An Excellent Few Days

Vacation has been good to me. I've done a whole lot of nothing, which is exactly what I've needed after so many weeks of busy travel and homework.

I made dinner Wednesday night - fajitas. I keep taking for granted the fact that the things I buy back home are available everywhere. Originally I decided that I wanted to make tacos, but I had a devil of a time finding the right seasonings, let alone organic beef, tortillas, and tomatoes at this time of year. I lucked out at the local supermarket, and found Old El Paso fajita mix. A quick change of plans (and emptying of my shopping basket) later, I was on my way home with the makings for a wholly un-organic meal in tow. It was a success! Frédéric and Mathilde had never tried anything like it, and they loved it. I have a feeling we'll be having other tex-mex nights in the next few weeks.

Thursday I made orange-date-walnut muffins for Frédéric and Mathilde before they left. The muffins were a hit. All but two of them went into a picnic for the road. The two that were left didn't last the night. After Frédéric and Mathilde left I had an excellent supper and hit the hay early.

Everything was closed here Friday. I slept in, and stayed in my PJs till mid-afternoon. It was glorious. After lunch I decided to head to the park for a little geocaching. This is a neat little pastime I did a bit of back home with my Brownie pack. It's a kind of worldwide treasure hunt. People hide things, record the coordinates, and log the caches on an online geocaching website. Other people go to the website, then find the caches and log visits. Some caches have stuff in them that visitors can take. If you take something, you're supposed to leave something else for the next visitor. Cool stuff. Before I left home, I got a really neat coin that has a code on it that can be tracked all over the world. I wanted to place it in a cache here, and follow it.

I really enjoy the park behind the house. According to the website, there should be a cache not too far into the park, and another one quite a way in. I opted for the closer cache, and set out.

The map of the area. Apparently it got its name because in the summer it's full of snakes. Awesome.

A lovely little picnic area next to a wonderfully mossy stone wall. 

Can you spot the wall in this picture? I promise it's there. Just hidden under years of moss. 

 Apparently this park used to serve as acres and acres of grazing land for sheep. Now it's a refuge for hundreds of wild boars. I haven't seen any yet, thank goodness, but every now and again I can hear them at night through my window. They can be very dangerous and unpredictable, so I hope I never meet one in real life.

Glycine cascading over a wall. This stuff smells fantastic, and looks magical. It's like a living firework.

A group of men playing "petonk". It's kid of like bocce, but the balls are made of metal instead of stone or cement. Every day and most nights, I hear people in the park playing petonk. It's one of my favourite things about living where we do. 

There's an adorable house barely visible behind all the greenery.

I got skunked at the park. I searched for over an hour, and found no cache. I'm going to try again, maybe with other caches around the city. At the end of the day I was dirty, sweaty, and frustrated. Not the best way to end a day in the park. I spent some time on the patio with a good book to get my head straight.

This morning I was bent on climbing the tower at City Hall. I've tried several times over the past week, but the hours are difficult, to say the least.

Every time I tried to go, I was just a few minutes too late. But this morning was it! I got up early(ish) and set out, determined. I got there just in time. I had 25 minutes to kill before the last tour of the day. So I buzzed around the market for a bit, bought breakfast, and headed back to the tower.

This is the fountain just a little bit away from the market. When I first got here the statue of the man crushing grapes was away for cleaning, and the water started flowing in all the statues at the beginning of April. This fountain, combined with the carousel on the left and the traditional-style house on the right, are symbolic of some of my favourite things about this city. 

This is the Place de la Libération. The fountains are flowing here too, and I love to watch kids playing in them. There are cafés all the way around the edge of the enormous semi-circle.

The Palais des Ducs, now the mairie (town hall), all dressed up with flags for both France and the European Union. That's the tower I climbed, waaaaaay up top. It was built between 1450 and 1460 as a symbol of the power of the Dukes of Burgundy, and the state of Burgundy itself.

 These were gorgeous! The Botanical Society of Dijon sponsored these displays, and others like them all over the city. The flowers are live, and the dresses have to be watered daily.

A view from one of the many beautifully-coloured windows in the walls of the tower. 

I wonder what happened to the bottom half of this keyhole? 

The "handrail" freaked me right out. There's nothing around the outside of the stairs, and to use this railing, you have to walk closer to the middle of the tower. The only problem with this idea is that the stairs are way smaller in the middle of the tower! Not terribly well thought-out. If one should fall, it's a long way down the 316 stairs to the bottom of the tower!

