The Owl’s Trail, Dijon

Monday 30th September

The sun isn’t rising here until 7.35 am here so there was no hurry for our morning walk. We were pleasantly surprised by the city this morning though; a good night of sleep, sunshine and no crowds helping us to see and appreciate the beauty of the city. There is more of a feel of Paris in this city than of Strasbourg with all the spectacular white limestone buildings; there was none of the Strasbourg pink sandstone here. One piece of advice I would offer to people who plan to visit Dijon and if you only allow two nights then make sure your dates don’t traverse a Sunday and Monday as very little is open. Even today, most of the shops don’t open until 2 pm, if at all, and the Les Halles food markets only open on Tue, Thurs, Fri and Sat. The markets are interesting as there are numerous restaurants and bars lining the streets of the four sides around the markets but many of these are closed today, Monday, as well as Sunday. It would have been nice to see this area in full operational swing.

It was 9.30 am by the time we’d showered and were ready for the day. Breakfast wasn’t included with our hotel so we stopped off at cafe Comptoir des Colonies for croissants and coffee before starting our self guided Owl walking trail. This was a relaxed and pleasant way to while away a few hours as the trail wound its way through the streets of Dijon and passed by all of the major historic sites, of which there were many. The accompanying notes suggest the route takes about one hour but Mark and I were only half way through after two hours! Lucky for us that this is all that’s on our agenda today!

A loop of The Owl’s Trail actually passes by our hotel so we stopped off there for a rest and cup of tea. It was 1.15 pm by this stage, some 2 1/2 hours after starting our trail and we’ve more yet to do!

We set out again by about 2.30 pm and finished the main loop and two and a half sections of the other three loops by about 4.30 pm. After that we drifted towards home to find a restaurant for dinner with one stop off for a drink. We decided on Le Bistro de L’Amiral as the menu mentioned vegetables; such a rare commodity to find on any menu where we’ve been thus far. This ended up being the best meal Mark and I had enjoyed since leaving home. It’s a must-do if ever in Dijon!