Dijon and Semeur-en-Auxois

Day 8: The Owl Trail and a criminally cute town


This was our last day in Burgundy and the weather took a turn for the worse. It was overcast, cold, and drizzly all morning and into the afternoon.  We were not deterred but our enjoyment of Dijon was dampened a bit.


The drive from Beaune to Dijon was pretty easy. The only problem was we forgot our guidebook at the apartment and didn't really know where to head. Husband chose a random parking garage and it turned out to be exactly where we wanted to be--about 1 and 1/2 blocks from the Tourist Information center! We bought the Owl Trail booklet and set off to see a bit of Dijon.


The trail is well organized and well marked. I don't know who came up with the idea, but kudos to him or her.  We learned a bit of Dijon history, saw some very pretty buildings, and it kept our interest and attention. We went into the churches on the tour. First was Eglise Notre-Dame de Dijon.

Statue of Notre-Dame de Bon-Espoir

We stopped in Edmond Fallot Mustard shop. It was very busy in there.

They had samples of about 10-15 mustards and were all delicious!  We bought 8 jars. 

L'Hotel de Vogue

 We bought pastries and macarons from Jonathan Pautet. They were quite tasty.

In the Square Des Ducs:

Philippe Le Bon

Next stop was the Fine Arts Museum, which is undergoing restoration but has a fantastic collection. It was free to enter.  It is very well signed in English.

The Tomb of the Dukes of Burgundy dominated one room.  It is magnificent!

One of the side rooms had the most impressive, incredible, Altarpieces of the Charterhouse of Champmol, founded in 1385.  The panels display the life of Christ and the saints, including the crucifiction.  The altarpieces are from ard. 1396. They are sculped, painted, and gilded.

They had lots of signage about these pieces 

A room at the back lead to this view of the tombs

The paintings, sculptures and objects in the museum are spectacular. We spent about an hour in there and were very impressed by what we saw.

She's either St. Barbara or St. Urusula, 15C-early16C

We walked out and ended up in the Place de la Liberation, from 1689. It's beautiful.

Following the Owl, we stopped at the Palais de Justice and the door just drew me.  It was incredibly ornate and probably very significant (the guide didn't explain)

Continued walking around and saw some of the private mansion along rue Vauban.  It's how the other half live...

We stopped at a nearby creperie for lunch.  Our crepes were quite good but service was pretty slow.  I enjoyed chatting with two little Spanish kids in Spanish :)  I

After lunch we hit a couple of more Owl Trail spots.

15 Century timber framed houses

Sainte-Benigne Church which is Burgundian Gothic.

Saint-Benigne's  has an 11th century crypt that is considered a masterpiece of Burgundian Romanesque Art.

The weather had cleared but it was time to leave Dijon.  We found the car, had a really difficult time figuring out where to pay for parking--very nice locals helped us out--apparently the machine on the 4th floor had been removed and there was only one paystation left.

We decided to visit Semeur-en-Auxois. It's a beautiful, compact town. Very walkable.  It was pretty quiet on this beautiful day.

Memorial to Americans who died in World War I

14C Porte des Cycognters (no idea what that means)

Margot Tower, by the theatre

Ecole Elementaire du Rempart

"The Semurois are pleased in the acquaintance of foreigners"

After a drink in a cafe watching the people of Semeur, we headed back to Beaune and arrived in time to catch a beautiful sunset from our apartment.

We decided to try pizza for dinner.  It was a small, family run place that did a lot of takeout.  The pizza was just OK.

After dinner, we stopped at L'Hotel Dieu to watch the lights show.  It was lacking in comparison to Chartres but still interesting.

We walked around the clock tower by the apartment and watched that lights show before turning in for the night.  We really enjoyed our short time in Burgundy!

Takeaways:

1. Dijon's Owl Trail is a great way to see the city

2. The free Fine Arts Museum (Musee des Beaux-Arts) is magnificent; not to be missed 

2. Dijon merits more than a few hours but we were glad to be based in smaller Beaune

3. Semeur-en-Auxois is a really pretty town and easily accessed from Dijon or Beaune

4. The Beaune lumiere paled in comparison to Chartres

Next: On to Paris with a couple of detours.