(Old Halls of Justice)
Friday saw us leaving Avignon with Dijon our next target. After looking into the logistics of sweeping through Switzerland to claim another flag we decided to just pick up the motorway and get into Dijon early. Gertrude brought tghe usual levels of bewilderment and smiles to the locals faces and we found our hotel easily. (any reports of a cow like vehicle going through bus lanes and pedestrian zones are purely coincidental)
The hotel, The City Lofts, where fantastic. Located a short walk from the center of town, it had a fully fitted kitchen and bathroom and would be great if you where thinking of staying for a few days. We filled the fridge with drink and snacks and went for a scout around.
First "bar" we found was actually a coffee house and so we resigned ourselves to having a latte, next stop was a restaurant/bar in the Place de Duc, the center of town. 5.60 Euro for 50cl of beer was a bit hard to swallow. So we downed those and regrouped at the hotel for a quick bite to eat and a look at the good book, Rough Guide to Europe on a budget, and ploted our course to some local bars. The first of these was the Au Vieux Jean, a quirky little place with barrels for tables and bread tins for ashtrays, the French do smoke alot :) Good selection of drink and a few other bars/cafes nearby. The next bar took us right across the old town past all the Tudoresque timber framed buildings aswell as the dressed stone building with great archway gates and carvings leading into courtyards, you could just imagine the horses and carriage pulling out of them. Then we where at Le Cappucino which was near what looked like a council estate, Nice enough looking bar and good selection of beers but we where somewhat distracted by the youth using their feet to open a door, then the sirens of police and ambulances which stopped just up the street. Probably better a a quieter night. We beat a hastey retreat and crashed relatively early knowing we had the final leg to do on Saturday. Huzzah.
Ps. Funniest thing to happen to me, While walking back to the hotel and was nearly ridden down by a midget on a trike (No word of a lie) doing about 20mph. I couldn't stop laughing :)
