Tour Philippe le Bon

View down the stairs.

We first saw the ad for climbing the tower of Philip the Good in our gite, along with lots of other information on things to do and see in Dijon.  Now, we always enjoy looking at the world from on high, and the only warnings were for pregnant women or people with limited mobility, since it has 316 steps up.  We don't fall into either of those categories, so.....

The first place we stopped had this beautiful vaulted ceiling.

View out the stained glass window.

Looking down on the Place de la Liberation.

View across the town.

Cathedral St Benigne shows really well.

Cathedral St Michel, which is hard to see close up.

The tower is part of the Dukes of Burgundy's palace.  It was never a fortification, but a residence.  The stairs were the ones used by the owners to get to their apartments in the palace.  So, they are easy to walk up and down, not those tortuous , uneven, medieval stairs we have so often climbed.  Our tour guide was a young woman who spoke both French and English.  She would talk to all the others, then give us the tour.

Another, more subtle, decorated tile roof.

While this looks like part of a roof, it is actually the original wall of the castrum built by the Romans.  Philip used it as the base for his tower.  Recycling strikes again.

There were two young women on the tour who were Americans.  They were living in Dijon and working as teaching assistants in the school, helping the students to learn English.  Of course, they were both fluent in French.  One was from Virginia, while the other was from Missouri, but went to school at SMU in Texas.  It is a small world after all.

After all those stairs, a refreshing Kir to celebrate.