Nice to Lyon & Lyon to Paris
Tuesday September 5th we left Nice and started a long, hot drive to Lyon. We stopped at a perfumery just as we left Nice. It was hot and smelly and (surprise surprise) just another sales pitch. None of the perfumes impressed me, so I guess I felt it just extended the drive to Lyon unnecessarily!
The Pope's Palace at Avignon
Lunch was spent at Avignon-yet another pretty, old medieval town on the banks of the Rhone. It seems so sad to visit such an interesting town for 1 hour 20 minutes, so just went and had a big lunch in anticipation of the “Highlight dinner” that night. We had 2 12. 90 Euro set menus of 3 courses each and were really happy with them.
After lunch, we followed the river Soane to Lyon through some very boring and some very beautiful scenery. The bus got hotter and the traffic thicker as we neared our hotel. The last km took about ½ an hour and was almost unbearable.
Our hotel was tall, thin and round-it looked like a large pencil. It had a pointed glass roof that looked just like the lead! Our room was on the very top (39th) floor right under the roof, so we had amazing views of the city below-especially after dark.
Our View from the 39th Floor
We managed to get a very quick shower and iron some clean clothes before rushing out to our “highlight dinner”. It was quite nice, but the portions were very small and a lot of the group wasn’t too happy about it. We had a Salad Lyonaisse (much like a Caesar Salad) roast veal (1 slice) 1 small turned potato and a tablespoon of spinach. Dessert was a chocolate mousse cake with some sort of green sauce. Some believe it may have been something to do with the water poured off the spinach thickened and a little cream added! The restaurant consisted of two small rooms so the group was split and we managed to end up in the smaller, hotter room of the two.
Back at the hotel I was able to use the free high speed internet to update my Blog, check and send e-mails and do some banking. One lovely e-mail arrived from Kirstyn telling us she and Ryan are engaged. What a surprise!
Lyon to Paris
Wednesday September 7th, we got up and after breakfast left Lyon for Paris. It’s over 500ks and we were to have a 1 hour 15 minute coffee break and a 45 minute lunch break. The countryside was beautiful yet again. We went through heaps of farming land-bigger farms, less villages and houses. The farmhouses we saw were just as I imagined them to be in France-2 story stone ones with roofs of tiny terracotta tiles. The barns are often attached and nothing ever sees a lick of pain. Somehow though, they are really beautiful. The land was more gently undulating and there was a lot of grapes and corn growing. We didn’t see many dairy cows, but lots of small herds of Charolais beef cattle.
Beaune
The coffee break was at yet another beautiful walled village-there have been so many I can’t even recall its name. It was particularly nice and the farmer’s market in the town square very interesting. Russ has read over my shoulder and tells me it was Beaune (he found it on the map).
Lunch was in yet another Autogrill on the Autostratta. It’s lucky they are so good as we have seen a lot of them. I think the driver and guide get kickbacks from taking tourists into them!
We arrived in Paris about 4.30 to 30c degrees. It was really hot in the bus by the time we got to the hotel. I was really sad to be staying in the financial centre of Paris rather than the heart as we were planning to go out for dinner by ourselves. Most of the group were going to the Moulin Rouge, but that is the first optional tour I crossed out-I couldn’t think of anything worse at over $200 per head! We could have gone in on the bus and waited till the show was over to come home, but that didn’t sound like fun either. In the end, after a walk before dinner, we found a reasonable pizza and pasta restaurant just out back the hotel so had pizza and pasta. I was happy to see Antonio our Italian driver turn up there for dinner too. I was once again so sad to be in such a special place (Paris) for so very little time. 38 hours hardly does it justice!
The Pope's Palace at Avignon
Lunch was spent at Avignon-yet another pretty, old medieval town on the banks of the Rhone. It seems so sad to visit such an interesting town for 1 hour 20 minutes, so just went and had a big lunch in anticipation of the “Highlight dinner” that night. We had 2 12. 90 Euro set menus of 3 courses each and were really happy with them.
After lunch, we followed the river Soane to Lyon through some very boring and some very beautiful scenery. The bus got hotter and the traffic thicker as we neared our hotel. The last km took about ½ an hour and was almost unbearable.
Our hotel was tall, thin and round-it looked like a large pencil. It had a pointed glass roof that looked just like the lead! Our room was on the very top (39th) floor right under the roof, so we had amazing views of the city below-especially after dark.
Our View from the 39th Floor
We managed to get a very quick shower and iron some clean clothes before rushing out to our “highlight dinner”. It was quite nice, but the portions were very small and a lot of the group wasn’t too happy about it. We had a Salad Lyonaisse (much like a Caesar Salad) roast veal (1 slice) 1 small turned potato and a tablespoon of spinach. Dessert was a chocolate mousse cake with some sort of green sauce. Some believe it may have been something to do with the water poured off the spinach thickened and a little cream added! The restaurant consisted of two small rooms so the group was split and we managed to end up in the smaller, hotter room of the two.
Back at the hotel I was able to use the free high speed internet to update my Blog, check and send e-mails and do some banking. One lovely e-mail arrived from Kirstyn telling us she and Ryan are engaged. What a surprise!
Lyon to Paris
Wednesday September 7th, we got up and after breakfast left Lyon for Paris. It’s over 500ks and we were to have a 1 hour 15 minute coffee break and a 45 minute lunch break. The countryside was beautiful yet again. We went through heaps of farming land-bigger farms, less villages and houses. The farmhouses we saw were just as I imagined them to be in France-2 story stone ones with roofs of tiny terracotta tiles. The barns are often attached and nothing ever sees a lick of pain. Somehow though, they are really beautiful. The land was more gently undulating and there was a lot of grapes and corn growing. We didn’t see many dairy cows, but lots of small herds of Charolais beef cattle.
Beaune
The coffee break was at yet another beautiful walled village-there have been so many I can’t even recall its name. It was particularly nice and the farmer’s market in the town square very interesting. Russ has read over my shoulder and tells me it was Beaune (he found it on the map).
Lunch was in yet another Autogrill on the Autostratta. It’s lucky they are so good as we have seen a lot of them. I think the driver and guide get kickbacks from taking tourists into them!
We arrived in Paris about 4.30 to 30c degrees. It was really hot in the bus by the time we got to the hotel. I was really sad to be staying in the financial centre of Paris rather than the heart as we were planning to go out for dinner by ourselves. Most of the group were going to the Moulin Rouge, but that is the first optional tour I crossed out-I couldn’t think of anything worse at over $200 per head! We could have gone in on the bus and waited till the show was over to come home, but that didn’t sound like fun either. In the end, after a walk before dinner, we found a reasonable pizza and pasta restaurant just out back the hotel so had pizza and pasta. I was happy to see Antonio our Italian driver turn up there for dinner too. I was once again so sad to be in such a special place (Paris) for so very little time. 38 hours hardly does it justice!
posted by janandruss at
5:34 a.m.
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