Quartier Notre-Dame
France > Burgundy > Dijon > Quartier Notre-Dame
Architecturally more interesting than the palace, and much more suggestive of the city's former glories, are the lavish town houses of its rich burghers. These abound in the streets behind the palace: rue Verrerie, rue Vannerie, rue des Forges, rue Chaudronnière (look out for no. 28, Maison des Cariatides). Some are half-timbered, with storeys projecting over the street, others are in more formal and imposing Renaissance stone. Particularly fine are the Renaissance Hôtel de Vogüé, 12 rue de la Chouette, and at no. 34, the Hôtel Chambellan (1490), housing one of Dijon's tourist offices. From the tourist office's courtyard, you can admire the open galleries reached by a spiral staircase. At the top of the steps is a marvellous piece of stonemason's virtuosity, the vaulting of the roof springing from a basket held by the statue of a gardener. For a glimpse of what must be nearly genuine medieval character, take a look in the cobbled alleys by the Tour St-Nicholas, off rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau.Also in this quarter behind the dukes' palace, in the angle between rue de la Chouette and rue de la Préfecture, is the church of Notre-Dame, built in the early thirteenth century in the Burgundian Gothic style, with an unusual west front adorned with tiers of spectacularly leaning gargoyles – most were replaced in the nineteenth century. Inside, the original stained glass has survived in the five panels below the rose window in the north transept, while in the south transept there is a ninth-century wooden "black" Virgin, one of the oldest in France. Known as "Our Lady of Good Hope", she receives prayers for health, success and happiness written into the open book on a lecturn in front of the altar. Outside on rue de la Chouette, in the north wall of the church, is a small sculpted owl – chouette – polished by the hands of passers-by who for centuries have touched it for luck and which gives the street its name. High on the south tower of the west front is a Jacquemard clock, taken from Courtrai in Belgium as a present for Dijon in 1382, when Philippe le Hardi defeated the people of Ghent. From here rue de la Musette leads west, passing just south of the market square and the covered Halles. The whole area is full of sumptuous displays of food and attractive cafés and restaurants, and always thronged with people. Opening at 6am, the market operates on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, and all day on Saturday; it spills over into the surrounding streets, with bric-a-brac in rue de Soissons on the north side and clothes in the beautiful little place François-Rude, named after the sculptor, and a favourite hangout, with its cafés and fountain graced by the bronze figure of a grape harvester.
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