Dijon is a very beautiful town. I really would have liked to stay there longer and saw more things in daylight, but I guess I can go back one day. My first goal, when I got to Dijon, was to find my hotel to drop off all the stuff I was carrying. It took my about a half hour to find, but I finally got there after making a few wrong turns. I had reservations at the Hotel Hugo. When I opened the door, the receptionist seemed to be asleep in his chair. He reminded me of Don Knox; the only way I know of Don Knox is the cartoon character featured in Scooby Doo cartoons. After laughing in my head a little bit, I rang the bell and woke him up. He gave me my key and went back to sleep. My hotel room was bigger than I expected, and I had a bathroom to myself. After unloading my crap and locking it in my closet, I went back out to go site see in the dark.
In desperation to find someplace other than McDonalds for food, I looked up recommended restaurants in my travel guidebook. Two were listed in the book as good deals – Le Germinal and L’Eglefin. I came across Le Germinal first and looked at its menu; it seemed like reasonable prices but I didn’t understand one word on the menu that seemed to be in every dish – la grenouille. I walked into the restaurant and was seated at a small table looking out of the window at a little park. The hostess saw that it was taking a few minutes for me to read the menu so she came over and asked my native language, I said English. With in two minutes she had given me a translated menu and I was able to see what exactly I was eating. Trying not to seem too surprised, I learned that la grenouille is frog’s legs. In deciding what I was going to do because I never had frogs legs before and I just imagined the whole frog being put on my plate for me to dissect, I convinced myself that it couldn’t be that bad and it would be a new experience. I ordered the Meli-Melo, a plate heavy with garlic, tomatoes, rice, crawfish and frogs legs. I told the hostess that I didn’t know how to eat them and she came over when my food was served and gave me instruction on how to properly eat everything. Surprisingly enough, frogs legs taste like chicken. I regret not taking a picture of my food. I was so proud of myself that I ordered a big bowl of ice cream to finish off my night.
On my way back to the hotel, I decided to call my family and Phil to tell them that I was ok. I was so excited about the frogs’ legs that I told everyone. When I talked to my dad on the phone, I decided, well, I think the white wine decided, to tell him that I was coming home in a few days. I think he thought I was nuts. But sure enough I told him. He was one of the last people that I wanted to know. Originally, I was going to fly into JFK, take the metro to Manhattan and then the train to Dover. From Dover, I was going to either take a taxi or call for a ride. Anyway, I had two days before I would be home and I was so ecstatic but at the same time I had to keep quiet when talking to Phil in order to pull off the surprise. I had almost slipped during my phone conversation after my frogs’ legs. I said that I’d be home soon. I quickly recovered by saying that time will fly and Christmas will be here soon.
Dijon in the daylight.
