A few of my favourite things

I love this city!

I really do. Every day when I go out, I'm floored that I live here! The buildings are incredible, the food is fantastic, and there's always something new to see. Here are a few of my favourite things so far:

French practicality (read laziness). For those days when it's raining so much you just want to drive your truck up on the sidewalk and park as close as possible so you don't have to walk in the rain to do your job. This made me think of Jim. And I smiled. 

My new favourite hang out. The El Dorado Theatre. They play movies in VOST, or version originale sous-titre. This means that they play movies in English, or Spanish, or German, or whatever, with French subtitles. For days when I feel like I'm drowning in an ocean of French, this is my happy little English island. For two hours or so, anyway. 

This is the first thing I watched at the El Dorado. True Grit. Excellent film, but I was profoundly depressed when I left the theatre. Not sure why. Maybe it was because of the intensely unhappy ending, or the fact that I stepped out of an English western into a French... France. Either way, this movie made a large impact on me. I totally want to see it again. 

Night-time scenery. The first set of pictures of Dijon at dusk were not lit in any artificial way, but a lot of buildings are lit up at night. The city is gorgeous at night. This is our arc de triomphe. 

Transportation. Every time I turn around, there's some crazy new way of getting around this city. There are purple bikes that a person can rent, unicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, and this crazy thing! I had to follow it for about 20 minutes before the guy stopped long enough for me to get a picture. 

Fast food delivery. This guy is delivering hamburgers on the back of a scooter. I've also seen pizza and kebap delivery on scooters like this. 

My host family. I made this maple syrup cake for Frédéric and Mathilde when they got back from a weekend away. They were thrilled! It was pretty fantastic, and incredibly easy to make. Essentially, I made the cake batter, and poured the sauce over it before I put it in the oven. As it baked, the sauce sunk to the bottom of the pan, and steamed the cake while the sauce itself turned into an incredibly thick and awesome maple-caramel. This is what it looked like after I flipped it out onto a plate. 

It lasted less than 2 days. 

French sandwiches. Every sandwich I've eaten here (with the exception of the one I ate on the way back from Lyon) has been similar to this. Baguette of some sort, filled with excellent cheese (this is cumin gouda), meat, and veggies. So fresh! 

European alcohol. This particular bottle was 650mL, and only cost 4€! The Americans were shocked that I drank the whole thing, but come on. I had to. It's Heineken, it was cheap, and I had to prove to the Americans that we Canadians can drink. Win.

Yep, it was that big. If only I could find a coffee that size... 

This weekend was a Scout sleepover at the church. I took a bunch of pictures, but I'm pooped. Taking care of children is difficult enough back home, but when you add a language barrier, it's a whole different ball game. I'll post pictures soon, but tonight I'm going to get to bed at a decent hour. 

To all my friends and family in frosty, snowy Canada, stay toasty! Keep working at that snow, and eventually you'll dig a hole through to spring. I'm thinking warm thoughts for you. 

À bientôt!