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France2023
  • Dave Swanson

France2023

6 weeks in France. Paris, Lyon, Albi, Pau, Bordeaux, Quimper, Paris Read more
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  • Trip start
    June 11, 2023
    Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Getting Started

    June 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Ready for our first flight. Everything on time and easy checking in and getting through security. TSA PreCheck is definitely worth it. New KC terminal is very nice.

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    First Day in Lyon

    June 14, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    We needed to go to the tourist office first thing to get oriented and get our city tour and boat rides scheduled. While we were there, there was a big French military event going on. We just happened to be there when their military band was doing a show on the square. They were quite good.
    From there, we went to the Roman ruins, which included a trip up the funicular. That is part of the city's public transportation system, so included in the price of our public trans card. There are two Roman amphitheaters there next to each other. There's also an incredible museum that houses many things extracted during construction projects from around Lyon. I think the ,out amazing things there were the large mosaic floors, many nearly complete.
    After that, we had lunch at the Brasserie Le Five. We enjoyed our selections from the menu du jour and welcomed the chance to speak a little French in a forgiving environment.
    Made our way back to the apartment and then went out for our cruise on the Saone. It was a beautiful late afternoon for this, and we had a great ti,e. Luckily, our tour guide also presented in English, so we didn't miss out on the explanations of what we were seeing. Everywhere in Lyon, if you aren't hemmed in by tall buildings, you can see the Basilica on top of the hill. Check out the 10th pic with the yellow building. The windows facing you are actually paintings that include portaits of some famous people from Lyon. Our ride lasted about an hour. Then we found some ice cream and ate that at the Place des Jacobins. On the way home, we made a stop at the Saint Nizier church with two very different steeples from different centuries to end a great day    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Second Day in Lyon

    June 15, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    This morning, we went to the Museum of the French Resistance and Deportation. No photos here, as it was a highly interesting but disturbing museum that showed the development of the Nazi resistance and the deportation of the Jews during WWII. Apparently Lyon was the center of the resistance, and de Gaulle honored them for it. The museum is in the former French military college of health, and during the war became the region's Gestapo headquarters and prison. Horrific stuff.
    Spent the rest of the day relaxing.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Third Day in Lyon

    June 16, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Today we toured old Lyon. As always, the Basilica hovered over everywhere we were. In this part of town, the streets are narrow and the buildings are ancient. Our tour guide told us that this part of Lyon was in pretty bad disrepair until the 1960s, when they started to restore things. It's pretty touristy now, but it's amazing that no one capitalized on this until recently. All the buildings are store fronts on the ground floor and apartments above. Access is by round staircases within the buildings, usually set in or around a courtyard. You can see there are some beautiful ones. The two statues are of Mary, but she's lost her head. Sometime in the 1500s during the Wars of Religion, the Protestants were winning here and decided that statues of Mary and other saints should be beheaded or destroyed.
    We had lunch at one of Lyon's famous bouchons. These are local restaurants that served simple meals to the working class in the area, but are now regarded as fine dining in a traditional style. The one we chose was la Mêre Cottivet. We were the first ones there and ate mostly outside until the sun started beating down. We moved inside for dessert. Cindy had the traditional quenelles, a mild creamed fish, bready dish with a sauce. Much better than it sounds. Dave had the boudin noir, or blood pudding. This is completely different than regular black pudding or blood sausage. It was very mild and soft, though heavy. Served in a pork sauce with caramelized apples, this was unexpectedly delicious. Unfortunately we didn't take pics. Another Lyonaise treat for dessert finished the meal, a crème brûlée made with praline.
    Later on in the afternoon we went to a museum about the silk industry, a business that made Lyon famous.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Fourth Day in Lyon

    June 17, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    Today we spent in the largest park in Lyon, the Tête d'Or. This gigantic park is only just a few blocks away from our apartment. It includes a botanical garden, zoo, large open areas, large wooded areas, a lake bigger than most city parks, and lots of places to gather. The park is surrounded by grand old mansions and the Rhone River. Beautiful grounds included some water features with some striking water lilies. There is also a turtle refuge here, housing what they claim as rescued North American reptiles. I'm not sure what they were rescued from, but there were hundreds of them. We had lunch at an outdoor kiosk, which was really pleasant. Their small zoo houses a number of different monkeys, tropical birds and some larger mammals. The red panda was a bit drowsy, but cute. We watched a group of otters playing for a while, too. Lots of people enjoying this sunny, hot day, but the park is so big, it wasn't crowded at all.Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    An outing in Annecy

