Road trip in France! First stop Driving in Dijon
I rent to the car in Paris and I’m driving all the way down to Nice, stopping in most bigger, smaller towns on the way. And our first stop is going to be Djon. Yes, like the mustard. Now, I also went to Costco before this and I spent way too much time there. That’s going to be a whole separate video. It was It was very fun. I loved it. Um, yeah, I got very excited about going to Costco in France, but I spent too much time there. So when we got to Djon, it was already kind of late because our hotel is an hour after Djon because the following day we’re going to Bont which has this like historical hospital. Um it’s kind of like a museum. So I want to get there early in the morning. But anyways, today we are going to drive around in Djon. And oh my goodness, when I come back to France, I’m going to spend two full days here because it is so charming. And there’s a whole area where cars are not allowed. So unfortunately didn’t get to see that, but it is beautiful. I loved it. It was so charming. Very different from France because the architecture is still old. A lot of it. Yes, there’s still there is a lot of modern architecture, but there’s still some old ones. In fact, some old ones they all the way back to um the 15th century. So, Dion is famously associated with the mustard. The recipe for what we know as Djon mustard was developed here in 1856 when mustard maker Jean [Music] Nen nen I am not spelling that correctly. Jean n he replaced the vinegar in the recipe with ver juice the juice of unripe grapes creating a much smoother and sharper version of mustard. Muster was so popular that in the middle ages, Duke of Burgundy ensured that his feast um like balls always had mustards. Um one account said that at a 1336 bunket over 300 lers of mustard cream was consumed. So it dates way way way back before the Djon mustard we know now. Yeah it mustard is really really old. Um but you can also take a mustard experience art of making mustard. Um and one of the most popular brand of mustard is Edmund Falot which is very popular brand in France. But the good news is you don’t have to travel to Djon to try their mustard because it’s sold pretty much all over France almost in every grocery stores. I even brought a few home because they are delicious and they have so many varieties. They have like um a red one with casiss. They have some with like red bell pepper, some with truffle, some with green. or if you cannot make it to France, it is sold at World Market here in America. This brand right here, uh, it’s actually not much more expensive than it is in France. Maybe in France, it’s like a dollar cheaper in Kur. Of course, if you go to like a touristy area where they sell souvenirs, it’s going to be a little more pricier, maybe like 7 $8. So, that is the mustard. It’s really good. I have some at home. Um, and they have like different kinds of flavoring to it. So, it’s really, really great to try if you want to try some real Dijon mustard. Uh the earlier human occupancy in Djon era dates back to the neo neolithic period. In Roman times, Djon was a settlement named Dio. Sometimes translated as sacred fountain. It it was positioned on the Roman road between Leon and Paris. It is between Leon and Paris. Now, I did also drive to Leyon and between the two, I would skip Leon. It was a little um a little ghetto. It did not look like this. It was It was so dirty. There was gravity everywhere. If you look on the wall on the buildings here, it’s clean. There’s no gravity. There’s no trash on the floor. So, it was very shocking that Leon was um such a downfall. Anyways, in 1015, Robert the first Duke of Burgundy made Djon the capital of the newly founded Dutch duche of Burgundy. During that period, the Valois Duke of Burgundy Djon be named Djon become one of the most splendid courts in Europe, attracting art, architecture, and learning which later was pretty much destroyed in the French Revolution. We’ll get to that a little bit. Um, it is a historic city center with medieval and renaissance town houses listed as a heritage zone. That also means like if you live in one of those apartments and you want to pull a satellite in, you have to get a permission from the city. There’s also a Notraam here. A church of Egliss Notradam in Djon was built between 1220 and 1238 in a Gothic style and including a famous owl carving that has became a city symbol. The little owl sculpture known as La Schwet. I should have learned French as a child. Um it is a local talisman. If you touch it with your left hand and make a wish, folklore says it will bring you good luck. Why not? If you if you believe in that, why not? Djon is also named city of hundred spirals because it reflects Djon skyline of numerous medieval church spires and towers built during the period of prominence under the Duke. So it has like a lot of spirals on top of churches. Like many French cities, Djon experienced the radical phase of the revolution. The revolution brought major changes to church property and buildings in Djon. For example, the St. Chappelle dejon was looted and the bells were removed and eventually demolished. Demolished in 1802. That’s so sad. That’s history right there. ruined. Um, and also the royal statue of Louis the 14 was destroyed. Streets and gates renamed to new names. So, streets received new names. The city declined after the French Revolution when its provenential institution were suppressed. Even if it’s uh it’s pretty well, no, I was going to say it’s a small town, but it’s not it’s really not a small town. Um, it’s pretty big actually. Like, uh, you need a good two days to explore here. And there’s a bunch of hidden things. Like, everything looks so similar because everything is beige. I think like beige brown, but there’s so many hidden goodies, gems in here that you just have to obviously find and discover. But