Day 9: scary to cool

The Citadel de Besancon used to be a scary place. Wars were waged, people died. But now the sight is cool. The fort walls provide a remarkable view, if you are not scared of hights. There is a zoo, and the bamboos live in the old moat. There is a large section about the the deportation of Jews and the Holocaust. There is a long passage way in the stones with very old iron fireplace reflectors displayed. And we visited the Sow sculptures. These huge sculptures are really impressive, but we were tired and ready for ice cream.

As we learned, on August 15th there is a holiday and most stores were closed all day, others closed around 1. Despite the construction detour we were able to locate the only open ice cream stand.

The drive up to the Citadel was WOW. I was sure the GPS had gone crazy or Iris had input the wrong location. Sure enough we wound our way up the hill, through narrow roads and even under an arch to arrive at the main gate. The drive home was funny I made two wrong turns. The second mistake put us east on the highway, 14km closer to Switzerland. We debated driving to Geneva for dinner, but opted to stay in France and reduce our time in the car.

Today we really ate junk. On the way we stopped and the kids each got a pastry, Jonah got two. At the same time we got one more flan to add to the two pieces we already had. We stocked up on baguette and Croissant for the day. For good measure we also had five peaches.

Without too many choices for dinner and all the super markets closed, we ventured into Beaune for dinner. Naturally then first and second restaurants were closed. We walked around a found a good menu and a nice table outside in the shade. The food was super again. I was not surprised when Isabel ordered lasagne, or when Sam asked form a ham pizza. I was shocked that Jonah wanted more  escargot. So we ordered six, and shared them. Of course his kids meal included more ice cream.

As you can see I forgot my iPad today. So I'll add pictures after the vacation.

Back at our place the little town is celebrating August 15th with a street party, dancing, beer, amusement park crap and at 10pm a fireworks show. We forced ourselves to attend and the fireworks were very well done and we had a great view because there are so few people who live here. 

Flaking out, overtired, restless, already dreaming and may not have brushed our teeth, we are all in bed trying to muster the strength to hike tomorrow, our last day in Burgundy. The plan is a 40 minute drive to Nolay to visit the area and hike.