Owls, art and wine

Wednesday 26^th March

Another day on the road but first we had a look around the city of Dijon. We did the Owl Trail walking tour which takes you past places of interest in the city area. This was something I had read about and planned to do and we weren’t disappointed. So much history in such a small area. Lots of photos.

Rub the owl with your left hand for luck

Follow the Owl

Beautiful tiled roof

While on the tour around we went to the Musee of Beaux Arts. This presented a bit of history of the middle ages and works of art from the time. There was also a display of swords, armour and other battle weapons. One thing that took my fancy were depictions of religious scenes carved from ivory and some only a few inches big. Very detailed and intricate. A couple of tapestries from 14th century also were on display.

I think this fellow was just escaping
from the cold

14th Century tapestry - fabulous

Room presented as it was when the museum
was a castle

This carving was 2 panels 3" X 4" hinged

It took a lot more time in Dijon than we had planned so we had a long drive ahead to Lyon. We planned a route that took us away from the motorway and even the major roads and found that we made better time on the secondary (or tertiary) roads. For the first 100K we were driving through the wine growing area of Burgundy. Vineyards all the way along the road with here and there a chateau to get a photo of. We didn’t stop for any tasting – a long way to Lyon. We have our fingers crossed that we haven’t picked up a ticket on one of these back roads. You come across some interesting sites off the beaten track. One of these was this chateau with a moat!

Sorry about photo - taken through car window

It was getting late in the day so we decided to let Dora get us to the hotel via the shortest route and not using toll roads. We had to pass right through Lyon and it seems that Lyon have got it together and all their main arterial roads join together nicely. It was an easy drive for the last 70k on the main roads. 

We are at our hotel in Vienne, about 30k south of Lyon. Tomorrow we plan to go into Lyon hopefully on the train and have a good look around. Right now I am going to do some washing - can't find a self serve laundromat.