Bes – What?

Day 120
After my really lazy day I was definitely up for some exploration. I got an early train and headed to Besancon, a cute medieval town whose name I can't even pretend to pronounce.

A citadel dominated the sky above the city and I headed straight up to it. The citadel was built in 1668 and was huge. There is a ton of stuff to do and I knew that I had my work cut out for me and a full day ahead. I treated myself to an audio guide and soon I was off. I started with the Comtois Museum. I wasn't quite clear on what it held, but it seemed to be regional stuff ranging from pots and pans to religious artifacts. There was even a reference to the Cult of the Shroud (from Turino). I particularly liked the toys and the section on puppets. Why there were puppets, who knows, but they were nice.

After the museum I was directed by the guide to head up to the battlements. They followed along the length of the citadel and most could be walked. From up here I could see the entire town and the valley. Two hills flanked the one the citadel was on. These had also been fortified, but the buildings have disappeared. Brick was used in constructing the walls. This was because brick better absorbs impact from cannon balls and creates less shrapnel. How did I ever live without knowing that?

When I came to the end of the battlements I found myself in the zoo. I loved the monkeys. One group, including several babies were working on their tans. Or watching a rock tv, couldn't really tell. Several others were having a fight while hanging from one arm off the top of their cage. I thought several times that someone would fall, but they seemed ok. Another one, a baby, was trying to escape. He can come with me. The petting area was wonderful. I have never seen such friendly bunnies. The goats seemed pretty cool too, but lost interest in me when they saw that I had no food for them. There were also some grazing llamas and lounging lyons, sorry, lions.

After exploring some more of the fortifications I found the nocturnal house. This was pretty creepy and mostly had roaches and rats. I'd seen enough of those in NYC and didn't see a need to stay long. The reptile house was much better. The frogs and turtles were so cute! I could have done without the spiders and the ant installation along an entire wall.

My next stop was the Resistance and Deportation Museum. Form 1941 to 1944 the Nazi army had occupied the citadel. Approximately 100 members from the French resistance movement were killed here, including at 13 year old boy. The museum discussed how Nazism began and spread. It moved on to the war and the holocaust. There was a particularly interesting section on guerilla warfare. It was all pretty depressing and I guess I wasn't in the mood because I left the museum early to go and spend some more time with the monkeys.

Also in the citadel was a small aquarium and several rooms of stuffed animals. I had planned on seeing a few other things in Besancon, but the citadel really took all day. Most of the sites were closing down. Instead I wandered the old town and bought a new journal.

Once I was back in Dijon I headed to H&M. My jeans had finally died. I didn't want to only have 2 pairs of pants and I just love jeans so I knew the expense was worth it. I also bought myself a new book.

Back at the hostel I read my new book, Forget About It, all night long. Really, I finished the thing. It was about a girl in NYC and they mentioned streets and restaurants by name. It was sort of a nice way to remember my 'real' life. Plus, I had the room to myself and no one was there to complain.

Lazy Kathryn

Day 119
There are several reasons that I decided to do nothing today. I slept through my alarm, or maybe I didn't even set it. It was raining. I was a bit tired. And Jane Austin told me so.

I did manage to get up early enough for my free breakfast though, but I went right back to sleep after eating. Eventually I got hungry again and I headed down the street to Ikea. Yes, my hostel was so far out of town that it was next to the Ikea. For some reason Swedish meatballs seemed like a really good idea to me. And you know, they tasted pretty damn good.

After wandering around Ikea for a bit and decorating my fictional future apartment for a while I headed to the next door supermarket. This was by the one of the largest supermarkets I have ever seen in my entire life. It was just massive. It took me forever to explore all of the aisles. I've long thought that a grocery store was a tourist attraction. They have all these weird things that I have never seen before. There are boxes to pick up and wonder at, trying to figure out what they contain. And then there is always the scavenger hunt of finding what you actually want. The prize is when you get the right thing. This place had a huge fruit and dried fruit section. I went a bit crazy and even when buying it knew that I would mostly likely turn into a plum/strawberry mix from eating so many of them.

