Flunch? Oui, I think so!

The reason for the title of this post will be explained at the end of the day, but for now, let's follow the advice of Maria Von Trapp and start at the very beginning.  I learned the hard way that most take-out food establishments are closed on Sunday mornings in Dijon.  Every morning, I have run out to a certain boulangerie (bakery) and picked up various types of chocolate bread for us to enjoy for breakfast.  This morning, all bakeries were closed.  I did manage to find a grocery store that was open, so I picked up a few pre-packaged foods for breakfast.  After breakfast, Sidney and I decided that we wanted to climb to the top of Tour Philippe Le Bon (the tower of Philippe the Good), which is part of the palace near our apartment.  The tower is the highest vantage point in Dijon and it requires climbing over 300 steps to reach the top.  The other kids weren't interested or couldn't handle it, so Dan stayed home with them.
We took advantage of being alone and made a detour for a photo opportunity for Sidney.  She really wanted a picture with the owl plaque that is her "age number".  It just happened to correspond to the famous lucky rubbing owl, which made it even more special.

Philippe le Bon was the most famous Duke of Burgundy, and he built his tower in the 1400s, as well as helped fund the hospital we toured in Beaune yesterday.   We greatly enjoyed the climb, the view was spectacular and we learned a lot from our tour guide.

The plan was for Sidney and me to run back to the grocery store and pick up something for lunch.  Well, that plan failed.  It turns out that grocery stores are only open in Dijon on Sunday mornings and close at noon.  Oops!  We returned to the tourism information office and asked if there was anywhere to get lunch, other than a sit down restaurant.  The man informed me that Flunch was open on Sundays.  There will be more on Flunch, later.  The location he gave us was out of the way, so we went back to retrieve everyone from the apartment and went out for pizza at a cafe on the square.  

Following lunch, I requested that we visit the Musee de la Vie Bourguignonne. All three of my guidebooks highly recommended it as a great place to take kids.  It said that they have an entire floor dedicated to the re-creation of an 18th and 19th-century city street in Burgundy, complete with the merchants of the time.  Well, the entrance was pretty, at least.

The inside was just downright creepy.  They had those old-fashioned mannequins that look extraordinarily real dressed up in period clothing and in realistic poses.  They seemed to pop up out of nowhere when you turned corners.  We all got pretty freaked out, but in a fun way.  The lighting was dim to make the scenes seem realistic, which didn't help matters any.  I didn't take any pictures, because I was too skittish. It didn't help that Dan kept referring to a Saturday Night Live skit in which the wax mannequins come to life on an amusement park ride that is broken down when they try to abduct the riders.  Needless to say, we made it through that museum pretty quickly.  The street re-creation was neat, though, and the kids particularly enjoyed the hair salon.  

After we reached the sunlight again, we let the kids play in the fountains across from the palace because we planned on walking to another park and thought they would have time to dry out.  I didn't expect them to get this wet.

We set out for the Jardin Botanique de l' Arquebuse, which was about a 10 minute walk.  We hadn't walked through this part of town, yet, and we passed a l'ecole (school) along the way.  I took the kids' picture in front of the school, because it will make Grandmom excited.  Everywhere we traveled when I was a kid, she made sure that we located a school building so I could compare it to our schools at home.  

When we arrived at the park, we saw the beautiful botanical gardens with a fountain in the middle, in which kids were swimming.  Apparently, it is encouraged, as they have even added a step to help them enter the water.  We decided that when in France...and we let the kids become honorary Griswolds in their European Vacation.  They were already wet, so why not?!?  

We also found a playground for the kids and some sunflowers for me to photograph.  I couldn't resist.  

Now, to Flunch...We were on that side of town and we knew Flunch was open, so we decided to head there for dinner.  I thought it was supposed to be France's homegrown equivalent of McDonalds, but I was pleasantly surprised to be mistaken.  I don't really know how to describe it, other than saying that it is the Ikea of restaurants.  It was unexpectedly high quality food with lots of options (cafeteria-style) and at a cheap price.  To top it all off, they had ice and fountain sodas!  Maybe it was even invented by Ikea.  It has the same rolling carts for the food trays as in the Ikea food court. All I can say is that it was a hit with the Briggs family!  They also had a photo opportunity with a Wonder Woman cut-out to celebrate your birthday (which is "anniversaire" in French).  Our anniversary is a few days away and Dan was a huge Wonder Woman fan as a child, so we couldn't miss this opportunity.

A super anniversary, indeed!!!