Day 28 Soaring with Owls of Dijon, through the Loire Valley to Da Vinci's Ambois (8 Jan 2023)

 Day 28 Dijon to Ambois

8 January 2023

Waking up in our cozy bed in the monastry-hotel, did not ask for the little jog Arno and I have planned for our early morning activity...before the teens wake up!! So we dragged ourselves to freedom form the fluffy duvet, and set out into the empty cobbled streets of the sleepy Dijon.

      

 

It was misty and frosty, but so quiet.  A real treat, to witness the French town waking up.

We swung by the local french patessarie and took our special NOW-it's-TIME-to-wake-up offerings to the STILL sleeping teen-commune.

Our activity for the morning started with a visit to the Tourist Information. Here we purchsed a little Owl Route walking guide, and set off on the owl route. You can walk as wide and far as time allows. The owl is the symbol of Dijon, and the Dijon Owl Trail is the city's way of leading visitors past the 22 main sights. (You will pass 1600 little owls set in the sidewalks of the Old Town)

 We had two hours and picked the route, which would lead us pass the famous bell-tower at 11am to witness the moving clock. The Jacquemart, which can be seen on the south tower of the façade of Notre Dame Cathedral, is the metal automaton of one of the first sounding clocks, manufactured from about 1350. 

The clock and its Jaquemart were the pride of the city of Courtrai in Belgium, placed on the tower of the halls, and reputed to be the most beautiful. The Duke of Burgundy Philip the Hardi, launched a campaign against a rebellion of towns in Flanders and plundered Courtrai in 1382. He offered the famous clock with his Jacquemart and bell to the city of Dijon, which had supplied him with more than a thousand men-at-arms.

 At that time, France had only three such clocks. Before installing it, the commune bought metal and another bell to recast them with that of Courtai and have a new much heavier, it weighs 3400 kilos. Only one character rang the hours, a companion, Jacqueline, was added in 1651 with the mission of "relieving the stamp, which is always struck in the same place, makes a lot of use". The bellor is replaced at the same time, and following a contemporary poet of a "short-sized man, rather badly made" he becomes a "strong man, like a Roland, a Hercules". The couple Jacquemart and Jacqueline welcomed a child, Jacquelinet, in 1751 to ring the half-hours. In 1884, during the restoration of the church, a daughter, Jacquelinette, was added to strike the quarter of an hour with her brother.

We started our walk, with the mandatory petting of the owl-statue, nestled in the left corner of the Notre Dame....with our left hands, just so we can be 'fully protected form the evil spirits of Dijon'.

We stopped for a while at the gallery of modern art, enjoyed the cobbled streets, lined with old stone high-walls - the ones with the crazy BIG doors, painted in wonderfully bright colours. Back in the square, we were just in time to witness the little figures announcing the hour. Not so spectacular as I was hoping for, but if you take into account that they dated from the 18th century...quite impressive!! 

We reached our cozy little airbnb flat in Ambois just after dark. It was a bit of a struggle to understand the hostesses' french instruction. Luckily we had two helpful learners of the language amongst us, so finally we got access to the flat. 

Yes....That's how teens relax.....

After a long day on the road, Arno treated us with a great dinner in a traditional crepe's restaurant at the foot of the Royla Chateau-de Amboise.

Day 27 The day of the TollRoad Mash-up, Breathtaking Beaune and Mustard of Dijon (7 Jan 2023)

7 January

It was actually quite easy to get the team to pack-up and clear out our apartment. It is just such a joy to be travelling with older children. They are such a help!!! We were ready to explore further into the French country side and the snow was melting at speed anyway(2023 European winter was recorded as the second warmest of all times...) - We were sad to leave, but ready to go!!

We meandered down the valley to La Chambre, passing the Beaufort Formage Farm (I am visiting it next time!!) Stopped for for snacks, supplies and mountain berry jam to take home with us. At this point, in hindsight, we should have been along that motorway for hours already...but we were still very oblivious to what awaited us.... With music paying, we headed north towards Geneva and Lyon.

