The French City Between Paris and Lyon That Most Travellers Never Stop In

The TGV from Paris takes 1 hour and 35 minutes to reach Dijon. Most passengers glance at the screen, see the name, and return to their books. They are making a mistake.

Dijon holds more listed medieval buildings than any French city outside Paris. It has a Gothic palace, a covered market older than the United States, and hidden courtyards that most visitors never find. The mustard is famous. But it is honestly the least interesting thing about the city.

The Owl Trail Through the Old Quarter

Bronze owl markers sit flush with Dijon’s cobblestones. Follow them and they guide you through 22 stops in the medieval city — past carved doorways, merchant houses, and streets that have not changed their layout in 600 years.

The trail begins at the Church of Notre-Dame de Dijon. On the building’s north wall, a small stone owl has sat at eye level since the 13th century. Tradition holds that touching it with your left hand grants a wish. Generations of hands have worn the stone smooth.

This trail costs nothing. Few guidebooks mention it. Locals use it as a way of explaining their city to guests without words.

The Ducal Palace and the Forgotten Kingdom

From 1363 to 1477, Burgundy was not part of France. It controlled its own territory — from the Rhine to the North Sea — and the Dukes of Burgundy were among the richest rulers in Europe. Dijon was their capital.

Builders completed the first wing of the Ducal Palace in the 14th century. Later dukes expanded it across three more generations. Today it houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts — one of France’s finest regional art museums — with no entry fee for the permanent collection.

Inside, you can walk through the original ducal kitchens, see the carved stone tombs of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, and stand in rooms where foreign ambassadors came to negotiate. Teams of sculptors spent more than 40 years completing the tombs alone. If you want to go deeper into Burgundy’s medieval history and wine villages, the region rewards slow exploration.

Most visitors spend under an hour here. It deserves at least three.

The Market That Eiffel Also Built

The Halles de Dijon opened in 1876. Architects used the same cast-iron framework that Gustave Eiffel later applied in Paris. The great iron hall fills twice a week — on Tuesdays and Saturdays — with producers from across Burgundy and the Jura mountains.

What to look for at the market

Comté cheese from mountain caves. Époisses — a strong, washed-rind cheese that Napoleon reportedly loved — wrapped in rounds of spruce bark. Crème de cassis, made from Burgundy’s blackcurrant harvest. Pain d’épices, a dense spiced bread with honey and anise that local bakers have made here since the Middle Ages.

Come early. By 12:30, the stalls close and the vendors vanish. Before you visit, it helps to read through our France travel planning guide to make the most of your time in the region.

If you’ve started actually planning a move, our complete our complete Moving to France guide walks through every step, every cost, and the paperwork that catches most people out.