Lyon

We left the hotel early to negotiate getting our luggage down to the train station on the Metro before the morning rush. The Metro proved its worth once more, and we got there in one piece with time for another station kiosk breakfast of a mini baguette and a pain au chocolat for me. After the 30 minute trip to Geneva, we changed trains for Lyon (the Swiss trains were much nicer than the French one).

The journey from Geneva to Lyon is about 2 hours and travels first through the mountains, with small French villages nestled under high stone cliffs and peaks. We continued beside the Rhône River before it opened out into flat farming countryside.

We arrived in Lyon and got a taxi to our accommodation in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon). We found our narrow cobblestone lane, lined with 17th-century buildings (and groups of tourists taking photos), one of which we were staying in! The owner had sent us a video of how to get into the building which gave us the heads up that we were going to have to climb a spiral staircase, reminiscent of going up the Keep of Chillon Castle, to get to our apartment. It was as treacherous as we feared (but which wasn't mentioned on the booking site). Adrian bravely went up ahead with one suitcase to see where the apartment was. Meanwhile, being a middle-aged woman looking trepidatious paid off again and a nice young man appeared and offered to take the other suitcase for me. 62 age-worn, wedge-shaped stone steps later, we made it into the apartment (which is more modern inside than the historic approach suggests) with all our goods and chattels. The room wasn't available yet, so we left the bags and headed out to get some lunch and our bearings.

We stopped for lunch at the first likely-looking place, which turned out to be a Scottish bar (the name Wallace probably should have given it away). We did order a French duck and mash and a few beers before heading off to fill another 2 hours wandering and picking up provisions before heading back to the apartment and the first washing machine in 8 days!

After a rest, and getting the 4 hour wash/dry load going (we were yet to work out how to do it quicker), we headed out for dinner. We decided to explore the local area and found it to be a lively place with a huge number of places to eat. We were certainly spoilt for choice. First, we found a wine bar for a drink in the courtyard (very French, although we only lasted long enough to take a photo before the cold and cigarette smoke made us retreat inside the cosy bar). The we found a cosy Bouchon Lyonnais (bistro). Although it had calves head on the menu we thought we'd leave that for another day and had the 2-course menu instead of French onion soup (or just onion soup, I suppose) and blood sausage for Adrian (at last) and pike dumpling for me. The 2-course meal was cheaper than most entrees in Switzerland! It was a lovely, memorable meal and, full and slightly tipsy, we made our way carefully home without mishap on the cobblestone or the staircase of death!Read more