Of pictures and pedestrians...

Or maybe we'll switch the order of the day. First you have to hear about Besançon, then you get to see the pictures (not of Besançon...).

Yesterday I got up at the familiar comfortable hour of 6 a.m., so I could meet Tae at the train station around 9 a.m. By accident we made ourselves comfortable in a first-class compartment, which we realized after the conductor had come through to check our tickets. Maybe he didn't say anything because we were two of five people in the whole car. We rolled along toward the Swiss border, making multiple stops at little villages along the way. Besançon is situated about halfway between Dijon and Switzerland, an hour from each. Too bad there's no direct line that proceeds on to Switzerland, or we might have taken it!

Besançon is a lovely town, set among forested hills that are trying to become the mountains of the Jura a little farther east. There is a river that makes a large loop to enclose the city center, that is, all the interesting cafés and carteries and cobblestone or stone-paved streets. The architecture seemed much more German, although I'm not sure I can explain how... the 'squares' (which are roundish) were much more open, the buildings of lighter-colored stone. Tae said it resembled Strasbourg.

It was an absolutely lovely day, so we skipped the museums and didn't even visit the birthplace of Victor Hugo - but that wasn't our fault, it wasn't open. We visited a cathedral where an organist was wildly playing some interesting piece in the organ loft... I took a little video of part of it, a calmer part, unfortunately... stained-glass windows that made beautiful colored reflections on the stone beneath, and a general coldness that I think would kill me if I had to attend mass there every week.

We went back out in the sunshine and wandered down to a carterie, a little shop selling postcards and stationary; bought some postcards at about a quarter the price of some I saw here in Dijon, plus something else which someone may find in the mail someday, if I decide to send it... the shop closed at noon, and the owner unlocked and re-locked the door between the last two customers, which made Tae and I laugh (once we were safely out).

As his parting wish to us was "Bon appetit", it was obviously time for lunch. In one of those plazas, we found a lot of tables belonging to several different cafés, and discovered on the menu that the tarte du jour was raspberry - exactly what Tae had said she felt like eating! So of course we had to eat there. It was absolutely lovely to spend two hours relaxing and eating lunch in the fresh air and sunshine - almost perfect, except that there was a bus stop close by so the buses kept coming through. And then by the time we were ready for dessert, the tarte du jour was all gone. No problem for me, I had set my heart on chocolate and ordered a dessert that was a scoop of chocolate ice cream and a scoop of vanilla with chocolate syrup and chantilly (whipped cream) and a few slivered almonds sprinkled on top. Tae had decided to have coffee... except... when they brought my dessert, they brought another one just like it, only with coffee-flavored ice cream instead of chocolate... Tae being the agreeable person she is, she offered to take the dessert and skip the coffee.

Afterwards we set off to find the citadel and discovered we would have to climb to get there. So we spent about twenty minutes mounting steps and slopes to get up the hillside, and finally found ourselves within the walls of the citadel. Unfortunately, entrance to the ramparts (and the zoos) was payant, so I took some pictures and we headed back down. By the time we reached the city center again, we were thirsty and ready for a cold Perrier (a carbonated mineral water). And we walked around some more till it was time to head back toward the station.

Two interesting surprises. One was a mother and daughter fighting in the street, the girl shrieking "Laisse-moi!" over and over. Tae and I were both shocked. The other was almost walking into a girl from GBU, the group of Christian students that meets every Wednesday night. Her parents have a store here that sells religious books and also equitable commerce - I don't know how to translate that - that is, they sell products produced in other poorer countries. So we visited with them a little while.

By the time we got back to the train, we were very tired and ready to fall asleep.


And now the pictures. I did take pictures at Besançon but have not yet organised or downloaded them. However, if you look under the heading Photos on the sidebar, you'll find the title "Musée de Beaux-Arts". Because I am incredibly nice... or maybe because the U-Bourgogne system blocks the Picture-Trail site... or because I am incredibly lazy, you have the great privilege of viewing the photos directly on my account on the site - with the understanding that nobody's going to do anything to my account which is less incredibly nice. Scroll down to get to the photos. I added some commentary.

Tomorrow I will probably post more... however, this afternoon I have to go shopping for important things that I'll need for traveling in Germany, like a watch and dirt-cheap dark chocolate.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting up today's post and pictures for y'all, hope you enjoy them as well! A demain!