Dijon France 🇫🇷
Dijon turned out to be a delightful stop on our 2025 adventure. We had planned to visit the Bourgogne region, and Dijon is its capital. I’m sure many of you, like me, immediately thought of a commercial from our youth: “Pardon me,” BTW, the mustard here is really good!
More importantly, Bourgogne is the most famous region for wine in France. Although it produces only 3% of the total French wine, it accounts for 24% of France’s total revenue from wine sales. We were excited to sample the wine in this storied region and it didn’t disappoint. We found a very informative video on the region, and if you’re interested, check out “V is for Vino: Burgundy, France.”
Our wine tasting in Dijon was an incredible experience and yes the wines in Bourgone are truly incredible
Our journey from Avignon to Dijon was enjoyable. Our first pleasant experience happened when we switched trains in Lyon for our final leg to Dijon. We found seats across the aisle from a young college student studying in Dijon. Antoine was so cheerful and full of life that we had a great time talking to him. He’s studying physics and was thrilled to practice his English with us. We had a wonderful 2-hour conversation with him. We exchanged WhatsApp numbers and he promised to show us around Dijon on a guided tour.
During our research, we found Suzi, an American who’s lived in Dijon for over 16 years. She has a YouTube channel called FiredUpInFrance; check it out. Suzi was so kind to meet with us and give us some great advice on things to do in the area. We met with her at a local coffee shop and talked for a couple of hours. The time really flew by. She was so happy to have her first American couple reach out to her, and we had a great time getting to know her better.
Our third surprise came as a happy accident. We love exploring any place we visit, and we stumbled upon a small restaurant in the city center. MEAT drew us in with the smell of smoke, it was irresistible, so we walked up to the counter to order. We greeted the young man at the counter with a friendly ‘Bonjour’ and asked if he spoke English. He answered in perfect English, ‘Yes, sir, what can I get for you?’ He asked where we were from. We said, ‘Florida!’ He told us that he and his workmate spent over a year in Orlando at the French pavilion at EPCOT. Can you believe we ran into someone who worked at EPCOT in Dijon, France? We were so thrilled to meet him and ask him about his time in Orlando. He said he had a blast! He even asked us if we were enjoying the real France. Of course, we gave him a big thumbs up!
These two spent time at EPCOT at the French pavilion. It really is a “Small World After All”
A few days later, we met up with Antoine again. We had an amazing time as he showed us around the city and even took us to the outskirts for a hike in the hills. We learned so much from Antoine and are so grateful to have met him. We look forward to staying in touch and are thankful that a young college student took the time to get to know us. He was just as interested in us as we were in him.
Antoine was so gracious and such a joy to be around. Thank you for taking us around Dijon
One of the most incredible highlights was being invited by Suzi to meet at her home for Apéro. We were so honored to see Suzi again, meet her two boys, and get to know them. Unfortunately, her husband was away on business in Paris. What a great stop Dijon turned out to be for us. France is stealing our hearts, and we are so grateful we are spending time here in this beautiful and friendly country.
What an honor to have meet Suzi and be invited to her house! Thank you so much Suzi!
We enjoyed a wide variety of museums during our stay here, Art, natural history, Burgundian life, archeology, and plenty of incredibly beautiful cathedrals. All them FREE by the way! Dijon is definitely worth a trip to explore. I highly recommend checking out this beautiful city. The wine, food, scenery, architecture, history, and most importantly, the wonderful French people we’ve met have made our time here so incredibly satisfying and worthwhile.
We enjoyed the free arts museum in Dijon and Annette really enjoyed this painting from Monet
Until Next Time….
