France, Part 2-Cathedrals, Dukes and a Monestary

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Note: All the events that happened in this entry occurred back in August-September 2006. Please refer to blog for more updated entries and trips.


I woke up the next day feeling refreshed. I still felt the effects of jetlag, but not as severely as the day before. However, I was ready to do a bit of sightseeing. I was not due to see my hostmother for another two days, so until then, I decided to explore as much of Dijon as I could. Before arriving in France, I had done research regarding recommended sites, as well as requesting a brochure from the Dijon Board of Tourism. One of the sites I was most excited to see was the Musee Archeologique, because it was an old monastery and an archeological site.

On my way to the museum, I came across the Palais des Ducs, or the Duke's Palace, which also houses the Musee des Beaux's Arts (Museum of Fine Arts). Apparently there has been a building at this site since the 13th century, however the facade as well as from what I could see indoors was from looked like the 18th century. My tour of the Dukes Palace was very quick; I walked through the back entrance closes to the Place du Cathedral. After looking upstairs I then passed through some doors that took me to a courtyard. It is there that I found the Musee des Beaux Arts. I believe entrance to the museum was free, however I don't remember much of my first visit. I did visit later on through a tour that one of my teachers at my study abroad program sponsored for us (which I will mention in detail in a later entry). I eventually found my way to the Musee Archeologique, which was one of my favorite museums ever! Here's why: 1) it's free 2) it's an authentic monestary, which contains artifacts and information which describes what it was like living as a monk during the Middle Ages there. I just found that to be really cool and interesting, and my photos were incredible.

The next day, I just spent a lot of time walking through centre-ville (aka downtown; this is a common term for historic districts throughout France). I just couldn't help it because everywhere you looked, there were historic buildings, that dated from the 11th century to the present day. It is through this architectural and historical mix that I found here that helped me to fall in love with Dijon.

A day later, my host mother came to meet up with me at the hotel. I spent that day, and every other day after that getting used to living with her, to finding my school and to my new life there. In my old blog entries I did go into detail about my experiences in my program and my host mother, however in my revisions I have chosen to keep this information private. I will divulge the fact that I only lived with her for two months and then moved alone into a dorm at the international student residence, located in the Park des Sports neighborhood. I lived there until I moved down to Aix-en-Provence in January 2007. However, I will give the following advice: if you have a problem with your host family, don't be afraid to move out. Get in contact with your program like I did, and tell them that you'd like to move. It's not worth it to stay with someone you don't get along with. I'm happy that I moved out when I did; I was better for it.

As for my study abroad program CIEF, I wish not to discuss that in detail because I was unsatisfied with my experience. I learned more French interacting with people in the streets than with this program. All my friends left after the first month, and after then it was hard to socialize outside of class. It was impossible to transfer from taking classes in this program to studying full time at the University of Burgundy unless you matriculated starting in September, which was a problem for me because I had hoped to study full time at the university as well. Instead I was stuck in the intensive French language program. A word to the wise: do more research before you choose a program and go abroad. Set your priorities and make sure you can do the things you want to do.

Instead of dwelling on my day to day experiences which were at times personally painful for the reasons I mentioned, from now on all entries are going to focus on themes which will relate some of my travel stories, as well as my trips outside of France.

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