Posted by todd on October 1, 2011 under Europe, France | 
Today we packed up (again) and left Lyon for Beaune. Our train didn’t leave until 1:25 pm so we grabbed a couple of pain-au-chocolat and wandered around Lyon. It was another beautiful morning, as our luck with the weather continues. There was a large open air market down by the river, it was nice to wander through the stalls. Lots of local produce, but some of it was imported and not local. There was a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads, flowers and wines. We were thinking how great it would be to have a market like that every Saturday.
We took the metro to the train station. I’ve mentioned previously how great the Lyon metro system is. It’s great to have a local metro system that connects directly with the rail way system. It really makes getting around easier. We made it in good time to collect our tickets from the automated ticket machines (which work great) and proceeded to wait for our train. It was a few minutes late arriving from Geneva but only a few minutes. Deanna struck up a conversation with a recently retired couple from Ontario that were spending five weeks in France. They too were headed to Beaune and have been staying in rental apartments in each of their stops along the way.
The trip to Beaune was uneventful. The train we were on wasn’t a direct one so we did make five or six stops before our town. We walked to our hotel (le Cep) and checked in. It’s a wonderful old hotel that has seen recent renovations. Our room is palatial by European (actual any) standards. I think we’ll be very comfortable for the three nights that we’re here.
We’re in the heart of the Burgundy wine region and are looking forward to tasting some great wine.
We walked about the town for a bit and made reservations for 7:30 at one of the restaurants that the guidebook recommended. They had 15 or so wines by the glass and a pretty traditional menu. Deanna had a salad and escargot, I had a beef bourguignon both pretty tasty.
We booked a vineyard tour tomorrow so we’re looking forward to that.
Posted by todd on September 30, 2011 under Europe, France |
We started off by eating breakfast at our hotel this morning. Usually, we’ve been grabbing a croissant/pan-au-chocolat in the morning but we decided to grab a bite here before heading out. We headed north a bit using the Lyon metro system. It’s very clean, easy to navigate and comprehensive. We walked for a bit and ended up at a silk shop where everything is hand made. We were treated to a guided tour by a young lady who speaks english. She explained that they were the fourth generation and made some very beautiful scarves, ties, art work.
We sat by the river for a bit and decided to go to the MUSÉE LUMIÈRE – MUSEUM OF CINEMA which chronicles the development and evolution of movie making. The two brothers basically invented motion pictures as we know it. The museum is housed in a turn of the century house that was built on the profits of the various inventions. We wandered through with the english audio guide and enjoyed seeing some early cameras and other artifacts related to film and cinema. If you’re a movie fan, or like photography, I would recommend spending a couple of hours here.
We then took the metro back to old Lyon and boarded a one hour river cruise that went down the la Saone and up the Rhone rivers and back again. It was interesting to see the city from the river. Rivers that have played a very important role in the development of the city.
We grabbed a quick sandwich and picked up some Macarons which are light coloured cookies that are filled with butter cream/jam/chocolate. The store we bought them from has 20 different flavors. We broke them open when we got back to the hotel room and had a couple. They are fantastic, I’m not sure the box will make it through the night.
I’ve enjoyed our time in Lyon. It’s a very vibrant city that is easy to get around and is full of history. I’m glad we spent a couple of days here. Tomorrow we’re off to Beaune which is in the capitol of the Burgundy wine region.
Posted by todd on September 29, 2011 under Europe, France |
When I was originally planning the France portion of our trip, Lyon wasn’t on the itinerary. I was planning a few days in Chamonix but couldn’t practically swing it on the train. It would have involved a few transfers and some long layovers and in the end, I opted to swap out the Chamonix part for Lyon. Knowing now that driving in France isn’t such a big deal, I probably would have just kept the car for the entire two weeks that we are not in Paris and skipped the train. However, that’s not what I did so here we are in Lyon.
Lyon is quite a nice place actually. It’s the third largest city in France, behind Paris and Marseille but it feels quite livable. We’re just across the river from the old part of the city.
We started the day by taking a funicular up to Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. It’s perched high on above the city of Lyon and can be seen from all over the city. It’s a beautiful church dedicated to Mary.
