Dijon is, of course, famous above all for its mustard and I couldn't resist buying a couple of different flavours to cook with when I get back home.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Dijon Palais des Ducs
Dijon proved to be a very pleasant city to visit - in fact the highlight of our trip so far. In contrast to Beaune (which we visited later in the day) which has become highly commercialised and almost entirely ruined with retails chains allowed to replace the fine old shop-fronts with the aluminium and glass affairs they prefer to show off their wares, Dijon has become a far more pleasant place than I remember from my last visit (about 18 years ago!) with pedestrianised streets, a healthy food market in Les Halles, excellent shopping and a good range of restaurants.
Relaxed
Pasteur - in Arbois
A statue in Arbois celebrates Louis Pasteur. Best known for his work with micro-organisms and the pasteurisation process that bears his name, Pasteur also discovered the secret of producing consistently good wine. Before his research, batches of wine would almost randomly turn out sour (ggod enough for vinegar, at best). He discovered that good wine relies on use of the proper yeast during fermentation - and then, heat treatment (the pasteurisation process again) to kill off that yeast to prevent the wine from souring in the bottle.
You could argue that he lay the foundation for the prosperity of every wine maker since. And, as a town reliant on the wine industry for its very obvious prosperity, who better for the good burgers of Arbois to celebrat in their town square?
You could argue that he lay the foundation for the prosperity of every wine maker since. And, as a town reliant on the wine industry for its very obvious prosperity, who better for the good burgers of Arbois to celebrat in their town square?
Arbois
Leaving Strasbourg, we headed down the autoroute toward Mulhouse then to Besancon where we turned off the motorway onto cross-country N-roads. Besancon looked very interesting as we passed through (sadly having no time to stop) with a fort on the edge of the escarpment above the town and pleasant gardens and roads in the town itself.
The road south from Besancon - the RN73 - proved to be a great driving road with a succession of fast swoops and sweeping bends accompanied by truly stunning scenery - definitely a road to bank for a future car rally - just watch out for "les flics" if you decide to drive it at any speed!
The road heads over the western edge of the Jura mountains and through the Jura wine region. By chance (it was lunch time) we stopped in the town of Arbois which proved to be very pretty. We spent so much time walking around that we missed lunch completely and had to resort to buying bread and pastries from one of the boulangeries - not a bad turn of events as it happens as they were delicious.
The road south from Besancon - the RN73 - proved to be a great driving road with a succession of fast swoops and sweeping bends accompanied by truly stunning scenery - definitely a road to bank for a future car rally - just watch out for "les flics" if you decide to drive it at any speed!
The road heads over the western edge of the Jura mountains and through the Jura wine region. By chance (it was lunch time) we stopped in the town of Arbois which proved to be very pretty. We spent so much time walking around that we missed lunch completely and had to resort to buying bread and pastries from one of the boulangeries - not a bad turn of events as it happens as they were delicious.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Strasbourg - la Petite France
August 3rd, 2007: Our ultimate destination for the first week of this trip is Burgundy - about 450 miles from Amsterdam. Deciding to drive through Germany (and a fine decision it was too - the opportunity to show a pair of Porsches a clean pair of heels during one 160MPH blast along an unrestricted autobahn providing all the justification I need) we turned off the autobahn at Koblenz to drive down the Rhine Gorge.
Short on time (thanks DFDS again) we had no time to stop at any of the castles or even any of the towns proper but it proved an enjoyable enough break from the pell-mell pace of the motorways.
Arriving in Strasbourg, finding our hotel - in the Petite France old part of town - proved too difficult for us, our GPS and even the locals we asked, all of whom expressed their dismay and told us what we had already discovered - the pedestrianisation of the area has blocked all the roads you would normally choose to take to get to the hotel which we could clearly see.
Eventually, I gave up and walked through the streets to the hotel and asked the bell-hop. The answer it seems is that everybody's GPS maps are wrong - you don't ask for the hotel's published address, you ask for a square somewhere else in town then ignored the warning signs and drive down a canal embankment - et voila!
How very Gallic that it's not the hotel's directions to guests that is wrong but everyone else's GPS maps!
Ho hum ... Strasbourg itself is a delight - and la Petite France in particular. We enjoyed a romantic stroll along l'Ill (that's an L, an apostrophe, an I and two more Ls) and ate in a pretty restaurant on its banks overlooking the light show played out on the old buildings.
Short on time (thanks DFDS again) we had no time to stop at any of the castles or even any of the towns proper but it proved an enjoyable enough break from the pell-mell pace of the motorways.
Arriving in Strasbourg, finding our hotel - in the Petite France old part of town - proved too difficult for us, our GPS and even the locals we asked, all of whom expressed their dismay and told us what we had already discovered - the pedestrianisation of the area has blocked all the roads you would normally choose to take to get to the hotel which we could clearly see.
Eventually, I gave up and walked through the streets to the hotel and asked the bell-hop. The answer it seems is that everybody's GPS maps are wrong - you don't ask for the hotel's published address, you ask for a square somewhere else in town then ignored the warning signs and drive down a canal embankment - et voila!
How very Gallic that it's not the hotel's directions to guests that is wrong but everyone else's GPS maps!
Ho hum ... Strasbourg itself is a delight - and la Petite France in particular. We enjoyed a romantic stroll along l'Ill (that's an L, an apostrophe, an I and two more Ls) and ate in a pretty restaurant on its banks overlooking the light show played out on the old buildings.
Leaving the Tyne
August 2nd, 2007 - the first time I've sailed out of the Tyne. On our way to France for our summer holidays, we decided to take the Newcastle to Amsterdam crossing instead of my more usual Hull-Rotterdam. It was certainly convenient driving just a few miles to Newcastle to get on board - and, let's face it, start the holiday.
On board, the staff were friendly and efficient but, though DFDS had obviously spent money tarting her up, the old ship showed her age by being so noisy (in fact, our cabin vibrated with noise) that sleep proved difficult thereby negating the whole point of taking an overnight ferry service. Arrival in Amsterdam was met by very slow unloading and border controls - added to the later than normal arrival (9:30am) this meant we weren't on the road until 10:30 - losing over two hours against a Rotterdam arrival.
I'm looking forward to sailing back into the Tyne when we return - but not the boat. Future crossings will surely be courtesy of P&O from Hull.
On board, the staff were friendly and efficient but, though DFDS had obviously spent money tarting her up, the old ship showed her age by being so noisy (in fact, our cabin vibrated with noise) that sleep proved difficult thereby negating the whole point of taking an overnight ferry service. Arrival in Amsterdam was met by very slow unloading and border controls - added to the later than normal arrival (9:30am) this meant we weren't on the road until 10:30 - losing over two hours against a Rotterdam arrival.
I'm looking forward to sailing back into the Tyne when we return - but not the boat. Future crossings will surely be courtesy of P&O from Hull.
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