    June 18, 2023 in France

    Here are a few photos from our day trip to the mountain town of Annecy, which is in the beginning of the Alps, as you can easily see from our boat trip on the lake. We took the train from Lyon and after a two hour journey, had lunch at a nice brasserie not far from the train station. Cindy had an Orangina, something she's missed since living in Germany! The old town is very nice with pretty, old buildings that are beautifully maintained and a river that runs through it all. Of course, that's one of the reasons why it's such a tourist attraction! We also went in three churches. While not overly ornate, they were all lovely. One had a painted mural that was from around 1480. The day was just perfect for an outing like this.Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler
    2

    From Lyon to Albi

    June 20, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 82 °F

    We left our apartment a little before 11 this morning, so a fairly leisurely start to the day. An easy time navigating the Lyon Metro was too good to be true. We picked up lunch at the gare and waited for our departure platform to be announced. Got on the train early enough to have an easy place to put our luggage, and then we waited. And waited. Apparently, there was a mechanical problem that caused us to be at least 30 minutes late pulling out. Not normally a problem but we only had 15 minutes scheduled to make our connection. Luckily they made up some time between Lyon and Toulouse that we were able to make our connection.
    The scenery changed a lot as we traveled down the mountainous Côtes du Rhône, through the Mediterranean coastline, then back into the hilly Occitanie. Our apartment owner kindly picked us up and brought us to the apartment in the old town, just steps away from the cathedral. All the outside photos are taken from the apartment windows.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler
    1

    Albi Day 1

    June 21, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F

    Today we walked around the old town of Albi. The cathedral here, like the Basilica in Lyon, is ever present above the city, but not for the same reason. In Lyon, it's perched on a hill, but in Albi, it is a monstrous fortress with a very tall steeple. It claims to be the largest brick structure in the world. Behind it is the former bishop's palace and a lovely garden. While Albi has a new and modern part of the city, the old town, from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, is well maintained and thriving. Another church, Saint-Salvi, is even older than the cathedral, completed in its current form in the 1200s. You can see the bell tower was later added onto with bricks. There is a nice trail along the river we plan to walk on later.Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Pau

    June 28, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    We got into Pau after a fairly short train trip from Albi through Toulouse. The scenery changed again as we made our way along the northern edge of the Pyrenees. Pretty wooded areas occasionally gave way to open vistas where, had the weather been better, we could have seen the snow-capped mountains. We toured the castle where Henri IV was born, a fairly oppulant manor for a regional lord. Then we walked along the southern ramparts, famed for their beautiful views of the mountains. Of course, over the course of seven days, they never appeared from their cloud cover. But neither rain nor gloom kept us completely down. A couple side trips and some long walks helped get us through our time in this overhyped city.
    Noted as one of the (if not the) best city in France to retire to, we found it quite lacking in vitality and things to do. I think it's reputation comes from having a couple golf courses surrounding it, as everyone knows this is every retirees' main daily activity.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Jurançon

    June 30, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    This side trip from Pau, actually a southern suburb of Pau, was delightful. We took the city bus to the Cave there, passing a rather large cheese factory along the way. The wine producer here is a conglomerate of various producers. The Cave presses, ferments, and bottles the wines for all the various chateaus. It's such a small producing area that it makes more sense to do it that way instead of each house doing all the work themselves. The facility itself comprises at least three large buildings plus a visitor's center/tasting room. Their gem is the building for aging and bottling. Roman mosaics, found during area construction projects, cover the walls. The storage room is beautiful, with unique lighting. And the wine is pretty good, too!
    After the tour, we set off on a jaunt to the village. Pretty flowers everywhere along a small river winding through town.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Bayonne

