Although the name Certosa di Pavia suggests that this imposing monastic complex is located in Pavia, this is certainly not the case. The distance between the castle of Pavia and the monastery is, in a straight line to the north, at least seven kilometres. Definitely too far to walk, so…
We set out from our hotel on the Place du Président Wilson and entered the centre of charming Dijon. Our plan: a walk along the most interesting churches of the city. There happen to be quite a number of those, although some of these buildings are no longer in use…
The fine arts museum in Dijon is housed in the former palace of the Burgundian dukes. It opened to the public as early as 1787, even before the French revolution, which makes it one of the oldest museums of the country. A first surprise for me was that I found…
In the more distant past the monastery of Champmol was situated a bit outside Dijon, but nowadays the former monastic terrain is firmly within the city. Our trip to Champmol from the city centre proved to be anything but easy. On paper it looked so simple, but one way traffic,…
By far the most spectacular room in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon is the Hall of the Guard (salle des Gardes). Here we find the funerary monuments of dukes Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, rulers of Burgundy and many other territories between 1363 and 1404, and…
As a child I was once handed a history book that had an image of the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy. I still vividly remember how deeply impressed I was. Those colours! That realism! Was this really a work from the Middle Ages? My view on the…