One of the neat doors that comes off the tower. I imagine it goes to one of the higher wings of the mairie (it's three stories tall), but I plan on exploring the mairie itself at a later date to find out. I like to think that one of the Duke's rooms is just off the tower, allowing for hasty exit if necessary. 

It looks like this carving represents the workers that built the tower. This is highly unusual. Normally, carvings like this are of "important people", like religious figures or dukes and things. 

Or plants. This shows oak leaves and grapevines in different stages of development. There's even a tiny bunch of grapes! I love the thoughtfulness and detail that goes into the tiniest corners of buildings. 

One of the wonderful windows on the lower levels of the tower. Higher up, the windows are only covered in lattice to allow a better view. 

I adore the architecture that I've encountered here. This pillar and roof design make me think of a palm tree holding up the ceiling. 

I had almost forgotten how much I love the Burgundian rooftops. This is one of the many cathedrals in the city. It think it's Saint Bénigne. 

The climb wasn't easy, but the view was so worth it! What a wonderful city. 

This little map shows you all the important landmarks you can see from where you are. 

Gargoyle! Wonderfully well-preserved. 

Notre Dame de Dijon.

More of the roofs that I love so much. 

Our guide was kind enough to take a picture for me. 

The Place de la Libération. It looks so small from 46 metres up!

More of the lovely view. 

Another gargoyle. You can see this one's teeth!

Notre Dame through one of the holes in the wall around the top of the tower. I'm so artistic. 

This building used to be a youth shelter, but has been abandoned for many years. Most of the windows are broken. I really like the way it's decorated, though. 

Combe à la Serpent? That's where I was adventuring yesterday! And Fontaine d'Ouche is my neighbourhood. Neat!

I live... somewhere over there. I've been running on that path on the top of that hill. 

You can see the marks in the stone that workers made over 600 years ago to shape the stone. Incredible.

One of the cooler door handles I've seen. This is on the door at the bottom of the tower. 

Poor girl. I've seen a couple processions like this, but none quite so... colourful. It's a tradition here, when someone is getting married, for that person and some of their friends to parade around the city in outrageous get-ups and make fools of themselves in broad daylight. Last week I saw a guy in a dress and flippers playing hopscotch in Place Darcy. 

I thought of Steve when I saw this guy. He was making balloon animals for passers-by. Even his dog had a balloon harness. Cute.

Easter chocolate! When Mom sent me my last care package, she made a point of not including chocolate, because there's so much wonderful chocolate here. Tomorrow being Easter and all, I thought I'd pick myself up a little something special. 

Lunch time! Fresh goat cheese, excellent artisan-made bread, and hazelnut sausage. It actually had whole hazelnuts in it! Such an excellent meal. 

Dessert, probably for at least a week. I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I picked up an Easter sample bag. It's so rich that I can only eat one or two at a time. So good!

Tomorrow is Easter, and I find myself alone for the first time in... ever. This is the first big holiday dinner I've ever missed. If I were home, I'd find myself anticipating two excellent meals (one with my folks, and one with Jason's), and several hours of contented digestion. Not this year, though. I'll be going to mass at Notre Dame tomorrow morning, followed by lunch with Bronwyn and her friend Rachael. After that I'll probably go back to the house for housework, homework, and preparation for my upcoming Scout rally. Pretty quiet day. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think that a holiday away from the hubbub of family events will be very strange, but I'll be thinking about my friends and family all day.

Happy Easter, everyone. Whether you believe in Jesus, the Easter Bunny, a combination of the two, or none of the above, I hope you have a wonderful day surrounded by friends and family. 

À bientôt!

Vacation

I love this city. I know I say it a lot, but every time I say it, I mean it with all my heart. It's quiet enough that I can sleep with my window open at night and not be woken up by traffic and chaos, but it's big enough that there's still lots for me to discover. I'm on 2 glorious weeks of Easter vacation right now, and I think I'll spend the lion's share of it here in Dijon. Here are just a few of the photos I've taken thus far.

This is one of the many churches in the city. Someone once called Dijon "The City of One Hundred Bell Towers". It's so true! I love being downtown at noon on a Sunday. Hearing all the church bells ringing at once is a truly magical thing. 

Ah, the Tramway. How I love and loathe thee. These purple fences are everywhere in the city. They're building a tram system that will be up and functional by summer 2012, but in the meantime traffic circulation is... interesting. Every week something new is blocked off, detours are announced, and a little more progress gets made. Evidently every region has different coloured fences to mark improvements. Mathilde told me that the ones in Burgundy are violet like this because of our history with blackcurrants. Neat, right? I've seen green ones and orange ones elsewhere. I think ours are pretty.

