The Toussaint Debacle, Part One

The French educative system always catches me by surprise.  We arrived at the end of September, started working in the middle of October, and only worked for one full week before we left for a 10-day vacation.  It's certainly a system that I can get used to ;)

Early in the season we'd begun to make Toussaint vacation plans: our OFII (Office of Immigration) appointments were scheduled right in the middle of the Toussaint vacation, so we had to go to Dijon to take care of those.  After that we planned to spend a couple of days in Grenoble, then head to Avignon for a few days before returning to Nevers in time for classes to begin.

But then we were cruelly reminded of an age-old, yet amended, caveat: "If you want to make the French laugh, tell them your plans."  In response, they'll tell you, "There's a national strike.  You're not going anywhere."

Dijon

Our first train to Dijon was cancelled, but luckily there was another one immediately after it, so the girls whose OFII appointments were on Tuesday made it to the city in time.  While they were in their doctor's visit--which apparently involves some sort of lung scan, topless, against a metal plate with actual circles that indicate where to place your boobs...?--another friend and I explored the old city of Dijon.  It was so beautiful :)  My favorite square, Place François Rude, had this adorable Tudor-style building (renovated as a restaurant), a fountain/sculpture, and a carousel. One day we were there, it also had a group of kindergartners all eating cotton candy.  So cute!

Place François Rude

We revisited the same cathedral with the chouette (good luck owl statue) as we did the first time we were in Dijon; the sun was out and the sky was blue and full of puffy clouds, and we enjoyed several hot chocolates from several different salons de thé.  We decided the one from here was the best :)

Maison Milliere had the best hot chocolate...

...not to mention delicious crêpes!

 

We also went to the Musée des Beaux Arts, which was free to enter.  They had an impressive collection of Egyptian artifacts and a bunch of beautiful sculptures, which are a personal favorite of mine.  They also had a great exhibition by local artists, which is always fun to explore.  We eventually ran into this guy playing his accordion on the street; I imagine he's a local, too :)

From Dijon, we were on our way to Grenoble!  But our original train to Grenoble was cancelled (surprise!), so we decided to go straight to Avignon and just spend a few more days there.  That turned out to be much more difficult than we'd planned....

Tune in soon for Toussaint Debacle, Part Two!