is so different compared to many other cities in France.
There are a couple of different styles, but the buildings with the wouden beams made me think about Austria or the German city Monschau.
A nice square with a mary go round:
There is a trail throughout the city which is marked by little owls in the streets.
This owl is the symbol of the city. You'll see why if you continue reading.
We didn't follow the owl trail, but I had marked some highlights in Google Maps.
This way we found our way to the Church of Notre-Dame of Dijon.
The church looks a bit square and looks a bit crammed into the narrow streets.
I needed to take a wide-angle shot to capture the front of the church.
Unfortunalely the church wasn't open for public.
It really doesn't look like manu of the other churches I've seen either in France as in Italy. The front with the dozens of gargoyles that spit water when it rains is really remarkable.
And here is the explanatio for the owls you see in Dijon. On one side of the church there is an own engraved info the wall. It is said that when you touch it with your left hand it will forfill a wish. As you can see; many people have done a wish.
Many of the buildings are richly decorated. This decoration of a knight is on the roof of a museum.
Here's one of the many views into the narrow streets through one of the portals.
Here is a view of the backside of the Notre dame.
Another interesting detail I've spotted are the colourful rooftiles some of the buildings have. I have never seen anything like this before.
We continued our walk to the liberation square which is in front of the palace of the dukes. It's a beautiful square which is completely paved with light coloured tiles and has a lot of integrated fountains.
The palace itself is huge. It's extra interesting for me because some of the dukes that lived here reigned over the burgondy area which also included parts of the present-day Netherlands.
For more information of the palace of the dukes I refer to Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Dukes_of_Burgundy
A bit down the road we found Church Saint Michel. A totally different church than the Notre Dame we had seen earlier.
We were allowed to enter the church, so we could see the beautiful relics that were inside the church.
As with many churches the stained glass windows are beautiful.
We finished our tour through the city with a walk in the park.
By the entrance of the park Jardin Darcy we found as statue of an ice bear. I've seen images of ice bears in the city as well as many owls, but I didn't know what it ment. But it seems to be this sculpture of the famous sculptor François Pompon who made several sculpture of animals, but as many artist only got famous after his death.
The park also has a beautiful large fountain with some stairs alongside it.
All in all; Dijon is a very beautiful city. It really exceeded my expectations since it is not like any other city we've visited.
I hope you liked my blog of this beauriful city.
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