Hello Dijon, my old friend

Christoph picked me up at the flat, we stopped to get him an antigen test and we both filled in paperwork to get into France to make sure we were “legit” if we got stopped. Didn’t happen, we did go through some toll roads and stopped for a brief break and lunch. Traffic was light and we made it in about three hours. 

This greeted me in the courtyard of the flat.

Brigitte let me in with warmth, we had become friends when I was here in 2019. I settled us in and I think Lexi recognized the place because she settled in rapidly. 

August 7 - we went to the large food Les Halles market, (above picture) a favourite of mine and I shopped for basic foods like tomato, bread, cheese (herbed goats) cucumber, coffee. Lunch was superb at Le 314 where I had salmon tartare and Christoph had beef bourguignon, service was attentive and great. It rained lightly but then came down hard causing us both to purchase umbrellas, we would have been soaked through without. We stopped by Christoph’s flat which is ideally located, tiny but also very clean. They had had a water leak yesterday and were fixing it today. Christoph was delighted to meet the couples involved in fixing it and had lengthy conversations with them. Mid-afternoon we headed to the north of Dijon to a gigantic mall which held a Carrefour, French supermarket. Shopping went smoothly but it was crowded in stores and parking lot pretty much full. Saturday afternoon after all and I really dislike those situations, so many people, adults and kids, Covid-19 makes me even more so want to avoid that. I did get heavy items stocked up which is a bonus and the reason for the visit. 

August 8, Sunday. Now for the real touring.

Travelled south heading for Castle La Roche Pot here is the website The "Castle" note that they say they are open and the website shows beautifully. This what we and others found, a completely derelict site looking nothing like the website and many, many years away from doing so. Very disappointing for us and the others that had stopped by.

Before that we had left Dijon about 11:00 am so had to lunch first, it was at O’Bar@20 in Nuits St Georges the hub for the Grands des Crus Route Grands des Crus Lunch at the restaurant, a locals place with lotto outlet and several televisions on the walls was excellent. Local fish with a cooked ratatouille vegetable and rice, decorated with borage flowers, drizzles of pesto and balsamic vinegar. Portions were not overly large but sated our appetites and good bread came with.

We took the above mentioned route from Dijon along through beautiful farmland with hectares and kilometres of wine fields, many bordered by low stone walls.

We stopped in Nolay where there was an artisan market and entertainment going on. 

Glass of wine and beer were had to discuss the day and plan tomorrow around the corner at La Comedie a local’s place. 

Weather has been great the last two days, not too hot,  with the exception of heavy downpour for about half an hour when anyone in it gets soaked to the skin. If you can shelter that, great, if not, you’d best be changing clothes soonest.

Aside: Fantastic lighting show in Positano.

Positano Italy

More touring to come.