In this second to last post of the Fall 2024 term, Proctor's European Art Classroom students continue their artistic and cultural exploration of France, spending a week in the historic city of Dijon with an ambitious day trip to Paris. Through Annie’s vivid reflections, we experience their culinary adventures from escargot to boeuf bourguignon, artistic discoveries in multiple museums in Dijon and Paris, and learn about the region's famous mustards.
Annie '26 Reflects on a Week in Dijon (and a Day Trip to Paris!)
This past week, the Fall European Art Classroom group traveled to Dijon France, and although it was a brief visit, we thoroughly experienced the new food, art, and culture. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but it's true! We spent our week in Dijon, exploring museums and restaurants, trying Dijon Mustard, and we even took a day trip to Paris. You probably don't want to read about every detail of our amazing week, so I will talk about the most memorable and fan-favorite parts. So, with that in mind, I'm Annie '26 and these are my favorite parts of our week in Dijon.
After getting off the three-hour train ride from Aix on Monday, we immediately started learning about our new town. We followed a map from the tourist office and did a self-guided walking tour in which we had to follow the trail of little gold-colored arrows with small owls on the ground. An owl is the symbol of Dijon. We visited Dijon's Notre Dame and read about the importance of the owl on the side of the Notre Dame, which you rub for good luck and make a wish when you walk by, and also the parking lot that used to be where the town market once stood. Dave told us all about why the upper parts of some houses were made of plaster or wattle and daub with wood framing: it was less expensive than pure cut stone.
Later that evening, we went to Au Grand Café for a group dinner. This is where I had my most memorable night. We all tried the flavorful escargot, which most of us had never eaten before. It tasted like the clams I ate when I was five, except not nearly as chewy. What made them so flavorful was the delicious green butter with parsley and garlic inside the baked snail shell. We were taught that when someone finishes the snail, you flip the shell over so everyone else knows there is no longer a snail in there. After we quickly finished off the twelve snails, we tried an egg dish made of boeuf bourguignon with a runny egg on a small piece of French toast. It was served in a small circular dish, and we got two for the table to split. I didn't like that dish as much. Although it was good, the slimy, runny egg with the soupy boeuf threw me off. It was like having breakfast and dinner at the same time. As we finished our appetizers I ordered: "J'aimerais manger le carbonara s'il vous plaît". The carbonara was so good! The cheese was hot and heavy, but it felt like it melted on my tongue. I scarfed that right down. However, the sauce was so creamy I couldn't finish it. I branched out my food palette when I split the creme brûlée with Mia for dessert. The first layer of this dish was hard and burnt-looking, but the inside was soothing and squished perfectly on my tongue. Mia and I finished it so fast that she only got three bites into her mousse au chocolat.
We woke up around 6 am on Wednesday to catch our hour-and-a-half train ride to Paris. It's pretty hard to visit a famous and huge city like Paris in a day, but we did our best. Luckily, the day was sunny with clear skies. The initial sighting we walked by was the Paris 2024 Olympic rings, but the first official stop was the Notre Dame, a huge Gothic cathedral that first started getting constructed in 1163...we thought the Notre Dame in Dijon was large and old! After our fifteen-minute sketch, we made our way to the metro to see the Jardin des Tuileries and the Musée l'Orangerie. The line to go inside looked long, but with each other's company and the sight of the Eiffel Tower, the wait went by in a blink of an eye. As we explored the museum, we saw HUGE murals of Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" that took up two whole rooms! By the time our day in Paris came to an end, we each had walked about 20,000 steps!
On our last full day back in Dijon, we went to two museums, le Musée des Beaux-Arts and le Musée Rude. The first one is the second oldest museum in France, according to Dave and Jen. Secondly, the Rude Museum is full of sculptures and plasters. The back wall is a huge plaster display of multiple statues and sculptures, taking up each little crevice from the floor to the tall old church wall and from left to right! This was a cast of one of four that adorn the Arc de Triumph in Paris.
Our second and last group dinner in Dijon was at La Bourgogne. Sophie and I shared a meat entree, which tasted like weird sausage and hotdog in pie form, but I ate my whole piece. For my main meal, I ordered boeuf bourguignon because when you visit the Burgundy region, you have to try a meal from its origin. If I'm being honest, I did not like it. The meat was slimy and tasted like it was all fat. It really made me appreciate Dave's cooking at the house because the boeuf bourguignon we made in Aix tasted better than the restaurant. "Je voudrais la profiteroles s'il vous plaît". Mia, Nate, and I all ordered the same dessert. It was a caramel cookie puff pastry sandwich with a dulce center and whipped cream on the side. It was hard to include everything all in one bite. The center was cold enough that it wouldn't melt immediately on the plate but warm enough so your teeth wouldn't hurt if you ate it too fast.
We did and saw so much that I've only talked about a quarter of the trip! I didn't even mention how mustard originated in Dijon, how we went to two different mustard-tasting stores, and how my suitcase back to Aix-en-Provence was just full of different mustards! I don't even like mustard! If you ever get the chance to travel to Dijon, France, and if you want to taste mustard that just makes your mouth salivate, your eyes open wide, and your jaw drop, I recommend going to Maille or La Moutarderie Edmond Fallot. All in all, the trip to Dijon was amazing and full of cultural and flavorful experiences.
Check out more photos from European Art Classroom on Flickr!
- European Art Classroom
- Off-Campus Program