The usual more than adequate hotel breakfast set us up for our day trip to Lyon. After the disaster that was our last experience with French rail there were no great surprises that our train left 20 mins late for no apparent reason as was simply sitting in station 20 mins before leaving as well. On return trip though the inefficiency of the service played for us. We arrived at station at 1545 having to wait until 1640 for our prebooked tickets. The 1540 though was running well late as in at least 30 mins. We asked the SCNF lady could we go on the 1540 train instead. Thinking we were dills she said ” non, non it left 10 ago Monsieur” .” Check the board again Sweetheart ” oh ok, yes you can. You have a ticket , you can hop on any train” . Gee, I can’t possibly see what could go wrong with that system. Ironically the train left so late we arrived at our expected time had we caught the later one.! Of course no way it would have left on time.
But back to Lyon. Big town, with the lovely Rhone running through it. It was cloudy but not raining and we decided to skip the hop on hop off for about $50 and pick up two all day passes for public transport- including Metro and funicular! Worked a treat. So after a metro or two and a Funicular we were half way to the top of the hill and saw the Roman Ruins. Then carried on short walk up hill to the Notre Dame Cathedral which was of course quite stunning. As were the views of the city. Then it was a slow wander back down and into the old city before crossing the river to see the very impressive murals of notable figures that take up a whole building. We stopped for a very nice lunch before heading out to the famous Le Halles food halls. Classy stalls rather than the ones you would see in Queen Vic etc so not as interesting as we thought although seeing skinned chickens with head still attached may enter my dreams tonight.
Then it was the train debacle before arriving back home. Decided on a lightish meal of crepes nearby. The menu was not extensive , 4 types of “salty” , 3 of which included egg. I had the ham and cheese. The waitress was 83 , kinda a Ma and Pa establishment where Pa must have kicked it. However we also had a sweet crepe for dessert – Grand Marnier – which looked pretty boring until Dottie turned up with the whole bottle and literally poured it all over the crepe. Cleared up my asthma no worries!
Tomorrow it is off to Bologna . Nightmares tonight will either involve skinned chickens with head intact or the 20 minute window we have in Milan to switch trains from French to Itlian to continue to Bologna.
I hear Milan has lovely hotels…..
flashman181 