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Our original plan, when we decided to travel to Paris, included a vacation from our vacation; an undetermined side trip to somewhere outside of the city, ideally a small town in wine country. Before we left San Francisco, I think we were pretty set on making it to the south of France for the last week of our month away. It seemed to be a beautiful part of the country with quaint seaside towns and great wine. As the reality of traveling with a baby set in and we started to consider an 8 hour road trip vs a short flight with all of the baby stuff we'd need to bring, plus renting a car on the other end, we realized that our vacation would be more work than pleasure.
The great thing about the location of Paris is that in any direction, there are great options at a reasonable distance. So after a little searching around, we decided on the town of Dijon, in the heart of Burgundy. Good wine, good mustard and the home of Beef Bourguignonne.
Our trip got off to a bit of a rocky start after a 3 hour rental car debacle that Mark fell victim to - first in attempting to locate the Avis that was supposed to be open and next in trying to locate the car that was supposed to be reserved. If you've seen that episode of Seinfeld you probably felt Mark's frustration, but in the end it all worked out, just later than expected. So, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, we loaded up our cute little Renault and followed the GPS east towards our cottage in Burgundy.
On the way we took a little diversion to visit Fontainebleau, which, among many nobles, was once the home of Napoleon and Josephine. This was my first chateau visit while Mark has seen many of the famous ones during previous trips to Europe. I was very impressed with the excess of wealth and grandness that the estate possessed. Andrew was much less impressed and was not having any of it, so our stop at Fontainebleau was all of 30 minutes before we gave in to the little guy and got back on the road for our final destination. By the time we arrived and got settled in our accommodations for the evening, we had missed out on most restaurant opportunities, as the city shuts down on Sunday, so that coupled with the pouring rain, kept us in and happy we had packed a bottle of wine, a bar of dark chocolate and a leftover sandwich from lunch. A perfect late night dinner for Mark and I after Andrew was cozy in his bed for the night.
We stayed in a cute little cottage that was an annex of a larger house. The entire estate sat on what seemed to be an acre of land and was surrounded by a tall brick wall that had only 2 entry points - one for the autos, and one for the people. The cottage was pretty comfortable - surrounded by flowers outside, floor to ceiling windows throughout and many features that made efficient use of the small space. We converted a spacious, built in closet shelf into Andrew's changing table. The kitchen had the smallest dishwasher I'd ever seen next to the smallest oven that doubled as a microwave.
On our first day in Dijon, Mark and I had very different adventures. While I went to wine school, Mark took Andrew on a little road trip to Alesia. This was apparently the site where the Gauls were defeated by Julius Cesar. Their leader, Vercingetorix, (yeah, try to say that out loud- I'm still trying) surrendered there in 52 BC. and coincidently the name of the street we were staying on in Dijon was named after none other than Vercingetorix himself. Mark said it was all geared towards kids, although a little too advanced for Andrew but had a good learning center about the Romans, Gauls and the battle. Maybe next time I'll check it out.
Foodwise, we learned that Dijon is known for 3 things: 1) Mustard, 2) Kir and 3) Gingerbread. I struck out on the last one and didn't seem to find much gingerbread during our short stay. Kir, on the otherhand can be ordered anywhere as it is a popular cocktail of blackcurrant liqueur (cassis) produced mainly in Burgundy and Aligote wine which is the other white grape grown here. Dijon does not produce nearly as much mustard as it did when it originated there in the 1800s. The mustard doesn't even have to be produced in Dijon to earn the name as the designation just refers to the recipe- mustard seeds and white wine. Today, most of the mustard seeds used to make Dijon mustard in Dijon are imported from Canada. Go figure…
Aside from the fact that most things are closed on Sunday and Monday, Mark and I managed to eat well while in Dijon. The good news was that Mark finally found his Beef Bourguignonne and the bad news was that we both unwillingly discovered pig stomach. Considering the fact that half the time we're ordering blindly from menus completely written in French, we were bound to run into something along the way that was not exactly what we were expecting. I live to write about it today so I guess we survived and I can put it all behind me now, but it's not an experience I hope to relive anytime soon. I think the .0005% of people on the planet who can stomach (literally) eating this kind of thing are able to turn off all sense of smell and focus solely on the texture, which was actually pretty good.
On our last day in Dijon, the sun finally came out and we did a quick tour of the city, known as the Owl Trail. Twenty of the cities most historic sites are marked by these little owl signs that form a trail around the city. It was a nice way to get some background at our own pace. My favorite stop was the "Moutarde" shop where I stocked up on some very real Dijon mustard. If Andrew is lucky, I'll keep it around long enough for him to enjoy.
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Alyssa I love Fonte! That's where Alex went to grad school. I will have to tell you about the time last year when we got stuck there :)