Update of July and then August in Dijon

 Wait five minutes and the weather will change was what was normal when I lived in Calgary, Alberta, that perfectly describes  this July and into August in Freiburg. As so many countries have experienced severe conditions of drought, wild fires, or flooding, the conditions here are milder. The frequent rain means lush growing conditions and less fire risk. I am happy to be here right now, temps are easy to handle and if you get caught in a downpour, we don't melt eh?

What has happened in July? I've been downtown at least once a week to take in the changes in the core and some of my fav's are now gone which is sad . Both my partners and us bought unique items from Eigen Art with the lovely owner who really cared about her clientele is sadly gone. Major retailer Kaiser is also gone, they did mostly clothing I think. There are a few "new to me" stores, my favourite is a book store selling English language books.

On the home front, I hired professionals to have my floors cleaned, cut the lavender, install a new dining room light and wash the windows.The apartment will be painted in September. 

My Irish passport expires end of this year so I went to a photo studio but it took three tries to have it work on the passport website. 

My hedge is looking good due to the rain.

Incoming! Take shelter, or an umbrella.

Result!

On a different note, Bruce and I had commissioned a tile artist in Sevilla years ago to make us the following. I am ashamed to admit it has been sitting in a box in Freiburg the whole time. I unboxed it and put it together to enjoy. Will likely have it properly mounted at a later date but at least it's out of the box.

Christoph had a window between touring of almost three weeks in August so we drove to Dijon. Yes, I am staying in the same apartment for my fifth year now. The reason? People are friendly, it is relatively inexpensive and ideally located.

What is not communicated often to tourists is that French businesses of all types shut down for vacation in August. Somehow I forget about it and am rudely awakened when I get here every time.

We headed to Clos St-Louis winery, as we do, and they were shuttered for vacation, no note on the door for how long and no website so we will check back next week. This is outside their building.

There is a restaurant Christoph had read about different from the one we have been to a few times in Fixin. We went and they were totally booked so suggested their "sister" restaurant down the road in Gevrey Chambertin called Les Griottes and it was delightful for food and attentive service. www.restaurant-lesgriottes.fr The town is one of the many small ones on the Côte-d'Or wine road. This was our view at lunch.

We booked into the first restaurant for the day after, and to be frank, I didn't think the food was as good but the service was and location nestled in the acreage covered in grape fields. www.clos-napoleon.com 

Another day we drove about an hour south to Chalon sur Saône which is a small city on the river Saône, we've been many times but again our "usual" was closed for vacation so we opted for one called Le Clown Gourmand and it was wonderful. I have never seen so many clown pictures and figurines under one roof, they had the lot!

From the bridge, view of the river. Those green dots are lily pads.

I've been to the Les Halles market a couple of times to get fresh produce, cheese and artisan bread, all of top quality and a pleasure to have.

We've had quite a bit of rain here too and cooler temperatures but next week it will get hot, well, relatively, low to mid 30's. Cloudy weather is best for driving and last week we certainly enjoyed that. I've mentioned before no air con.

All for now, we have one week left so I plan to bring my actual camera along. I am rubbish at taking pics with my cell phone.

Added note: there is never any blank paper in AirBnB places, so when I needed some I used coffee filters! When in need, get creative.

Cheers!