Having a Dig

Dan

What a breath of fresh air Dijon is – literally.  I have loved traversing its pedestrian-friendly streets, following the ‘golden owls’ and exploring the history of this wonderful place sans cigarette fumes, police sirens and bustling crowds.

Yesterday the sun was shining as we started the trail, today the rain was falling as we completed our 22-stage mission!  But the weather certainly didn’t dampen any of our spirits.  After being held close throughout Paris, the girls relished the chance to run ahead of the adults, following the owls and stopping at the numbered plaques to take in their surroundings. I’m not sure they were that interested in listening to me read facts from the guidebook, but they were polite enough each time to wait until I’d finished before asking if they could run ahead again!

Our apartment is in Place du Theatre, a stone’s throw from the Palace of the Dukes, the Town Hall, Notre Dame and other churches, and 100 steps from one of the most beautiful royal squares in France – Place de la Liberation. During our morning walk, we stopped by the Palace to check out the Guards’ room in the fine arts Museum and see the tombs of John the Fearless, Philip the Bold and their mourners.

We followed that up with a visit to the Saint Anne district and the Museum of Burgundian Life, where we saw costumes, furniture and recreations of many shops that used to line the streets of Dijon.

We finished the walk with another ‘church stop”, Saint-Benigne, where I was able to follow up previous conversations and show the girls a wooden confessional booth, and point out its 21st century equivalent, located at the back of the building.

After lunch we decided that we would go to the Archaeological Museum, located in the former Benedictine Abbey of Saint Benigne.  Both Stella and Daisy are interested in rocks and Geology and were keen to explore the fascinating collections on display in the 11th century chapter room and scriptorium, 13th century monks’ dormitory and 17th century staircase. It was here that Stella asked where she can ‘dig’ when she gets home and said that she wanted to go to ‘digging school’.   I will need to do some research on that before I return!

Stella

Day 11 – Ok things went so well today. Can you believe that we went to two different museums? We went and saw this lovely museum with so many lovely statues that had been found deep down inside the earth  It was so interesting. There were three ginormous rooms that seemed to go on forever. In the second room there were six kids that got in trouble for giggling  and being noisy. My favourite room was the one with all the dug up fossils and old bones.

Then we went to a two dollar  shop and me and Daisy got cool  swords.  Daisy’s sword was silver and mine was green. We played sword ⚔️ fights. Today was so much fun.

Daisy

I had so much fun today  First we woke up to a sunny ️ start . Then we had a breakfast 🥞 of cereal 🥣 It was so yummy   Next we went on a quick walk. We passed a church and decided to go inside. In this church there was a very, very, very big organ! It was bigger than 50 elephants  It was fun, but it also gives you a sad vibe. After that we went to two museums. They were very big but it was really interesting. My highlight of the day was the short walk this morning!

Jac

We saw a selection of busts of very important men in Dijon history today at the Fine Arts museum and Daisy and Stella put them through the aesthetic ringer! Each bust was critiqued, and none escaped scrutiny without fault. The busts were judged as to whether they were “handsome” or “unhandsome”.  Pretty black and white but nothing that we haven’t seen on Married at First Sight!

It was a tough critique based on their hair: “ that one’s got a big head of hair”, “he’s too balding”, “his moustache is too curly”, “ his beard is too long”; and the size and shape of their noses: “ too slopey”, “too giant”, “too squished” (that bust was actually missing a nose). If what happened today is any indication, good luck to future partners!

Talking about hair, there were some pretty fancy wigs adorning the French ladies of the day.

I particularly liked the hairdressing techniques that the women had to endure all in the name of beauty. I’d be very surprised if the perming technique seen on the model below didn’t end up being the prototype for the French Space programme!

As for the second model my rough guess is that she asked for the special of the day- bowl cut with vacuum dry, scalp tightening and a neck alignment, with a couple of pain du chocolat thrown in if she managed to stay in a sitting position without blinking!