Dijon - Steve the Stupendous and Nick the Nice

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Monday - Steve the Stupendous and Nick the Nice

Bread

Monday morning. Nick has been to the boulangerie to buy fresh bread. Here are some interesting facts about bread in France:-

One of Nick’s neighbours is an apprentice baker. Before he is fully qualified to bake bread he has to serve a 5 year apprenticeship!
Interesting fact #2. Nick has heard that there is a law in France which says that every village above a certain size must have a bakery. This immediately has me firing questions at him, questions he has no chance of answering but which keep him busy on the internet for some time. How big does a village have to be before it has to have a bakery? What if nobody in that village wants to bake bread? What happens to the village if they don’t have a bakery? What if the bakery loses money? What if all the people in the village shop at Tesco and don’t use the bakery? Obviously Nick can’t provide all these answers but it is an interesting idea. Can you imagine if we had a law in our country where every village above a certain size musthave a post office?

Also by law, boulangeries are not allowed to put any additives into bread. People buy it fresh every day.

70%!o(MISSING)f the bread eaten in France is baked in small independent bakeries. I guess that answers one of my questions above.

Dijon

We drive to Dijon, the capital of Burgundy about 35km from Beaune. We look for somewhere to have lunch and Nick decides that the anarchist café will be a good spot. Today must be my day for asking difficult questions because I want to know how the anarchists got to own a café, if they have a mortgage and how they decide what to cook. I’m also slightly concerned that I’ll have to eat vegetarian food. As it is the anarchists have decided not to open at the same time as everyone else, the café is closed. We find an alternative place to eat near the centre - it is reasonably priced and seems to be full of students, a couple of whom even have folders and books with them! My theory is confirmed when at exactly 2 minutes before 2p.m. they all head off in the direction of the university. Actually there are still three students left behind - they must be doing Media Studies!!

We go for a walk through town and end up at the Palais de Duc, the old palace of the Dukes of Burgundy. One wing of this is now a sizeable art gallery and we spend most of the afternoon in there. There is quite a large collection of religious-inspired art on the first floor. I have a limited attention span for this - I can only see so many “Adoration of the Magi” before I get bored! However there is a good collection of modern and contemporary art on the next floor and we spend a lot of time in here.

Entrance to the palace is free. Great!!.....but……we still have to get a ticket! At the entrance there are two people behind a desk who print out tickets for us with the price €0.00 on. A third person (security) tells me that I will have to leave my camera bag at the cloakroom. The cloakroom is a another desk about 10 metres away where a fourth person takes my bag. They must be on an inefficiency drive!

One of the final displays in the palace is a room with the very elaborate tombs of John the Fearless and Philip the Bold. Other Dukes of Burgundy include John the Good and Philip the Handsome. I suspect these are titles they have awarded to themselves! In fact the only person in the family tree who hasn’t been credited with a elaborate name is also the only female, Mary. Now there’s a surprise! No doubt someone will fairly soon be designing a Facebook quiz, “What is your Duke of Burgundy name?”

Other things we saw in Dijon included:-


• A communal pool from which cycles could be hired for from €0.50 for a couple of hours to €1 for a week. The cycles are also available to tourists.
• A free minibus service operating around the city centreI guess both of these are measures the council have taken to reduce congestion. English councils please take note.

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Comments

[WhereIsSteve]

Bike Scheme
Since writing about the bike scheme in Dijon there is now one in London. Never thought I'd ever find myself saying this but "Well done, Boris Johnson!!"