After I got back from a weekend in Edinburgh, I only had three days in Dijon before my boyfriend arrived to visit. I had advised him to bring sunscreen as the weather had been so gorgeous before I left to go home, but, obviously, it has rained nearly every day since his arrival a week ago! We’ve had a few sunny ones though and we took advantage of them by going to the lake on Saturday, where some sort of medical convention was being held which was a bit strange, and to Beaune on Monday. I think I’ve written about Beaune here before as I always take visitors there – I’d never been to the main attraction of the town before this trip though – les Hospices, a 15th century charity hospital founded by the Chancellor of Burgundy as a hospital and refuge for the poor and people injured in the 100 years war. The actual charity still exists although now they have a modern hospital building, so the original hospital is now a museum. It’s built around a courtyard with all the various hospital room and kitchens and pharmacies around the square – the courtyard is absolutely gorgeous as all the roofs are tiled in colourful patterns. All of the important buildings from this time period in Burgundy have these patterned roofs but these were definitely the best ones I’ve ever seen.
We also went to the Edmund Fallot mustard factory while we were in Beaune which was great fun. We watched lots of short films about the history of the Fallot family and of the mustard making industry in general and got to have a go at making mustard ourselves – I had had no idea before this of how mustard was made (it’s just dry mustard seeds ground up with a stone wheel, salt and either vinegar or green grape juice). Our mustard was absolutely disgusting because I had got a bit too excited with the salt, but it was fun anyway! At the end of the tour we were given a whole load of different foods and four different flavours of mustard (gingerbread, blackcurrant, tarragon and standard Dijon mustard) to try them with. Yum! I was never actually a big fan of mustard before coming to Dijon but now I love it!
The main thing all the students are talking about here at the moment is the continuing strike action by the university staff. Last Thursday an Assemblée Générale voted to completely block every entrance to the university with chairs and desks to prevent any classes being held by those teachers not on strike. The students were given a vote as well and voted overwhelmingly in favour of it, although now there has been quite a big backlash among students who are concerned about having to repeat a year of uni because they have had no classes since Christmas. The way things stand at the moment it doesn’t really seem as though we’ll have any classes at all until the end of term, and probably no exams either. The same vote will be held every Thursday afternoon, so each week the students have the chance to vote against the blocage. I think quite a few of the staff and students are against the strike, but there is a real feeling of having to respect the rights of the other teachers to strike if they feel strongly enough about the issue to do so. No one wants to deprive them of this right and it’s seen as bad form to go against it. Before the official blocage, some of the teachers blocked off a few of the entrances to the uni, mostly just for show as everyone could still get in and out with no problems, but it did mean that a lot of the classrooms had no desks and chairs in them when the students arrived for classes. This happened in one of my classes and although the professor was willing to teach us, and we were willing to be taught, he refused to act against the striking teachers by either moving us to a classroom with desks or having us fetch a desk and chair each from the pile outside the classroom. It’s all very frustrating!
While speaking about the uni staff and the way things are run at l’UB, I would like to say that the way they have treated the British Erasmus students since Joey’s death two weeks ago has been incredible and all of us are extremely impressed by the level of concern and care shown by all the staff and the other students.
You probably won’t hear too much from me for the next month or so because things are going to be pretty hectic. I’m going home for the Easter holidays (I seem to have had an awful lot of contact with home lately, which has been amazing but also feels a bit like cheating…) and then straight from Edinburgh to Vienna for a long overdue visit to Maxine. It seems a bit strange to me that it is infinitely easier and cheaper to get to Vienna from the UK than from France, but it gives me a reason to go home and see my family, so that’s ok! While we’re in Vienna (my friend Sophie is coming as well) we’re also hoping to visit Prague and Budapest and possibly to visit my friend Jenni in Germany on the way back to France (well it’s not quite on the way, but near enough!) I haven’t done nearly as much travelling this semester as I would have liked so I’m really excited about this trip, as well as getting to spend two weeks with Max! Yay!
Till next time!
