The Jura and the Fromont’s

While not in Jura (region of France next to Switzerland) our first stop back in the French land was Dijon, ya know the mustard. We got to have a quick look round the city as we only stayed the one night. Which we spent having the best dinner out (a bottle of the best helped as well) then walked the tourist path the next day.


Standard French old town building

Mmmm food from the market

See told ya bout the mustard, (although the mustard museum had closed, sob. I was keen)

We only got a small slice

So when we were working back in Scotland I meet a student (Grégoire) from France working at my company on a holiday break. We got talking one day about our trip and he discovered we might be going to Dijon. “Oh,” he exclaimed “my parents live near there”. The next day he comes into work and says “I rang my mum last night and you can stay there when you pass through”……. Score

From Dijon we had a quick train to Dole and meet up with Grégoire and his mum, who took us to their awesome family house in Tavaux. It was so good staying with these guys, they had a real family atmosphere (6 kids tend to do that). Just seeing the day to day living of a real honest French family.

We did get some sights in when Grégoire (home from uni for the weekend) and his girlfriend took us out to the wee village of Beaume and Chateaux Chalon (again purchasing wine and cheese).

View from the Beaume abbey

Gotta love the way the French eat dinner, we were a bit concerned at the first dinner when everyone got only a small slice of a really nice quiche/flan dish. But they have this ‘weird’ concept of courses. Eg first up aperitifs (drink and snack), then main, then bread and cheese, then fruit, then desert and coffee (not to mention the wine). And this was for pretty much every meal, lunch and dinner. So we were more than quite full after our 3 days.

Family dinner


Me and the youngest (Pierre), who had a fascination with the haka.

Canals in Dole

So big ups to the Fromont family, you made our stay one to remember.
(See you in Corsica)