    July 2, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Today we took an unplanned side trip to Bayonne. The weather was nasty in Pau and it was predicted to be sunny in Bayonne, so we hopped on the train and headed toward the coast. Along the way we could see the swollen rivers, high and muddy from the recent rains. Of course, the weather didn't improve, and by the time we got to Bayonne, it was pouring. But we headed out and found lunch at a unique tiny restaurant called Janine. Only 5 things on the menu. Really good food.
    Eventually the clouds broke, and we walked around the town a bit. The cathedral is gigantic and lovely. When we got to the gardens, it started to rain again, but we pressed on and eventually made our way back to the train station.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    A Mountain Walk

    July 3, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Today we headed to the mountains by way of the train. When we got to Pau, we visited the tourist office, who told us it was not possible to do any hiking in the mountains without having a car. While they were somewhat correct in that we couldn't get to the officially sanctioned, back-country trails without one, the train brought us to the pretty little town of Bedous, where their tourist office happily showed us many options, including the rather longish trail we did take. The map showed a trail that was 11.9 km long, but after we followed their descriptive directions, which got worse as the trail went on, we ended up walking about 14 km, which might have been shorter than if we followed the sparse directions. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, the best of our whole time in Pau.Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Arrive in Bordeaux

    July 4, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    It was a bit of a tiring day today. Another gloomy start to the day in Pau, but we had plenty of time to get on the train to head to our next stop, Bordeaux. The train ride was fairly insignificant but pretty crowded, I guess because the final destination was Paris. Luckily, we were early enough on that we could place our luggage in the rack, unlike many who got on later. Lots of tree farms along this route that I figure were for lumber, as they were mostly pine trees. While the skies didn't clear any once we arrived in the city, it at least wasn't raining. We caught the tram to the closest stop by our apartment and made the trek. Our building, modern on the outside and pretty nondescript, is very nice on the inside. The large balcony is really nice. Enjoyed dinner outside at a lively bistro in the shadow one of the large churches. Indulged in their meat and cheese platter and sampled the local wine.Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    First Day in Bordeaux

    July 5, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Started the day here with a visit to the tourist office. Bought some city passes and headed out for the day. Of course it was sprinkling some, so we had to have umbrellas. Right outside the tourist office is the Place des Quinconces, a large park where Tour de France will end stage 7 on Friday. They are already set up and the city seems pretty eager and ready to go. Very unlike Pau, when we left on Tuesday, you would have never known that the next day they were hosting the start of stage 5. A couple of road block signs and a few tiny yellow jerseys sparsely hanging over two streets were all we saw. It's definitely a big deal here, though.
    So we started checking out the town. While the city is old, it is dominated by buildings of the late 1700s/early 1800s. The city center is a huge shopping district with many high-end shops. We escaped the rain in the Medieval church, Église Saint-Pierre. It wasn't very ornate and was really dark, but the altar was modern. We also went inside the beautiful Église Saint-Louis des Chartrons, the church that was just around the corner from where we ate ladt night. Once the rain cleared, we strolled through the Jardin Public, a very popular city park.    Read more

  • Dave SwansonFrance2023Traveler

    Second Day in Bordeaux

    July 6, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Started off today back at the visitor's center to book a tour of St. Emillion, the medieval town famous for macarons and, of course, wine! Today is a much nicer day, so we'll do more sightseeing. Unfortunately, with the construction style of the city, with narrow streets and tallish buildings, it doesn't make for the best picture taking. But, we went to a few places that had better viewing options. We took the tram to the centre-ville and took in some of the main attractions. There are still a number of gates left in the city from when it had a fortified wall. The wall is long gone, but we started off with Porte Dijeaux, now just an archway in the middle of a street. It was a close walk to the big open Place, which includes the Mairie, the Pey Berland tower, and the imposing Cathedral Saint-André de Bordeaux. We didn't go up into the tower, but it is an incredible bell tower built in the 1400s and topped with a golden statue of Mary. The cathedral is magnificent both in and out. Not overly ornate, but it is beautiful stonework. We stopped for a pause in the gardens behind the Mairie.
    Of course, we window shopped in the huge shopping district, then got a baguette sandwich from a closeby bakery, and had lunch along the river, in the gardens next to the famous Miroir d'Eau. Later on, we ended our sightseeing at the Muséum de Bordeaux, the local natural history museum.    Read more

    Trip end
    July 20, 2023
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