A short walk away is the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon. It was built in 1975 and holds a fascinating collection of Roman artifacts that were found near the two Roman amphitheaters next to the museum and around the Lyon region. The museum was free to enter today because it was Thursday and we spent more than two hours wandering through it looking at some very interesting artifacts and exhibits. It’s a very large collection and well worth a visit.
Outside there are two Roman theaters that are amazingly well preserved and still used today for various events.
We headed back down the hill for a bite of lunch and a stop at what the guide book says is the best ice cream in Lyon. It was very tasty to be sure.
After more wandering around we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a break before heading out for dinner. One of Deanna’s comfort foods are nachos. Finding nachos in France is not the easiest thing to do however we did find some in a restaurant not too far away. I had chicken fajitas which were not bad.
Posted by todd on September 28, 2011 under Europe, France |
Today was a travel day as we say au revoir to Aix-En-Provence and bonjour to Lyon. I can’t say that I loved Aix. It was fine but it was a bit far away from the heart of provence where I wanted to explore a bit easier and it was a bit big and hard(ish) to navigate around/in. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice enough place and we enjoyed our time there but it won’t go down as someplace we would need to go back to anytime soon. I think for the next trip to Provence (whenever that might be), we would stay in a smaller town more in the heart of the region.
We checked out of our hotel, bought a couple of pain-au-chocolat and headed to the train station. I had arranged to return the car at the train station which turned out to be about 20km out of town. We arrived in plenty of time, dropped out little Citron off (a great little car) and headed into the train station. It’s a very new, modern building that services the region. When we got there the place was just packed with people but within 20 minutes it was pretty much empty as people got onto trains heading all over france.
I have purchased all of our train tickets ahead of time before we left. There is a great website that works great for buying tickets. For each leg of our trip, we get a six digit code/pin that we enter into a ticket machine when we get to the train station. It prints the tickets and we’re ready to go. That part went without a problem. Things started to get a bit off when I noticed that our train wasn’t listed on the departures board.
The trip I booked was from Aix to Marseille, changing trains in Marseille and then going to Lyon. There were a couple of Marseille trains, but the # and the times didn’t match up with ours. I asked at the ticket office and the lady mentioned that the board would be updated once the first Lyon train arrived (it was late). We waited for 30 minutes and I asked again. She took a better look at our tickets and noticed that we were actually at the wrong station. There is a local Aix station and the TGV station. We were at the wrong one. My bad. I didn’t realize this. There is a bus that one can take between the two, but by this time it was too late to make our train. We ended up booking a direct train from Aix to Lyon. It cost me an extra 42€ but in the grand scheme of things, having a direct train to Lyon was worth the extra money. The trip to Lyon was fine. The trains are new, quite comfortable and in less than two hours, we were in Lyon.
We opted to take a cab from the train station to our hotel. It was only 13€ and saved us from schlepping our bags on two different subway lines. Door to door service is nice, particularly when we’re in a new city and don’t know where we’re going.
Our hotel is in a great location, just east of the old town of Lyon. There are lots of restaurants and shops of every description on the street. It’s a mostly pedestrian street though there are a few cars that seem to spring up every now and then.
We hadn’t eaten anything so we went in search for lunch. Our timing wasn’t great as many places close after 2:00 and don’t open again until 7:00 pm for dinner. We did find a spot that had wraps and sandwiches and beignet!!! I’ve been on the lookout for beignet ever since we got to France and today was the first one that we spotted. We had beignet on our last trip to France nice years ago and really enjoyed them. They’re sort of like filled doughnuts but lighter. The ones we had today were not nearly as good as I remember them, but the fact that we found them makes me a happy camper. The beignet in New Orleans are not the same. Nope, not even close.
After lunch, we wandered around a bit to get oriented. We spent a bit of time in the old part of town. We did stop in at Saint Jean Cathedral which had some beautiful stained glass. We were there just as the sun was at the right angle and the church was filled with this really wonderful light. The cathedral is also home to a 700 year old clock which is very cool.
At this point, we decided to call it a sight-seeing day and head back to the hotel for a bit of a break before diner.
