Ah, the wine country! It's easy to get to Burgundy from Paris. We arrived at Charles deGaulle Airport on a weekday afternoon and had several train choices. There are a number of TGV (bullet) trains that go to Dijon and beyond each day from Gare de Lyon in Paris. The trip to Dijon takes about 1.5 hours. Some friends from California joined us on this trip, and they arrived in Paris about 8 PM which was too late to take the train from Paris to Dijon on the same day.
We spent 2.5 days based in Dijon and found it to be a very pleasant town - the central area of Dijon contains mostly pedestrian-only streets and just about all the sites of interest are less than a kilometer from town center. FYI, all the museums in the central part of Dijon are FREE.
There's a free electric shuttle available in the downtown area. Only a tiny bus like this could make it around the little streets of Dijon!
The Museum is located in a palace where a succession of dukes ruled the area of Burgundy in the 13th and 14th centuries, and after the acquisition of Burgundy by France, became the palace for the Dukes of Burgundy. It was founded in 1787 and has an eclectic selection of both ancient and modern art. So, you really get two museums in one location - the art and artifacts displayed in the museum and a tour of the various palace rooms.
The museum is reasonably well-curated, though the placards are mostly in French (Google Translate does a good job getting the gist of things). It felt like a snapshot of the Louvre - instead of having a full room of Egyptian sarcophagi like at the Louvre, this museum had one (and it was loaned from the Louvre...). In addition, you get a good overview of the history of Burgundy when it was a stand-alone state in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Finally, the museum has a special modern art section dedicated to recent artistic trends and highlighting former students of the Dijon art school.
Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beau-Artes de Dijon) 1 Rue Rameau, 21000 Dijon. Free. Open 10 AM - 6:30 PM every day except Tuesday
Gingerbread, known as pain d'epices, is a popular local tradition. We visited the Mulot and Petitjean factory and museum, located near the Dijon train station, to learn about gingerbread, and of course to sample it. The museum does a good job of explaining how gingerbread is made and describing changes over the years - for example, the bread is less spicy now than it used to be to adjust to changing tastes.
You walk through several rooms using a audio guide - note that the first room is a little long-winded in describing the founding of the gingerbread company and history of the Mulot and Petitjean families, but does have several hilarious Disney-esque live action paintings of ancestors who lectured us about the history. But the next two rooms focus on gingerbread making and those were surprisingly engaging. In addition, you can watch active gingerbread production from the last room of the museum through large windows.
After the ~30 minute tour (it's self-guided using the audio guide), you end up back in the gingerbread store and sample several different types of gingerbread.
We did not book our ticket in advance and only had to wait about 5 minutes to get an English language audio guide.
Gingerbread Mulot and Petitjean Factory Tour. 6 Boulevard de l'Ouest, 21000 Dijon (note that if using Google Maps and walking to the factory, you may end up at the back of the factory and a locked gate - from that location, just rejigger Google Maps to give you driving instructions and you can find the main entrance). 8 euros/adult, 6 euros/child (includes several samples of gingerbread). Open Tuesday and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 AM - 12:30 PM and 2 - 6:30 PM (ie closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday)
3) Church of Our Lady (aka Church of Notre-Dame of Dijon)
This church in the center of Dijon was originally built in the 13th century. It has really interesting gargoyle sculptures on the outside and various beautiful stained glass and other art inside. There are several old wall paintings dating to the founding of the church that had been covered over (and so are in need of preservation/restoration). You enter the church through a red plywood door cut out of a larger piece of red plywood - don't be put off if the church seems abandoned or that there is no entrance. Just walk up to the red plywood and find the entrance door.
Church of our Lady. 2 Place Notre Dame, 21000 Dijon. Open every day 8 AM - 6 PM. Free.
4) Wine tour in Burgundy with Burgundy Discovery
We drink a fair amount of red Burgundies (Pinot Noir) at home, thanks to Dan's dad who is an expert at wines. But we didn't know a lot about the various appellations and vineyard names. We booked a one-day small group tour with Burgundy Discovery, a husband and wife team, to explore wines and wineries. It's definitely possible to rent a car and do it yourself, but we decided on a tour for several reasons: 1) we didn't know the area and having someone set up tastings, especially when many wineries are not open to the public, made it easy to enjoy the day, 2) we didn't want to drink and drive, and 3) we wanted to learn about the wines and the region from someone who knew the area and could answer our questions.
We had a lovely day with Robert as our guide; he and his wife are British ex-pats who are certified WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) educators and have lived in Burgundy for more than 15 years. He explained the four categories of Burgundies (both red and white): regional, village, premier cru (1er cru) and grand cru as well as various interesting aspects of farmer life, and vineyard politics and ownership. We visited two wineries and a wine cave, trying over 20 different wines during the day. About one third of the wines we tried were white Burgundies (Chardonnay) and two third were red Burgundies (Pinot Noir). Those wines were mostly premier cru with a few village and grand cru designations. As part of the tour, we had very good lunch at Le Bistrot du Bord de L'Eau (hyperlink name of restaurant to blog post about Burgundy food where this restaurant is described), in an old farmhouse on lovely grounds.
Burgundy Discovery was not the cheapest provider but we liked the description of the tour as well as the ability to upgrade the food and wine (which we did, so we could try more premier and grand cru wines). We enjoyed the tour and definitely recommend Burgundy Discovery if you want someone to show you around Burgundy.
5) Dijon Central Market (the link also provides info on other markets in Dijon). We love visiting the local markets when in Europe and Asia, and this one did not disappoint. This is definitely not set up for tourists - we mostly saw locals doing their daily shopping for produce, cheese, meat, seafood, spices, etc. We ended up buying a hunk of Comte cheese, an organic whole grain round loaf, olives, and several tapenades, and making a breakfast of them. Several boulangeries set up shop in the market, so you can also get various pastries in addition to bread. The espresso vendor in the market lets you eat other food at their tables if you buy any coffee or tea, so that was no problem...
Market is open Tuesday and Thursday - Saturday from 7:30 AM - 1:00 PM. Halle central de, 21000 Dijon
This museum recreates life in Dijon about 100-150 years ago. In a series of shop and household recreations, you can see what fashion, food, hobbies and other parts of life were like. Though the mannequins are a bit creepy, it's actually pretty interesting to see all the different clothing, and regular household life. The sign placards are all in French but many of the placards also have pictographs and most of the dioramas are pretty self-evident.
The Museum of Burgundian Life is open every day except Tuesday from 9:30 AM -12:30 PM and 2:00-6:00 PM. 17 Rue Sainte-Anne, 21000 Dijon
If you ever wondered where you might find the Holy Grail, this is the place. This is a small museum inside an old church and it's dedicated to sacred art - in this case, mostly chalices made of silver and gold, and occasionally encrusted with gems. Most of these were made in the 18th and 19th centuries. You will probably spend no more than 15-20 minutes at this museum.
The Museum of Sacred Art is located basically next door to the Museum of Burgundian Life and has similar hours. 15 Rue Sainte-Anne, 21000 Dijon
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