Goodbye Spain, bonjour France!

We were up and about super early this morning. We were booked on an 8.19am high speed train from Barcelona to Lyon. The traffic at that hour was pretty good and after dodging a few worse-for-wear locals we were at Barcelona Sants Station in about 10 mins.

The train was exactly on time and we settled in for the 5 hour trip, Google says it is over 6 hours by car so yes this train really moved along. It was a Renfe AVE fast train that can cruise at close to 350km/h, the seats were very comfortable and we had lots of room for luggage. There was a cafeteria that sold the basics and had some good views.

The route took us along the edge of the Mediterranean Sea to Montpellier before turning inland to head up to Lyon. We arrived on time, collected the luggage and scored a cab to the hotel.

We are right on the river Rhone across from the older parts of town.

We spent the afternoon at the laundromat - very exciting but also very necessary. Funny interaction with a local who wanted me to help him fold his doonas we had washed and dried, Google Translate came up with “Can you help me bend my neck”! Very funny but we worked it out.

Dinner was in one of the traditional Lyon restaurants called a Bouchon followed by a walk along the river bank.

Tomorrow we explore Lyon.Read more