At 7:00, we headed back out to a restaurant (bleu de toi) we wandered by at lunch time that was serving moules et frittes. The ones I had yesterday in Avignon, weren’t great so I thought another attempt was warranted. These ones were much better. I had mine with sauce Provencal, which had wine,cream and tomatoes. Deanna had hers with curry. Both were quite tasty, much better than those from yesterday. We sat outside again and really enjoyed people watching as we ate. This cafe culture is wonderful. I can see how people can live in tiny little apartments and spend time out doors (at least in the summer time). The weather continues to be fantastic, probably another 30 degree day here today. We’ve been really fortunate this entire trip. The weather has been perfect.
Posted by todd on September 27, 2011 under Europe, France |
We headed up to Avignon for the day today. It’s an hour north of Aix, mostly on the autoroute so the navigation was pretty easy.
Avignon is most known for being the papal residence from 9 March 1309 until 13 January 1377. The centre of the roman catholic church was not in Rome during this time. The palace of the popes is a very impressive building that was constructed in 20 years. From here, the catholic church was run during the dates above. It is said that Catherine of Sienna was the reason the church returned to Rome. She made a pilgrimage from Sienna to Avignon to convince Gregory IX to return the church. We came across St. Catherine in Sienna, San Gimignano and Rome. It was interesting to complete the circuit here.
The tour of the palace included an audio guide that was very helpful in explaining the various rooms and artifacts we were looking at. We spent a couple of hours on the tour. It was very interesting and well worth the time and money.
You may have also heard of the Pont d’Avignon which is made famous in a French Nursery rhyme. If memory serves, the grocer’s assistant in Amelie sings a bit of this song in the movie. I’ll have to check that out when I get back.
After finishing up in the palace we needed some lunch and stopped for a bite to eat. I had some mussels and fries (very common in this part of france) and Deanna had a pizza. They were just ok. It was nice eating outside though, something we’ve done quite a bit of this trip.
After lunch, we spent a bit of time exploring the back streets of Avignon using our guide book. It was nice to get away from the crowds and see another side of Avignon.
We’re turning the car in tomorrow and heading to Lyon on the train.
Posted by todd on September 26, 2011 under Europe, France |
We hopped in the car again today to explore a bit of the Provence countryside. It’s a fairly large area and one could take many months (years?) to explore all the nooks and crannies that is Provence. Our foray isn’t that ambitious so today we wanted to have a look at Roussillon and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
We headed out of Aix on the autoroute for a few km before exiting and driving some of the back roads of Provence. Much like our trip into Aix it was a bit of a muddle with lots of roundabouts, roads not signed, and sometimes the names not matching up with that on our maps. However we got to where we wanted to get to and it was worth it.
Enroute to Rousillon, we stopped at a little town called Bonnieux. It was one of a few that we were driving through and really the only reason we stopped was a parking spot came available and I scooted into it on a lark. It’s a quiet little town (like most), we walked by Le Musée de la Boulangerie (yes, that’s a bakery museum) and wandered up to the church which is on the top of the hill and has some amazing views of the surrounding countryside.
From there, it was a short drive into Rousillon which is famous for it’s ochre cliffs. All the buildings are painted in various shades of orange and yellows. To match the scenery one would gather. It’s up on a hill and like Bonnieux, has some pretty spectacular views of the countryside.
Deanna was feeling a bit peckish and decided to have a ham and brie sandwich.
After wandering around town a bit (and feeding a couple of friendly cats some remnants of the sandwich), we drove to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. This town is completely different in that it’s built along a stream. The stream was used originally to power a number of water wheels to support all kinds of industry, mostly around cloth and textiles. Now, it’s just a pleasant part of the town. I had a gillete for lunch, which is a savory crepe. It was filled with goats cheese and tomatoes and had a slice of cured ham on top. It came with a little pot of honey which went really well with everything. Deanna had a maple syrup dessert crepe which disappeared quite quickly.
We completed our circuit by heading mostly home on the autoroute, which, as you would imagine covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
Another great day on our European Adventure. We have one more full day here in Aix before turning in the car and taking the train to Lyon. No plans for the day tomorrow yet. Perhaps another trip into the countryside. We’ll see.
Posted by todd on September 25, 2011 under Europe, France |
We planned to take today a bit easy and Aix complied with us. We needed to change rooms at our hotel as I had originally booked for three nights instead of four and they couldn’t keep us in the same room. Our new room is larger and has a kitchenette. It must have been an apartment/flat at some point in it’s existence. It has a refrigerator and a cook top. We decided to head to a small grocery store and pick up some soup and bread for lunch.
