Sunday, 2 March 2014

Diano Marina Saturday 12 October 2013 Dijon

Saturday 12 October
I load the main cases at 07:00 before breakfast and we depart at 08:00. Not before the group photo though!
I have really enjoyed staying at the Grand Hotel Diana Majestic and it would easily get into my top ten hotels I have stayed in over the past 25 years.
It is spotlessly clean with lovely rooms that all have a balcony and all offer sea views. The staff are excellent and there are plenty of them, you never have to look far if you need anything, and they are very attentive.
The food is very good with the most amazing dessert choice, all laid out on a long table which you walk past into the restaurant. The coffee and cakes afterwards finishes your evening meal nicely and in a relaxing way.
During the week when ordering drinks no money changes hands. You are given a receipt and can pay each evening or at the end of your stay.
There is an excellent outdoor swimming pool and a private beach for hotel guests.
From a drivers point of view it is great being able to park right outside the front door and having the tap there to wash with is very helpful as well.
So we are off but going home a different way!
No Mont Blanc tunnel today as we take the motorway into France passing Monaco, Nice and Cannes as we head towards Marseilles and then the motorway north via Lyon to our overnight hotel, the Ibis in the centre of Dijon.
We have a little scare at our lunch stop on the motorway. We have all had something to eat and gradually everyone is making their way back to the bus when little Peggy realises she has mislaid her handbag! We ask at the bar and restaurant but nothing has been handed in as ssttysss roads to traffic. I have a bit of a problem finding the hotel and end up calling them to ask directions. When I turned away from the low bridge I was only a couple of hundred yards from the hotel and could have reached it that way! The low bridge is nowhere near as low as advertised!!
The Ibis Dijon Centre is a large new hotel close to the city centre and railway station and is exactly as you would expect an Ibis to be, comfortable, functional and a little soulless! There is also coach parking here which is a bonus. They have a lot of groups in tonight and we are eating in a room downstairs from the reception area along with a group from Lucketts who are on their way to Spain.




I bump into two of their customers, Mr and Mrs Gower,  who came to Ireland with me in June!
I thought the dinner was pretty good and a little unusual. The main course was fish which was served up still wrapped in the foil it was cooked in. Very good.

Breakfast is down here as well tomorrow and I’ve been promised it will be the same as they have in the restaurant. Yeah right!

No comments: