Visiting a Friend in Dijon
Knowing very little about Dijon, I was somewhat reluctant to actually go there and visit but since I had promised a friend that I would come visit, I decided to keep my word so I took the train the paris and from there I took the train to Dijon at the Gare de Lyon (I think?). It took about 3 hours to get there on a tgv train (I still have my SNCF train ticket stub too). I was visiting from my study abroad program in Nantes, France.
Louch (a friend I was traveling with from Nantes) and I didn’t really pack anything for the trip, we just decided to go at the last minute. I had my usual light backpack and he had his oversized bag. We both had a friend from school waiting for us so we split and decided to meet later during the day.
First thing 1st, it was off to the hostel to drop of my bag and then do so sightseeing of course.
To this day I still find the whole transportation system in France to be a little weird. First you buy a ticket and when you get on the bus, trolley, train or whatever, it’s up to you to stamp the ticket when you’re on board. So of course often enough I never stamp my ticket until I see the tranpo guys checking for stamps. Actually, I think I still have that unused ticket from Dijon somewhere in my wallet. Well got to the hostel only to realize it was quite nice. I almost could not find a place to stay since it was the only hostel that was remotely close the the city center. It took us about 20-25 minutes to get there and then we quickly headed back to town.
Although this was a small, rural area, I kind of liked the calmness of this city and spend most of my time hoping from bars to bars and talking to my friend about some of the great experiences I had in Europe. Another thing that I found really funny is that I never really knew that Dijon was famous for its mustard (mostly because I never liked mustard). At the end of the day, Dijon seems to be a town where you can go and chillax and enjoy not doing anything stressful. I’m not sure if I’d go back because this level of calm and peace would probably drive me crazy if I had stayed for more than 2 days.
I stayed in a single that was equipped with a private bathroom, which is always good. It cost about 34 Euros a night and the building had an in-house restaurant which had great food, breakfast was free. Don't use the internet because it does not work so well and the staff there told me that so I just ended up wasting a couple of Euros.
The only possible downside for me was that I found it particularly hard to meet other travelers even when I was visiting the common areas. I was there in mid-march so it might just be because it was not during the busy travel season but it was still a great place to stay.
Also, this is about 20 minutes (5 miles) away from downtown Dijon so you would need to make sure you know at what time the buses stop running if you don't have enough fare for a taxi.
