When I planned a weekend trip to Dijon, France, my only expectation was to have some mustard but this quaint little town showed me it had much more to offer. In fact, what I found out after I had started to plan the trip was that Dijon is actually the capital of the province of Burgundy (oh hey wine!).
The town of Dijon really wants you to visit and explore the area, so much so that they have their own app of self-guided tours! The Owl Tour App ($2 in the app store) has a few options for tours but we chose the full “Owl Trail” which consists of a 3km loop with 22 stops along the way. If you don’t want to download the app, you can head to a Tourism office and get a map of the town with small snippets of information on each “owl” which you can find by walking through town as well. The whole trail is outlined with small triangles with owls in them that lead from one large numbered owl to the next to call out the significant sights.
The app says you can complete the whole owl trail in 1 hour, and you probably can if you are just walking the whole time, but if you want to allow yourself time to take photos and stop and eat, give yourself at least 2 hours. One of the stops was the façade of Hotel de la Cloche (#2) which would have been a quick stop had it not been for the super cute bar inside that was just calling our names to have a cocktail!
You can start from any point, so after breakfast we made our way to the nearest stop (#19) and continued from there. There were two cathedrals on the loop but we did not stop inside either one. The main highlight of the Notre Dame(#8) is the tiny owl carved into one of its corners (#9) – rubbed smooth from the years of guests touching it with their left hand for good luck!
The market was another spot on the owl trail and I wish we had realized it was there sooner because we would have planned to hit it around lunch time. There was so much fresh meat, cheese, seafood, and wine – like an indoor farmers market (#5) almost (or a Spanish Mercado) but we only had time (and room) to buy some mustards to go.
The Jardin Darcy (Garden) (#1) is a lovely spot right behind the town’s arch de triumph created in 1880 with the bear mascot proudly guarding the entrance as tribute to an animal sculptor, Francois Pompon. In the winter the garden is a bit lackluster but I am sure in the spring/summertime it is very bright and beautiful.
Maison Milliere was a house built in 1483 that has still kept its medieval appearance of wooden beams and named bricks. There are even a cat and owl on the top of the roof dating back to the 20th century-can you find it in the photo?
Dijon is a great spot for a 1-2 day trip. There isn’t anything that will blow your mind in terms of history or architecture but the town is full of charm and feels clean and safe, both important qualities in travel. The Owl Tour app is the perfect way to check it out, I only wish more towns had this app! If you have a prolonged stay in Paris, you could easily hop on the train to Dijon and use it as a jumping off point for tours of the Burgundy wine region as well!
Have fun and follow the owl!
Xx
Kali