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!