This, I love. Stephane was telling us that these signs are very uncommon. They date back to before the 1830s, before Henry Darcy brought the train to Dijon. Before that, its major stops were Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles. Hence the PLM on this sign. This is on a bridge over which the train passes.

My host family is fantastic. Frédéric did this up a few nights ago. It's cheese that you bake in its wooden box, but you add white wine before you bake it so it makes a kind of fondue. Apparently if you dip something and it falls apart in the cheese, you have to do a sort of dare. They took it easy on me. Evidently this concept also applies to chips and dip.

I'm really starting to love wine. The University offers free workshops on the history of wine and food in the region, and in France in general. I'm not sure what goes on in the food class, but we get to do tastings in the wine class. I was floored by all the different things that can be present in the smell and taste of wine. From fruits to flowers to minerals, spices, and woods, the varieties are staggering. After vacation I'll be doing a red wine tasting. I've learned that you're not necessarily supposed to swallow the wines at a tasting. I got more than a little hammered at this workshop, and felt quite sick afterwards. 

This is the church where we hold our Scout meetings. I have no idea how old it is, but I love it. I'm going to have to do a bit of research. 

I spent the past Saturday with my Cubs. Three of my girls wandering through the park behind the house. 

The superneat playground where we stopped for lunch. 

We were following a trail through the park. Every now and again there were questions and challenges tied to strings on branches and signs. We took a break to build "cadoles", stone houses that shepherds used to build for themselves and their families. The kids (and Etienne, the other leader) got right into it. 

Owen and his cadole. This kid is incredible. He found a single rock to use for the roof (that didn't collapse the house completely), and all his walls were the perfect height! He had no gaps or holes under the roof. He even furnished his cadole with a leaf-covered sofa and television. Such a cutie. 

Lucy and her cadole. She couldn't figure out how to make the roof work, so she added plants and found a way to do a crazy neat stonehenge-type door. If you enlarge the picture you can see it better. It's kind of neat that boys and girls are mixed in the Scout groups here. It has its own set of challenges, but the group dynamic is quite a lot different than my all-girl group back home. 

Doesn't this look just like a Canadian hiking trail? The kids had a blast. For the most part. I loved it.

Prof that yes, we're in France. Vignes behind the boreal-looking forest. I love the contrast. 

I got another care package this morning! I love getting boxes of stuff from home. Clockwise from the top left: recordable DVDs (I currently have more than 2300 pictures on my computer, eek), The Tourist and Tangled (I watched them both twice today), Medicalert bracelet that I have to wear all the time now, adorable bunny pin, Benadryl for spring allergies, sweet leopard-print earbuds, and organic peanut butter! So I can share with Frédéric and Mathilde. It's a little runny, but tastes just fine. It's in the fridge for now. We'll see if that helps.  

This is the adorable little bunny that has already taken up residence on my backpack next to my travelling gecko. They're quite the pair. 

In other news, my dad is way cooler than yours. This was taken last week when he and Mom took the bike up to Calgary to sell it. I have a feeling that driving-and-picture-taking is the next dangerous habit that Oprah will target. I still love this picture. 

I'd just like to take a quick moment to say a huge SALUT!!! to all the members of the EEUDF that are visiting my little blog from the French Scout Blog. J'espère que vous aimez mon petit coin de la francophonie! Frédéric wrote up a little article on me today and posted it there. Check it out if you get a chance. It's all in french, but my anglophone friends and family can use Google Translate if need be. 

I'm loving this vacation thing. This morning I slept in a bit and went to market, ate lunch on the patio in the sun, and watched movies. Next week I'll be at an enormous Scout rally (200+ people) from Tuesday to Saturday. I'll have Sunday and Monday to recover before I have to go back to school. I'm doing as little as possible till then. 

I also signed up to write the DALF. It's a crazy hard diploma that's separate from the diploma that I'll get from the University here. From what I hear, if I pass, it'll look excellent on my resumé. In the meanwhile, it's an enormous source of stress. I do it in two parts. Part I, on a Saturday, is 4 hours of writing. Part II, the following Monday, tests my oral expression. I sit and talk. I'm so nervous, but I'm doing alright in my classes so I'm hoping everything will be fine. Just in case, though, please think happy thoughts for me on the 14th and 16th of May. Until then, I'm going to try not to panic too bad. 

À bientôt!