The old part of Aix where we are staying is very quiet on a Sunday. Most (>95%) of the stores are closed which compared to yesterday was a nice change.
However, there was an ironman tri-athalon going on today. The runners ran right by our hotel. We’re not sure where the swimming and the biking were being held as we didn’t see that but we did see runners. Lots and lots of runners.
We wandered around and did tour the Aix Cathedral. As I mentioned most of the shops were closed but there were a couple of candy/cookie stores that had beautiful displays of cookies and candies. We didn’t have any, but instead opted for some ice-cream sandwiches made which tided us over until dinner.
Dinner in Europe doesn’t get going until 7:00 which is still something we’re getting used to. The hotel did recommend a place last night that we looked at but opted to wander around and found our great burgers. We thought about going back tonight but like many places it was closed. We did find a place not too far away. Deanna had this seafood salad that came served on a bread board. I opted for the lasagna. Both were tasty.
Posted by todd on September 24, 2011 under Europe, France |
It is with some sadness, that we bid the Hotel Welcome and the charming little village of Villefrance-sur-mer adieu but it’s time to hit the road for Provence.
We decided to take the scenic route today. We could have driven the auto-route all the way from Nice to Aix in about one and half or two hours. Instead we decided to head through the mountains and see the French Grand Canyon. We’ve been doing really well getting around without the GPS.The iPhone and my data plan along with good old analog maps have served us well.
Today we had to figure out the French toll road system. We didn’t drive on the auto route for too long today so it wasn’t too difficult. On one stretch we had to pay to enter the road (2.80€). In that case, it was a throw the coins in the basket sort of a setup. The french system even gives change, how nice is that? Near the end of the trip there was a different system where we took a ticket to enter the freeway and then had to pay when we exited (3.90€). It’s very well marked with many lanes to choose from. Not a big deal.
We’re still getting the hang of roundabouts though. The concept is fine, yield to vehicles in the circle, enter when you can, drive around until your exit and leave. Two things are confusing. 1) The larger roundabouts have two lanes. I have no idea when you’re supposed to be in the inside lane and when not. 2) In some cases, the list of destinations is six or seven signs stacked up on one another. Trying to make split second decisions on when to exit with cars coming in and leaving the circle can be quite stressful. We did great and only got messed up when going through Grasse. There was about six roundabouts in 10 minutes and we did the first five great, somehow we missed the sign we were looking for on the sixth one and ended up driving through some very narrow side roads trying to get back on track. But, on track we got and outside of Grasse proceeded to climb up and up to just over 1000m, which is pretty impressive given that we started the day at sea level and by 11:30 we were up in the mountains.
It was a beautiful drive. The mountains are similar to those back home, but seem a bit more stark, at least near Grasse. Not as many trees, lots of rock and shear faces. The road wound up and back and down and around. It was fun to drive, not as much fun to be a passenger though Deanna didn’t complain once.
We stopped for a break in Castellane, which is the “gateway to the Verdon Gorge”. It was market day and we got there just in time to wander through and look at some fresh fritter, spices, honey, perfume, jewelry; all manor of things. We picked up a slice of pizza and a quiche from a boulangerie and had a quick break before heading back on the road.
The road passed through some very amazing scenery. Deep valleys, mountain tops ranges, small little towns, farm land you name it we drove through it. The roads were narrow, had no lines and in some cases were not wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. We rounded a corner towards a tunnel only to see a small motor home halfway through the one lane tunnel and had to backup a bit for him to pass by. The speeds at which folks drive these roads is also crazy. But all was good and like I mentioned us and our little Citroen did awesomesauce.
After another couple of hours of these topsy-turvey roads we stopped for another break at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie a very beautiful town tat spills down the mountainside. Parking was a pain (as usual), but we did wedge ourselves into a spot that wasn’t really a spot but was close enough. The town was busy as it looks like a wedding was going on. The town is known for it’s pottery (we didn’t know this), and Deanna bought a hand painted pie plate that is very nice.
