After our third night in Europe, we decided it was time to move on again.  I had been curious about Dijon, since I am a fan of Dijon mustard.  I posted on Facebook that we were headed there and one of my friends was all excited, since she had just bought some Grey Poupon.  In all honesty, I didn’t see anything in Dijon that suggested mustard is a big deal there.

We learned an important lesson the morning we left Reims.  American credit cards don’t work in French train stations.  Bill was a bit perturbed about that, since we had no problems using cards in Germany.  When he tried to buy tickets for our trip to Dijon, the cards were refused.  I realized it was because American credit cards have a magnetic strip instead of a computer chip used in European countries.  I read in an article that American cards will soon have the chip too, but for now, our cards are obsolete in some places in Europe.  We had to pay cash for all of our train tickets from that point on, at least while we were in France.

We had lunch at the Reims’ train station…

Bill had smoked salmon and toast.  I had a “mixed grill”, the special of the day.  We had a little communication gap with our non English speaking waiter, who was nonetheless very charming.  

There’s always room for chocolate mousse!

View of the restaurant from our table.

I booked us a room at Hotel Bonbonniere, which is an adorable little three star hotel in Talant, about three miles from the center of the city.  Although we weren’t in the thick of things, I was glad I booked this hotel for a night.  It’s located in a very charming little residential village, right next to a beautiful church.  We were given a room that offered a great view of the city.

The view from our window…

View from the ledge where those checkers are…

Cute church near the hotel.

Being a Dijon fan, I had to photograph this…

Super cute village!

After checking in, Bill and I decided to walk to the center.  It was a stout walk, though mostly downhill.  I enjoyed the sweet scent of lilacs as we walked to Dijon.  The downtown area is very cool, with plenty of cute shops and majestic cathedrals and other buildings.

These flowers smelled so nice…

Because I have a ribald sense of humor, I had to take a photo of this ad for hemorrhoid cream…  The credit mural was funny, too.

We ended up visiting the cathedral in the center of town, then wandered around for awhile until it was time for dinner.  I chose a place near the food hall, which wasn’t open when we visited.  What I liked best about Dijon was the city center, which was just so beautiful and quaint… and as we headed back to the train station to catch a taxi back to our hotel, we passed a French karaoke joint.  I was tempted to go in there and try my hand, but we’d already eaten; it was getting late; and we were tired.  Also, it sounded like all the songs were in French!

Interesting sticker…

Scenes from the city!

I had risotto with shrimp for dinner…

Bill had beef…

Dessert–  strawberry tiramisu for Bill and cream brûlée for me…

Adorable breakfast at the hotel…

That dog is a sweetheart…

Bill checking out the train station in Dijon…

A young woman asked us in French if we minded if she shared our compartment in the train car.  Bill said he thought maybe it was because she was alone and didn’t want to be bothered/ hit on.  There was plenty of space on the train, but she apparently didn’t want to sit alone.  Can’t say I blame her, though I doubt any creepy men would have messed with little ol’ me.

I wish we could have spent another night in Dijon.  I really liked the city and would have liked to have done some shopping there.  We had to move on, though…  I like European Coke.  It’s made with sugar instead of corn syrup.