Besançon, France

We had a great time in Besançon. We left Saturday morning, and took the train down there. It was just over an hour, so when we got there we went to a park and ate out sack lunches. The weather was good. It was cloudy, and a little cool but still nice. Then we dropped our stuff off at the hotel. In was right in the middle of town, and it was 57 euros total. It was a really good deal.

After that we went to check out the citadel. We had to climb up this huge hill to get to it, but of course it was worth it because the views were once again incredible. Besançon sits on the Doubs River and mountains surround it. From the top of the citadel you could see everything. I was also surprised to see that all the trees were still changing colors. I remember by this time in Colorado all the tree were bare, but there are still lots of colors here. We walked all along the walls of the citadel. Then we went to check out all the other stuff they have within it. They have a couple of museums, a zoo and an aquarium. The zoo was small, but it was really cute. They had monkeys, lions, tigers, goats and even a couple of donkeys. We actually got to see all of this for free because we all had coupons for free entry into the citadel. That made it even better.

After we left the citadel we had a look around the city. It is a really pretty city, and it has lots of museums and shops. After that we had a really nice dinner. It was a place that had seafood, pasta and all that. We also realized that we are starting to eat dinner more like the French now. They don’t eat until like 7:30 or 8 and their meals usually take about two to three hours. We were at the restaurant for about two and a half hours last night, and it didn’t seem that weird to me. It was crazy.

We were going to look around the city some more this morning, but almost everything was closed including restaurants. Besançon is bigger than Belfort, but it is still very much the same when it comes to business hours. It was also raining pretty hard, so we decided we would come back early. We were back home by 1:30 pm. Even though we came home early, I still had a really nice time. I will be putting more pictures on my site, so I will let you know when they are up.

This afternoon we watched “Napoleon Dynamite.” Mandy and Sarah had never seen it, so I had my mom send it to me. I don’t think they thought it was as funny as I did. I guess it is because they are used to dry British humor.

I guess I will get back to planning my Thanksgiving Day lesson. I am excited to present this holiday to the kids. I can bring a little of home to France!