Dijon, France 2 - Le P'tit Bouchon Dijonnais & more
Our second day in Dijon was Sunday. Shops in the city were pretty much closed. Restaurants and cafes were limited, too. It was difficult to find a good place for lunch but J managed it! Le P'tit Bouchon Dijonnais was located at the edge of the city center. When we arrived at the restaurant, suspiciously there weren't other customers. However, eventually several customers came and the place became lively.
Apéritif was... I don't know what it was exactly, something like savory crumbly focaccia.
My starter was salade chevre - green leafy salad with warm goat cheese on sliced baguette and bacon. It was delicious! J had duo doeufs Époisse - two poached eggs with Époisses cheese sauce. Époisses cheese is J's favorite cheese, which was a primary reason why we came to Dijon. The sauce was so rich and so "Époisses" = smelly!
For a main dish, we both had Boeuf Bourguignon, or Beef Burgundy, one of traditional dishes in Burgundy region. According to wiki, it is supposed to be "a beef stew braised in red wine, often red Burgundy, and beef stock, generally flavored with carrots, onions, garlic, and a bouquet garni, and garnished with pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon." This restaurant's version was made with very fatty cut of beef. I didn't see any chunky veggies but I found three bay leaves in my plate. The sauce was kinda heavy. It was kinda homey. Honestly my homemade Belgian beef stew, Carbonnade à la Flamande could be better and sophisticated.
We were so stuffed and couldn't find any space for desserts. We left the restaurant and started walking in the city just like what we did in the entire morning.
The morning was lovely. We started following the Owl's Trail. The 22-stage trail leads you to 22 places of interest such as historical buildings and monuments as well as municipal museums in the city center. Walking on the trail and visiting museums (free!) was a great activity for the quiet Sunday. We checked "the owl," a famous stone owl curved at a corner of Nortre-Dame de Dijon, the oldest church in the city. It was much smaller than I expected. It is said that if you rub it with your left hand and make a wish, the wish will come true. I have been looking forward to when my wish will come true since then.
There was a bakery nearby the owl. We bought a large brioche to share. That was wonderful! The bakery immediately became the best in the town for us. Their cakes looked fabulous, too.
Dijon was very charming. We liked the style of the architecture. The pace of the city seemed slower and more relaxing than Lyon.
More museums and walks after lunch... and then, what was the next? Tea time. Luckily we found JSB Coffee, a nice cafe that was open in the early evening of Sunday. I had coconut flavored green tea and J had coffee. We shared Sicilian lemon cake with earl gray tea flavor, which was nice.
After the tea time, we walked a little more...
The roasted chestnut vendor was at the same spot as yesterday as he promised. This time we patiently waited for about 10 minutes until chestnuts were perfectly done. The roasted chestnuts were very tasty! It was worth waiting indeed.
To be continued...