From there, we did the home stretch into Aix-en-provence, about 90 minutes. The last 45 or so were on the expressway so that wasn’t so bad. There was the highest posted speed limit on this road I’ve personally seen, 130 km/h. Back home, the fastest posted limit is 110 km/h. Some were driving faster than that,
We made it into Aix around 5:00 after about seven hours of driving including breaks. Yes, we could have driven and made it in 90 minutes on the express route, but what’s the fun in that. Today was very much about the journey and not the destination.
We parked in a parking garage and walked about 10 minutes to Hotel Cardinal.
We were both quite hungry and wandered out to find dinner. It’s very very busy here. My goodness. I didn’t realize how big Aix is. Not sure what I was expecting but there are a huge amount of folks around. Restaurants generally don’t open until 7:00 and we decided we couldn’t wait. We stumbled upon a Burger Bar and gave in. OMG they made some tasty burgers and fries. Deanna had pesto on hers and mine came with Emmental cheese. The fries were done perfectly (twice fried as all good fries should be) and everything was super fresh. We had some onion rings to start and they were hand breaded and came with two dipping sauces that were both tasty.
We were stuffed. Sometimes a good burger is all one needs to remind us of home and that one did the trick.
The plan is to explore Aix tomorrow and then head out to explore provence on Monday. The tour guide (me), needs to do some reading to figure out what we should be doing.
Posted by todd on September 23, 2011 under Europe, France |
We decided to head into Nice today for a bit of a look around before we head to Provence tomorrow. Nice is a pretty large city and is just a few minutes down the road from our little paradise in Villefrance-sur-mer.
We bought two tickets on Nice’s version of a hop-on-hop-off bus tour called Nice’s Grand Tour. There is audio commentary on a double decker bus that drives by many of the interesting sights that Nice has to offer. When you get to a spot that you want to explore on your own, you get off the bus walk around and get on another bus and continue on.
It was another hot day (close to 30 degrees I would think) and by 3:00 we were ready to head back to the hotel. We grabbed a sandwich for lunch and some pre-made salads for dinner.
We’ll be sad to say good-bye to our sea side hotel. We’ve spent a good number of hours just sitting on our balcony watching the world go by. Tomorrow we’re off to Aix-en-provence.
Posted by todd on September 22, 2011 under Europe, France |
After a relaxing day on the beach yesterday, we decided to get a bit more adventurous and drive to Monaco for a few hours.
The first order of business was to get the car from the parking lot. Parking in Europe is expensive. Like crazy expensive. It cost us 65€ for a day and a half. Don’t do the conversion, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know 
. Monaco is not far from Villefrance, around 20 km or so. There are three different roads (cornices) that traverse from Nice to Monaco. We opted for the second one which has some nice views and travels through the picturesque town of Eze. We stopped in Eze to pick up a Michelin road map and some fruit for breakfast. From there it was a fairly easy drive to Monaco. I was thinking of my friend Steve Kaltenhauser as I was driving these roads, about how much he and his Audi would love to drive them. Lots of tight curves. Our rental car is fun to drive (more about it in another post) so it wasn’t too stressful even though we were in uncharted territory.
We ended up driving through Monaco, not exactly sure where to park. I ended up heading to a parking garage that I saw coming into town beside the Jardain Exotique. It was at the top of town and most of the sights are at the bottom. We took a bunch of stairs and a few elevators to make it down to the Royal Palace. This is where Monaco’s royal family lives. We arrived just in time to see the chaining of the guard which happens at 11:55 each day. I would like to say this was planned well in advance, but alas, it was just one of this happy circumstances that sometimes happens when we travel. We walked around the palace square and the gardens beside the aquarium. The views from the gardens were quite spectacular.
Monaco is full of very wealthy people who can spend millions of dollars on stuff. They apparently like yachts. Very. Large. Yachts. We didn’t go to the casino (not really our thing), but it’s apparently quite nice. I didn’t pack my James Bond dinner jacket so they probably wouldn’t have let me in anyway.
We headed back to Villefrance mid afternoon for a bit of reading and relaxing before heading back to Le Serre for dinner. We had such a good meal there last night we decided to head back again. This time for pizza. I had one with lots of seafood. Deanna’s had tuna, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and pesto. We shared an apple pie with some of the best vanilla ice cream the two of us have eaten.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Nice for the day. We really like Villefrance-sur-mer. It’s a great little town.