Done with the small little narrow mountain paths, the open-road ahead. Arno just set the speedcontrol on our rental and relaxed back into his seat.......or not...

 Vehicles everywhere......the whole of Europe was heading home after the ski/Christmas holidays. On top of that.... the resorts around where we were, were being closed to holiday makers, because of the melting snow...

So Arno cancelled cruise-speed to a more appropriate 10 miles per hour and we decided to enjoy some car spotting open-window sing-a-long with our car-pool neighbours, who also realised we were all in this together!!!! The chaos of vehicles approaching the toll-plaze...well, let me put it like this - I have never seen traffic like this anywhere in the world I 've ever been!!! BUT, no red-faces, no honking, no aggressive hand-signals... We were all in this together!!!

 

I would have preferred a cross country drive, but we were already so late, that the Toll roads were the only option. And TOLL they made us pay!!! The distance you drive on the road, equal the Euro's you pay. 

At least it was a clear day, so we can admire the beautiful winter landscape. The kids were exhausted after 6 days of physical activity, so they welcomed a day in the car of mindless series-watching, sleeping and just staring our of the windows. 

Although we were delayed with hours of traffic-watching, we could still sneak in a tourist-stop at the ancient town of Beaune. Beaune is a walled town at the center of the Burgundy winemaking region in France. Surrounded by the Côte d'Or vineyards, the cobbled town is renowned for an annual wine auction held at the Hôtel-Dieu (Hospices de Beaune). Recognized by its colorful, geometric-patterned tile roof, this 15th-century former hospital is now the Hôtel-Dieu Museum, showcasing works like "The Last Judgement" altarpiece by Van der Weyden.

We marvelled at the spectacular roof of the Hôtel-Dieu  and stood in quiet contemplation in front of that altar piece. A visit to Beaune should be on every croissant-lover's bucket list!! Before we took the cobbled streets back to our vehicle, we allowed ourselves a little stop at the "wine market". Well, needless to say, in the home of the world's most famous charity wine-auction, we could not even afford a little 'odd-bin' red-blend.....

Domaine de l'Hôtel-Dieu - Hospices de Beaune

From donation to donation, the Domaine de l’Hôtel-Dieu – Hospices de Beaune has acquired some of the finest vineyard plots in Burgundy. Pernand-Vergelesses, Corton-Charlemagne, Pommard, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet…these great Burgundy appellations sold at auction as cuvée, bear the prestigious “Hospices de Beaune” label.

It was getting a bit late in the day, but we could not miss out on an authentic Fallot Mustard tasteing expereince....

 Darkness was just settling in, as we arrived in Dijon. Our overnight stop - loaded with history, culture and ancient stories.

We checked into Odalys City Dijon Les Cordeliers. An old monastery changed into an apart-hotel, in the centre of the city.  Beautiful large rooms; a double for Arno and myself and a junior suite for the teens.(We laughed a little, their suite was larger than the whole apartment the 6 of us shared in Saint Francois Longchamp.

We had a few minutes of a bed-flop-down, while Arno were driving around in on-way streets searching for the 'just-around-the-corner' carpark. Bless this man. Everyone was starving, but finding an eatery turned out not so easy as we thought it will be on a Saturday night. While we were on the hunt for a ...burger and chips.... we stumbled upon the little famous Dijon Owl trail (more about that later) and ended in at a busy crossroads with a lit up Arc de Triompf replica. We loved the surprise!! Now to still find food......

The younger traveling companions were craving junkfood, so we ended up at a French-fast-food establishment. We were hungery, the food was good and did not break the South-African budget (which at this time...on the road for 27 days, was developing a few holes....!!)

A last after dinner wander through the lit-up deserted streets of the old city of Dijon, brought us back to our hotel. We went to bed in great expectation of following the copper owls around the cobbled streets, when we wake up.

                    

Bonne nuit, Dijon.