Paris, Dijon, Beaune and Lyon!

I think I've had a big few weeks since my last post.

Right now I'm in Lyon, but since my last blog post I spent another week in Paris. I had a friend from England, who I met in Ngukurr in the Northern Territory of all places, who came to hang out for a weekend. That was lots of fun, we went and found a few jazz bars, but I got a bit sick, because it was a cold weekend with a few late nights!

Before Louise came over, I kept on just hanging out in Paris, and really enjoyed just walking around, or sitting in a cafe having a coffee and reading.

I also went to the Palace of Versailles, which was amazing! It was the old Royal residence before the revolution. Pretty amazing buildings, and a pretty amazing line to get in!

The Palace of Versailles was also where the treaty to end World War I was signed, in fact it was in this room, the Hall of Mirrors. Weirdly, there was nothing about it mentioned in the information there (that I could read, at least). I had to Google it to double check!

Louise wanted to do a few touristy things in Paris, and as I'd already gone up the Eiffel Tower, I suggested we do it at night. The previous evening there had been a bomb scare there, and the line was quite long the night we went. We waited for maybe 20 minutes, and then everyone was evacuated! Guys with machine guns were directing us away. Pretty happy to do as I'm told in those circumstances. Still, it was nice to see the tower at night!

I'm not sure what it is about girls and the Moulin Rouge, but of course, we had to go there too. Not in of course, it costs like €200!

I also caught up a few times with a friend my sister Emma and brother-in-law Steve made when they living in France for a year, Léane. She showed me around Paris a bit, and even took me to see an English language comedian! Awesome!

So, I eventually decided it was time to leave Paris. I actually haven't done everything I wanted to, but I'm ok with that, because it gives me a reason to go back!

I was thinking about heading North - Léane has a friend who lives in Normandy who I could have stayed with, but she was renovating that week. Plus, I was really, really cold in Paris! So I decided to head south and hope that it might get warmer.

I caught a train to Dijon, after finding a cheap hotel on the internet. Unfortunately the one youth hostel was booked. The only downside was that, as it turned out, the hotel was a bloody long way from the middle of town, like way out in an industrial estate! Kind of weird, but I worked out I could catch a tram and a bus there, so it wasn't too bad.

Dijon is a really cool little city. After Paris it felt very, very quiet, but I liked that! And it is so pretty! It seems to have escaped some of the destruction that Paris has endured, and it just feels like an old little town.

This is Notre Dame de Dijon - a beautiful old church!

Apparently Bourgogne, or Burgundy as it is translated in English, was quite an important region back in aristocratic days. The Palace of the Dukes is a pretty amazing building, now an art gallery, and the view from the top of the tower is beautiful! Going up you can see part of the original town wall, built in the third century. It boggles the mind.



So I tried my hand at Couch Surfing for a night in Paris, which worked out well. For those not in the know, there's a website where you can go an ask people who have registered if you can stay with them for a night.

I did this in Dijon, and ended up staying with two medicine students, who were pretty damn cool and great cooks! They took me to a human beatbox festival on my first night staying with them. The next day we went hiking in this beautiful nature reserve out of Dijon.

After Dijon I caught a short train to Beaune - which advertises itself at the wine capital of Bourgogne! I reckon sometimes things just come together and you have a meal you'll always remember. The lunch I had there was one of those. I ordered the Bourgogne menu - six escargot, beef bourgogne, a plate of three local cheeses, and an ice cream with this traditional black current liqueur poured over it. All washed down of course with a local red. In short, amazing.

Apparently most of the town of Beaune has wine cellars under it. I went to the largest cellar in Bourgogne, which boasts over 3 million bottles of wine and five kilometres of tunnels! For a small fee you can taste 15 of their wines. I remember the first few were pretty good...

I also stayed with a Couch Surfing host in Beaune, which was great. We stayed up playing guitar and drinking wine - lots of fun!

Today I went to the Hotel Dieu - an historic hotel in Beaune which was built in the 15th century. It is a beautiful old building, and was used as a hospital up until the 70s.

So, this afternoon I caught a train to Lyon, and am right now in another Couch Surfing house! I have a French host, who has an American housemate, who has an American friend visiting! We are sitting around playing on our matching MacBook Pros, drinking cheap red wine. In short, life is good.

So I'm not sure what I'll do in Lyon for a few days, or what my plans are from here. But apparently Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France, so I'm sure I can't go too wrong!

Plus, it is getting warmer! It was 15 degrees today in Lyon - balmy! The Couch Surfing has been great so far. It's cheap, but it's also a bit more fun than staying in hostels. I was a bit disappointed that people weren't that friendly when I stayed in the hostel in Paris. And staying in a hotel in Dijon was nice, but not the best for socialising.

So I have four days here, then I guess it will be time to look at a map and decide where to go next.