May 19 - Dijon,France and boarding the AmaCello!

 An exciting day.   Travelling to Dijon, France and then southward to Chalon-sur-Saone to board our wonderful ship, the AmaCello.

Leaving Geneva, we travel across several spines of the Jura mountains.   You might remember the word .. Jurassic.  It runs quite a ways along the French and Swiss border and is famous for its fossil-bearing limestone formations.

Dijon was the home of the Dukes of Burgundy, by way of marriage between Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders, and their territory  occupied a wide swath from Belgium to Switzerland from the 11th through the late 15th century.

The region has a very interesting history.   Our driver, Cedric, who is currently in the French army as a driver, also drives part time for tour companies, drove us into the old medieval part of town.   Out Italian tour guide, Andrea, took us to many interesting parts.

Lots of interesting medieval architectural styles including half-timbered homes, gothic, Capetian, Italian renaissance, and flamboyant gothic!

The next images are interesting. This church, Church of Our Lady, was built in the 13th century, heavily adorned with gargoyles to ward off evil, .. see the three rows in the front?   After a few years, they had to remove all of them because they kept falling on their congregants!!

Here's some inside pics :

This next pic is of the .. 'Palais des Ducs et des Etats de Bourgogne'

This was the palace of the dukes and states of Burgundy, built in the 14th and 15th centuries.   This nobles residence was built in the late 16th century :

And, of course I had to include an interesting business street sign :

It was time to get back on the bus for the drive to Chalon-sur-Saone.   We parked along the river and were greeted by our boat's staff and shown to our cabins.

We unpacked and hung up most of our clothes that had been folded in our suitcases for 2-weeks!   A welcome bottle of chilled wine was opened and enjoyed while we organized our cabin.    We changed and went upstairs to the lounge at 6:30pm for the meet and greet.    The captain gave us safety instructions.   The captain is from France, and the rest of the staff is from Hungary, Switzerland, Latvia, Romania, and Croatia.

Afterwards we all went to the dining room for dinner.   We had a very delicious and entertaining dinner.   Our dinner table included three very interesting gentlemen from London.    I'll show food photos in the next six days of meals.    Here's the picture looking off our stern.

Tonight we stay docked in Chalon-sur-Saone.    Tomorrow we'll do the city tour in the morning and do some wine tasting in the afternoon.   See you there!