Hi, I'm James. And I'm Laurent. And today, we're in Dijon, France.
Dijon is the capital city of Burgundy.
And it's famous for its mustard, its wines, and its escargot.
But in addition to food and wine, Dijon is also a beautiful medieval town,
with tons of things to visit for the whole family.
And in this video, we'll show you our Top 5 free things to do in Dijon. So, let's go!
Number 1: The Owl Walk, or Parcours de la Chouette, in French.
No matter what you do in Dijon, the Owl Walk should be your starting point,
because it will take you to all the main spots in the city.
And then, you can decide whether you want to explore
some of the individual attractions further.
Throughout the downtown area, there are bronze arrows on the ground.
And if you follow these arrows, the trail will take you to everything there is to see in Dijon.
And there is an owl with a number, every time there is a landmark to look at.
It's really well done!
There are 22 stops in total, and the whole trail takes about an hour.
You can go to the visitor center to pick up a little booklet with all the main stops.
Or you can just download the app,
and have explanations for all the stops directly on your phone.
But even if you don't want to be bothered with all the historic explanations,
just following the arrows on the ground will take you through all the quaint little streets,
with tons of interesting things to look at.
Downtown Dijon is an old medieval town,
with lots of cobblestone streets and old timbered houses.
And because large parts of downtown are pedestrian,
we just love strolling around, with no particular goal in mind.
And while you follow the Owl Walk, you'll stumble across the Number 2 on our list:
The Dijon Museum of Fine Arts, inside the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.
In the 14th and 15th century, Burgundy was basically an independent state.
And the Dukes of Burgundy had both wealth and power.
Dijon being the capital of Burgundy, this is where the Dukes of Burgundy built their palace.
The palace is a massive structure, the size of a city block.
And you can see its classical style façade from the Place de la Libération.
And today, the palace is home to both the Dijon city hall and the Museum of Fine Arts.
And the Museum of Fine Arts is free, for everybody, all the time!
The palace has been home to the Museum of Fine Arts for more than 200 years.
But the museum underwent a huge renovation in 2019.
It's one of the most beautiful art museums outside of Paris.
And it has an extensive collection that spans all the way
from Egyptian antiquities to modern art.
But the largest part of the collection is made of medieval and Renaissance art.
Some of our favorites were the room with the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy.
They are massive tombs, with lots of intricate details.
And we also like the hall of classical sculptures.
It had several impressive sculptures. And it was very well displayed.
And if you like religious art, the museum has some amazing altar pieces.
And even though the museum only has a small impressionist collection,
the one Monet painting was really beautiful.
We spent almost 3 hours there, and it still feels like we rushed through the collection.
And a couple of blocks from the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy
is the Number 3 on our list: The Church of Our Lady, or Eglise Notre Dame, in French,
which is also on the Owl Walk.
Dijon is nicknamed the town with 100 bell towers, because of its many churches.
Our Lady is not the cathedral of Dijon, but we really liked it for several reasons.
First of all, the façade is very original.
And very different from most of the Gothic churches.
Above the front porch, which is fairly traditional, you have two additional levels,
with rows of columns that are pretty unique.
And the façade is also full of gargoyles.
If the weather is good, better than when we shot this video,
you can see the Jacquemart, on top of the front tower.
What it is, is 4 statues, with a hammer that strikes a large bell, every hour.
And also every 1/4 hour, in-between.
But the main attraction of the church is the owl.
The statue of the owl is on the left side of the church, on Owl Street.
If you put your left hand on the owl, and make a wish, your wish will be granted.
As a result, the statue is pretty worn,
from 1,000's of people making wishes over the centuries.
And the inside of the church is nice too,
with a 12th century statue of Our Lady of Good Hope.
And several miracles that have been attributed to the stature over the years.
Our Lady also has beautiful stained-glass windows,
like most Gothic churches in France.
Number 4: The Fallot Mustard Store.
As we mentioned before, we love just hanging around, in downtown Dijon.
And all the quaint stores are parts of the reason.
There are antique stores, clothing stores, tourist shops, and also lots of food stores.
You're in France after all!
And our favorite store is the Fallot Mustard Store.
Dijon is famous all over the world for its mustard.
And how could you come to Dijon, and not buy any mustard to bring back home?
Fallot is a local family-owned business.
And if you want to visit the mustard factory, it's actually in Beaune, not in Dijon.
And the visit of the mustard factory is included in our video about the things to do in Beaune.
But in Dijon, Fallot has a beautiful store,
where you can buy all different flavored mustards they offer.
And it's right across the street from the owl statue.
And number 5 on our list is the Central Market Hall,
which people in Dijon call the Halle Centrale, or Marché Central.
It's an indoor market, that's a 5-minute walk from the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.
It has more than 200 stores, with meat, and fish, and produce. You name it!
Unfortunately, the market is not open every day.
It's only open 4 days a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
And when you travel, the weather doesn't always cooperate.
We had planned our trip to be in Dijon on a Tuesday, to be able to film the market.
But we had to reshuffle our Burgundy itinerary, to film outdoor scenes under the sun.
And we saved Dijon for a rainy day instead.
To make a long story short, the market was closed on the day we filmed this video,
which is really unfortunate, because we had visited the market in the past.
And we really enjoyed it.
But even from the outside, the Market Hall is an interesting building.
Although it wasn't built by Gustave Eiffel, the architect of the Eiffel Tower in Paris,
it was built in the same era, and has lots of similar architectural features,
like the metal structure, and the glass roof.
And we also loved all the details,
like the medallion of all the animals you can buy at the market.
And around the market is where you can find tons of restaurants,
where you can try escargot.
Burgundy is a beautiful region.
And there's a lot more to Burgundy than just Dijon.
We also have other videos, about the Top 10 things to do in Burgundy,
and about the Top 5 things to do in Beaune.
If you wanna watch these two videos, we're gonna put one right here.
And another one right there.
And if you want to subscribe to our channel, we're gonna put a link right here.
Bye, Bye!