Back at the hostel I read and napped intermittently until it was late and time to go to bed. Oh yea, I managed to finish my book as well.

Lost in Lyon

Day 118
I was up before my alarm and the first person in line for a carb heavy free breakfast. In no time I was on a bus to the train station and waiting for my train to Lyon.

My guidebook had mentioned a huge mall and I exited the station in what I thought was the direction of that. I was wrong and it took me about 3 hours to find the old town. It wasn't a bad three hours though, the weather was nice and the town was really quite lovely. A good place for a wander, intended or not.

When I found the tourist office I was surprised to learn that it was Monday. I shouldn't have been shocked though, Monday does typically come after Sunday. They only museum open this day was the Fine Arts Museum. This is an excellent place to spend a few hours. They have diverse and well organized collection, just not a very large one. I had a good time checking out the Egyptian stuff first. Egypt is on the itinerary for this winter and I can't want to see these things in their natural habitat!

They had a rather large collection of both art and sculptures by Rodin, not really sure why, but wasn't about to complain. Monet has long been my favorite artist and I was thrilled to see about half a dozen of his works here. I also found a new favorite in Fleury Richard.

By the time I had finished exploring the museum it was long past lunch time. I meant to get a salad or something healthy like that, but ended up at Haagen Daas instead with a very large brownie sunday in front of me. Not really sure how this came about. I think I must have been on chocolate auto pilot.

I also decided that I would like to head back to Dijon at this point. While walking back to the train station I managed to find the mall. This was one scary place. I haven't been in a mall in ages and I don't think I've been to such a large one since I was in Dubai. This place was also beyond packed and I had to fight my way to even get to the Carefour (sorta like a super Walmart). After fighting the crowd and picking up dinner and fruit I stood around about 20 minutes in the very crowded train station waiting for my train. I found the crowd to be a bit unnerving and was pretty glad to get out of there.

Back in Dijon I spent some time chatting with my Aussie roommate before watching moving on my ipod and falling asleep.

Not the Mustard

Day 117
My alarm went off early, I had to switch trains pretty early in the morning. After reading for a few hours the next train finally came and I was able to sleep some more.

After dropping my things off at the super modern and clean hostel I headed back into town to check out Dijon. Unfortunately it was pouring cats and dogs and I wasn't able to wander as I would have liked. Still, I was able to tell that Dijon was a really cute little town. And to tell you the truth, after the severe heat of the last few days I was ready for a cooler day and the rain didn't bug me too much.

Eventually the medieval streets lead me to Notre Dame. This was a nice Gothic church with a Black Virgin Mary statue that they claim saved the city from ruin twice. Once from the Swiss, and the second time from the Nazis. I needed a picture of this miraculous statue.

Nearby was the fine arts museum. It was small but quite good. There was some sort of odd modern art instillation everywhere. There were all sorts of plastic animals, on the stairs, with flowers on their butts, red balls on their eyes and surrounding the art. Some were camping out in Ikea tents and other on beds. I really didn't get it.

The rain hadn't let up yet by time I left the museum and headed to the Archaeological Museum. It wasn't very interesting and I was really just there to kill time before the next thing I wanted to see opened. The St. Benigne Cathedral, according to my guidebook had a really creepy crypt. I spent some time checking it out and taking pictures. The Rotunda's foundation dated back to the Romans is it is surprising that the building not only survived the church above collapsing in 1280, but also Napoleon's attempted destruction of the building. It was nice, but not creepy.

When I got back to the hostel I was able to move into my room. I was happy to see that I would have it to myself for the evening. What I wasn't happy about was that because it was Sunday there wasn't anything open. I didn't want to believe the receptionist so I spent a few hours wandering the neighborhood. There wasn't anything open. In the end I had some tuna that I had been carrying around for emergencies and spent the evening reading Sense and Sensibility.