Pourquois Dijon...? Pourquois pas?

Dijon itself is beautiful: flat and sprawling with tight medieval roads.  Built by the bourgeoisie, it’s architecture is classically French, reminiscent of Paris but without the rigid influence of the Seine-- genuinely provincial and ancient.  Walking through Centre-Ville, where we’re being housed and where the Theatre de Dijon Bourgogne is located, it would be easy to forget what year it is were it not for the glowing neon pharmacy signs and a barrage of advertisements for “Tropik Thunder: Hot Chic Club” or “Club The Clap” (No joke.  That’s what its called).  The result, after a couple of Picon Biers, is a strange sensation that you’ve entered an adult themed 15th century theme park.

The quiet that overcomes you when you enter an alleyway is refreshing, however.  You forget almost instantly that you’re only meters away from the bustling noise of a city.  This is true of every hub I’ve visited, but here it feels much more like actual time-travel.  An alley between two major streets has the look, smell and feel of 1890.  Graffiti is the only thing that betrays the experience, though I’m sure it existed in its own form back then.

As I continue to explore neighborhoods outside of the city’s center I find more modern apartment buildings, probably from the 70’s and 80’s, though they maintain the rustic, terra-cotta feel of Centre-Ville: wine-stained pink and mustard yellow or plain and simple brown.

Language has been an obvious road-block.  The shy, bumbling american “Excooz-eh-moi” that seems to charm Paris’ tourist-driven economy is met with less patience here in the heartland, which brings me to an interesting point: Its hard to gauge the real industrial focus of Dijon.  The city is old and, being the capital of Bourgogne, probably thrives on tourism.  It’s known famously for only a few items in particular: mustard, wine and escargot.  Wine is clearly a huge source of income for the city and region, but all of the vineyards are located outside of the city limits.  Mustard operates in a similar fashion, as does escargot-- you can buy them in shops and restaurants, but you don’t exactly see a snail factory downtown.

 The demographic is impressively young, ranging from the early twenties to the mid-thirties, with shop owners comprising the older generation.  I’ve been told there are no universities in Dijon proper, which would emphasize again the aspect of tourism as industry: Dijon is a destination.  There is no obvious business district, nor any clear office buildings.  The people I see at work are either in their shops or involved in expansive construction projects... 

 I would venture, then, that the industry of Dijon is in fact maintenance and execution of “Dijon” as an image...

And that, in the end, is why I’m here: to work for that industry.  To demonstrate the cultural side of one of France’s oldest and most prominently “French” cities.