Romantic Weekend Getaways

Our friend/travel companion, Rachel, was celebrating her 21st birthday so we decided to head over to Dijon (that's right, liek the mustard). And to all you Wayne's World fans they also make grey poupon, Holla. The hostel we stayed at was less than stellar. We think Marseille spoiled us because this time around we got a huge whiff of BO mixed with hospital smell when we walked through the door. Anyways we were two to a room and unfortunately we were stuck together (hardy harr). We weren't near the centre at all and had to walk a good 30 mins there and maybe longer on the way back. Highlights of Dijon include:

• The rooves of the buildings were really cool and colourful.
  
• We went to the mustard shop where you could sample some of the mustards. According to our book from the lonely planet "When we walked in tangy odours assaulted out notrils". They had all sorts of different mustards including nut and caramel mustards and PINK mustard.
  
• Then we went to La musee des beaux arts which is known as one of the most outstanding museums in France. This museum was a renovated castle which belonged to the 3 dukes of Burgundy. It was really cool because their tombs were on display among other amazing paintings and breathtaking sculptures.
  
• And of course after a long day of sight seeing we ended the day with delicious crepes! Shocking!
• We got some vin-o and hung out in our rooms chatting away (in french of course mom!) and watching German cops! Then Katie fell asleep and the rest of the gals went out for a night on the town.
• Night on the town: travel time added another few hours to the evening, basically we got real lost. We ended up outside a club and met up with two guys who took us to another one. We had a good time but the drinks were way too overpriced and maybe that's why nobody was drinking or maybe it wasa because you only had to be 16 to get in...
• The next we were all pretty tired (even sleeping beauty) and got up for continental breakfast aka bread. Then we headed back to the centre ville before catching the train.
• When we first got to Dijon we noticed that there were a lot of owl souvenirs in the shops. We found out the story behind these owls by going to a "Notre Dame" church. At this church there is an owl carved in the outside wall. It is said to grant happiness and wisdome to those who stroke it and so now it is all worn down. It was really cool and we all touched it. There are all sorts of superstitions surrounding the owl and the dragon that is right next to.
  

Belfort: Yesterday we took the train to Belfort which is only a 15 mins train ride from Montbeliard. We met up with other language assistants and visited the Citadelle. Belfort is known for the huge Lion carved into the citadelle. this lion was designed by the same guy who did the Statue of Liberty. In our opinion the lion wasn't that spectacular. On our way to the Citadelle there was a huge crowd gathered around for a parade of tanks and army dudes. It was interesting but for some reason our German friends were not a fan! Later on we heard a big bang that scared us half to death, turns out it was the canons going off. After the citadelle we went to a cafe before catching the train back home. We were with people from Germany, England, Austria and Italy and we all thought that this cafe was weird. This cafe was not a typical french cafe. When we first walked in we were not greeted and so we found a booth big enough for us all to sit. Once we were seated a man threw us a coaster and told us to write neatly. Clearly he didn't have the time to take our order himself. Everyone wanted coffee but Mary Elizabeth decided to be different and went for the "Vin Chaud" aka "Hot wine", Delicieuse. It was actually really good, it tasted like wine and apple cider.


P.S. When we were leaving one of the shops there was real hottie waiting outside the door to rate the ladies. Luckily for us we got a "Pas mal de tout" and a "Magnificent".