there are multiple Michelin star restaurants in Djon. And one of France’s oldest market is here. It is a covered market laon built in the 19th century. It has like um fresh produce, endless amount of cheese and cheese and cheese and cheese and more cheese and more cheese and more cheese. And they also have like sausages and like chicken like home like very kind of like a butcher butcher shop. I’m Yeah, pretty sure. It’s like butcher shops. Um they have like home farm raised chickens. The difference between like um slow farmra chicken and like mass production chicken is that the farm raised ones they going to look yellow. So when if you’re going to watch my Costco video, I did look through like the chicken and meat section and there was like regular chicken. what you know and that was yellow chicken and that’s why it’s yellow because it’s like um homemade farm race or like a very small local farm so like local um small farm race chickens. Um but so it was actually first opened in 1875 and it has 246 boutiques and 728 stalls. I don’t know if they’re all uh occupied or open, but when I look at through the pictures, it is a massive farmers market. It actually looks like the farmers market in Budapest, Hungary, which on the from the outside it looks pretty much the same. Um it kind of looks like an old train station and it’s stunning. And they also have seafood here. I’m just looking through the pictures and there’s pastries and there’s organs, liver, pastry, cheese, cheese, um pastry, jams. Of course, there probably must too. Um a lot of mustard. Now, in these in places like this, I would not buy the mustard because it’s probably for tourists. So for things souvenir like things it’s going to be pricier here but for like fruit and vegetables um and probably cheese it’s going to be cheaper. Um there’s also spices. Oh more cheese. Rabbit. Whole rabbit. But they also have restaurants. Uh I see beer burgers. Um oh they have like a taster. nice uh wine. Probably like local wines. Oh, there’s also a bookstore. Oh, grapes looking amazing. Okay, I need to stop looking at that and get back to a little history, but wow, that Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, you know, I I went to some farmers market while in France and I also went to grocery places and to be honest, fruit and vegetable is not that cheap as people think. Um, so I don’t know, the locals probably know like where to go for the cheaper stuff. Um, but at least the ones I came across, they were they were not cheap. Even in Kur it was a little well it’s wasn’t like overpriced but it was the same price as in America. And we’re going to get to part like um what’s the median income here in Djon. Um so you can like compare like living situations. Uh Djon also has a natural history museum that was founded in 1836 that you can visit. And the population here is 160,000, but it goes up to 230,000 if we count the suburb area, which is I would say like within like 20 minutes outside of where we are right now. Um and after that it’s just road road and road and fields and more road. So the medium median house um household income after tax is about 24,000. That’s uh that’s €2,000 per month. And also I was I was curious about the rent. how much rent costs here. And it says that for onebedroom apartment city center, the estimated average is about €533 per month near the city center. So not like downtown where there’s not cars lot, but right here where we are right now. So about about like €600 per month. So, if your income is $2,000, um 600 goes to rent, you still have 1,400 left for any other expenses. Now, I don’t I’m not familiar with what other expense French might have, but I think that’s not too bad as long as you don’t have kids. Um yeah, I mean if you have kids it will probably living will cost more but for for a single person uh,200 um disposable income is I think it’s livable. It’s not the best. Uh but since French people they don’t eat as much as um Americans. Well, like for example, I live in America and my fridge is always full. Like if you go to Costco, any grocery stores, people are buying so much groceries at once. So the fridge is always full. However, I was raised born and raised in Europe and my friends are still in Europe and their fridges are pretty much empty. They just buy things that they’re going to eat that day and the following day. Because there’s if you live in in the city, when you go home from work, you just stop by the store and pick up something you’re going to make for dinner. Um, so I think you can definitely budget on 1,200 per month if if if um if you live a very humble lifestyle. Um, so that’s probably why a lot of uh people still live with their parents for a long time after turning 18. But anyways, that was the little history of Djon. Um, I loved it. I think it was so charming, so lovely. And I wish I had time to go see the downtown area because it does look stunning. Um, definitely have to come here for two full days. Of course, I’m going to go to the mustard experience because I personally love mustard. I I did bring home a few um bottles. Um, yeah, I I do. I love mustard. It’s so great. Um, yeah. So, that was Djon. Uh we are heading to Bont and oh my goodness that’s gonna be amazing too. Like Djon was big city. The following cities we’re going is going to be a lot smaller. Um a lot more like rustic kind of olderish. Um super super super charming. Um, not big buildings like here. Like we seen a few floors in the next following couple of cities. It’s going to be like less levels of buildings. So, it’s like more charming, but we’re going to go down and then to Leon and then like a lot of other cities on the way including uh St. uh cans, La Castallet, something Lemosa, Laandu, and a few other on on on the way even Castis. So yeah, this is going to be my whole week in the car just driving through towns. Otherwise, I would probably not