France - Day 5 (Dijon, Semur-En-Auxois)

Thursday, 8 September 2011

We were well accustomed to having things go wrong by now, and this day was no exception.

In the morning, we went to collect the car we had hired and discovered that GPS was not available for hire.  So, we grabbed a map from a tourist centre and went back to our hotel momentarily.

While Jason was parked, Sarah went across the street to get us some breakfast.  The first bakery did not have coffee, so she grabbed some pastries and walked to another bakery.

Upon ordering the coffee, it became aparent to Sarah that there were about 20 wasps in the shop.  Most of them were having sweet pastries for breakfast.  It was a rather bizarre sight to behold.  The gentlemen could only speak French, so she pointed to the wasps, thinking he must have simply not noticed they were there.  However, he misinterpreted her gestures, thinking she was asking for croissants.  She then started pointing at the wasps that were flying around and saying "BZZZZZZ" but he looked at her strangely, so she gave up.

We spent the morning enduring arguments and detours due to extensive roadworks, all whilst trying to remember to stay on the RIGHT HAND side of the road.  We spent at least an hour looking for this laundromat, which we finally spotted.

After we washed our clothes, we took off to a medieval town called Semur-En-Auxois which is located in the Côte-d'Or area of Burgundy.  We quickly concluded upon arriving that the trip was certainly well worth the stress.

Semur-En-Auxois is located along the walk of the Armançon, and is established on pink granite.  The etymology of the name Semur is "sine muros", meaning old walls.  It was preserved by monks for around 1,000 years, until the French revolution, after which it was ruled by various people until 1478 when it was besieged and destroyed.

Walking around this fortified town was quite an amazing feeling.  We kept touching the walls as we walked along the dented cobblestone alleyways.  We took many photos, but not all of them could fit on the blog, so we selected the best ones below...

On the way back to the hotel, we took a more scenic route through several other medieval villages.

That night, Jason had his way with the karaoke joint and sang AC/DC and Sting.

This day was a perfect ending to our French experience before heading to Switzerland.