IntrepidFromDC

Pho restaurant, streetfood (crepe maker) and from out of nowhere a German clock. The large green door is another passageway to another street. The locals know them by the addresses, 27 and 54 are popular dark passageways that you might think were residences if you didn't know.

Lots of beautiful storefronts and medieval squares.

Medieval passageway from one street to another where streets don't connect. Weird. Tourguide said the old part of Lyon is the second largest contiguous medieval town after Venice.

HOHO bus pics

Feeding the birds my leftover poppyseed baguette while waiting for the HOHO bus, French stinkbug?

The room was not ready when I first arrived so I walked around, had a yummy "typical French" sandwich and fed Tweet Tweet. "Tweet Tweet" was a European sparrow that Faith and I first met in Rome when Faith was 9. Because it looked slightly but noticably different from Mid-Atlantic sparrows we fed from our birdfeeder at home, when we saw a second one Faith exclaimed "daddy Tweet Tweet followed us!" I went with it.

French countryside is nonstop beautiful

If I thought the hotel room in Paris was attic-funny, this one has it beat. Take steps from lobby to 1st floor, which is actually 2 floors because the floor above the lobby and reception is restaurant. Take elevator to 5th floor, get off and walk up creaky steps to 6th floor with cracked medieval crossbeams.

Goodbye Dijon, charming town, one day was enough.

Day #1 in Lyon was lots of fun. In Roman times it was called Ldyon according to the comedic historian on the HOHO bus. Lyon, geographically, reminds me of Budapest with a hilly side on one side of the river and flat side on the other. Except in Budapest it's the Danube River and here it's the Rhone River, plus a large tributary that converges into the Rhone in Lyon (starts with "S").

And from what I have read, they were invented and made popular in Belgium first, not France.

Pommes Frites. Funny guy. 😁🏴‍☠️

I'm waiting for train 2203 to Lyon. Lyon is France's third most populous city with just under 500,000, trailing only Paris and Marseille.

Main course last night

This is the same lively square with the carousel I posted a pic of earlier today.

My dinner tonight was delicious but not WOW. It is one of Dijons highest rated restaurants. I don't know if I got unlucky or what, but I'm guessing it's just that Dijon doesn't draw the chefs like Paris and Lyon do. Speaking of which, I'm off to Lyon tomorrow morning, and one day was enough for Dijon. Everything closed down before 10pm except a few restaurants, now I see why it was so hard to make a reservation this Sunday night.

Dinnertime. 🥰

Closeups of bar art...

Settled at a blue-collar bar and swallowed my IPA pride to join the locals for a good draft beer - or four once the hard rain came and the lights flickered. I resettled to a comfy spot where I could enjoy the sitcom at the bar. Nobody spoke English and a good time was had by all.

Dijon is a charming, clean, small town. I walked the entire downtown then some extra areas in about 3 hours.

This is where I will eat dinner. I have a good feeling because there's no room at lunch and they confirmed the dinner reservation I made 2 months ago. They asked what app I used to make the reservation because they didn't recognize the connection and when I said "the fork" they shrugged and said they hadn't heard of it. It was through TripAdvisor. Not many restaurants open in Dijon on Sunday night.

I bought a delicious sweet pistachio treat and a bunch of olives (had no idea I would get a hundred or so for 2 euro), I was planning on a sandwich for lunch but olive binging and local beer has me pretty full.

Arrived at Dijon. My room has a great view of the main square and Sunday Market

But that's my finest quality!