On Dijon, roadtrip

On Monday R and I started our road trip to Dijon and the Burgundy area one day early. Instead of taking l'autoroute, we took the scenic route through the countryside, arriving four hours later at our bed and breakfast. If you are ever in the Dijon area, I can highly recommend Les Chambres d’Hôtes des Marcs d'Or. The innkeepers are a young gay couple, and their chambre d’hôte is immaculate and charming, situated in a park like setting with a snail pit in the back. Plenty of safe free parking nearby. We would have stayed an extra night at the inn but they were sold out, so we moved to a budget hotel in the center, near Palais des Ducs.

Un peu d'histoire
Dijon is the current and historical capital city of the Burgogne région and Cote d'Or département. You can see its splendor and richness in the old buildings, gardens and parks. Dijon rivals Lyon as a gastronomical powerhouse. I actually think Dijon has a better Les Halles—it's big, beautiful, clean. And the food is really well-priced. I was surprised how reasonable everything was. In addition to mustard, Dijon and the surrounding Burgundy region is well known for its wine and regional dishes such as beouf burguignone, escargot, and coq au vin.

Three days in Dijon and Beaune, one of the small towns on the Routes des les Grand Crus just barely whet my appetite. I left wanting to return to Dijon and Burgogne again soon.


The inn's snaillery, a large round walled space in the garden. When I inquired about it, the innkeeper said it was a snaillery a word he concocted for English-speaking tourists. Originally the snail pit was used by former owners to raise snails for escargot. Now it's just a part of the grounds at the inn. You can sit down there for a quiet moment. I almost wanted to tell the innkeeper about shrinkle a word that my friend J (who's German) made up, which is an amalgamation of shrink and wrinkles...shrinkle. As for usage, you could say "Those vegetables really do shrinkle up when they're roasted." Funny. Are there any words that you've made up which are brilliant. Please share.

Enter the wooden door and down a spiral stone staircase—a large garden opens up before us. This inn opened in 1996 but the house and old barn (where the guest rooms are located) were built in the 19th century and mainly used as a winery. The barn was totally gut renovated and is tasetfully decorated—forget the over-the-top, loud, frilly flower patterns you usually see at Victorian B and Bs. This B and Besides the beautiful grounds, rooms, the inn serves a fresh hearty breakfast. Croissants, fresh coffee, tea, Burgundy honey cake, muesli, fresh baguette, yogurt, and of course, some little pots of homemade confiture. We met a nice older couple Euli and Judith (Swiss-German and Dutch respectively) there who invited us to share in their bottle Burgundy white wine with them.


Rooftops in Dijon and much of the Burgundy countryside stand out for their graphically arranged roof tiles. I like!

R touching the "lucky owl" at the church near the Palais des Ducs. I gave it a rub too for good measure.
In Dijon my favorite place to get ice cream is at the market square in front of the Palais des Ducs. For 3€, you can get a waffle cone with two scoops of one of the best ice creams I've ever had. On a few occasions, I chose cassis (black currant berries) and salted butter caramel. I go crazy for caramel beurre sale. I didn't only eat ice cream in Dijon, I also tried beouf burguignone for the first time. It was savory, luscious, and red, having been marinated in a good Burgundy wine. The meat was so tender you could easily tease it apart with a fork and the meat just melted in your mouth.

Interesting fact:you won't believe it, but R and I found two Teo Chew in Dijon, the owners of a Chinese store/take away place near Les Halles.