chapelle Notre dame de Confort, France Travel Journals & Blogs

Cruising donkeys The journey home
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jun 25, 2020, 2:54pm
- ☀️ 32 °C
- Altitude: 184 m
- France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon Lyon 05 chapelle Notre dame de Confort 45.760158, 4.83362845°45’37” N 4°50’1” E
Day 459
Lyon
June 25, 2020 in France ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Lyon was a lot nicer than I expected, I am not a city person, and as it’s the second largest city in France I was not expecting great things. The first surprise was the marina, our info is a bit out of date and the marina must have had some teething problems but it was lovely right in the middle of the new developments on the piece of land between the Rhône and Saône, it felt safe but was in the heart of things. The redevelopment of the confluence land had resulted in some weird buildings the confluence museum reminded us of the Guggenheim in, I think it was Bilbao all glass and metal at weird angles. There was a supermarket and shopping mall next door to the marina with a Decathlon store. We were able to use a cycle path to access the old town then lock up the bikes and wander around taking in the sights and also just the old streets, inner courtyards and spiral stone staircases as we tried to walk only in the shade, temperature reached 35degs. From the old town we crossed back over the Saône to see the opera house and Hôtel de ville then down the bank of the Rhône to Hôtel Dieu previously a hospital and abbey now up-market shops and restaurants in an incredible setting. The day after we continued our trip up the river seeing the sights from a different perspective.Read more
0 likes
Spydah Golden Anniversary
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Sep 8, 2017, 7:30pm
- ☀️ 20 °C
- Altitude: 176 m
- France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon Lyon 05 chapelle Notre dame de Confort 45.760757, 4.8342645°45’39” N 4°50’3” E
Day 16
Goodbye Israel, Hello France
September 8, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
... or how to (nearly) miss a plane. With a late flight out, our final day in Israel was a nice leisurely one. Gil and Mira had organised for us to go to a show called the Jerusalem Time Elevator which describes Jerusalem's history (in a 60s Hollywood-style way), using impressive surround screens and with the seats mounted on a platform which moves and shakes in unison with the film. Interesting in its own way, though we felt we'd got far more out of the two guided tours which we'd done a few days earlier.

Gil then took us for a scenic drive around some parts of the city which we hadn't really seen before, and that was great. Until we first came here, we hadn't realised just how hilly the place is, but it's built on what is really rugged terrain. We then grabbed some lunch and headed back to their place for our least favourite job, packing.

Gil and Mira got us to the airport nice and early, and we said our fond goodbyes. Hopefully we'll see them again sometime soon, maybe in Brisbane. Even after we'd waited in long queues and been through security checks (though not as rigorous as the one which a swarthy-skinned young man standing near us had to endure). The girl at check-in told us that we'd be at Departure Gate C2, and even though it was already printed on the ticket, she kindly circled the number for us. Maybe she thought that we were old and doddery. Reaching the departure hall, we double-checked the departure gate on the screen then headed for C2. It was fairly quiet there, with only about 40-50 people waiting, so we thought that for once we'd be on a nice empty flight for the nearly five hour trip to Lyon, our next port of call.

As the boarding time drew near with no announcements being made, Brian decided to wander up to the desk, only to find that the screen there was showing an entirely different flight number, which was going to Zagreb, Nobody was behind the counter, so we approached an airport employee who had been working there at the departure counter but who now appeared to be on a break nearby. He immediately told us that the flight had been moved to Gate B1, some distance away, so off we ran in a bit of a panic. Reaching there, we discovered that that gate was handling an entirely different flight to some other destination. We don't know whether the man who'd given us the wrong information was stupid or had misinformed us deliberately. Furthermore, none of the display screen seemed to be listing our flight.

By this stage, it was close to the scheduled departure time and we were seriously worried that maybe, somehow, we'd completely missed our flight. Eventually, we found a screen listing our flight as departing from Gate C3, right next to where we'd been waiting in the first place. The flight had started to board, but fortunately it was running several minutes late, and we were OK. So how did everyone else know about the change? We certainly hadn't heard anything. We concluded that the announcements had probably been made in Hebrew and French only and, judging by the look of our fellow passengers that would have covered pretty much everyone except us. Anyway, we got on board safely and even though it was a budget airline (Transavia), it was pleasant enough flight. As the Israelis do so many things well, we prefer instead to blame the airline for the display of total incompetence.

We duly landed in Lyon at around 1am, and got quite a surprise at the cool night temperature. After the past couple of weeks the 12 degrees felt quite cold. At 1am, there isn't a lot happening at St Exupery airport. The terminal is deserted, all the workers are tucked up in their beds, the buses and trains aren't running and there's nobody at the Information counter. Our only choice therefore for getting to our hotel was a very expensive taxi ride. Fortunately at least, the driver was very friendly and even allowed Brian to practise his schoolboy French on him. We were certainly very happy to check in to our hotel, unpack and hit the sack.Read more
Can't trust those sneaky airline staff ;) maybe you just didn't hear the gate change announcement or as you say, it wasn't in English. xx Childe II
9/8/17Reply
Spydah It's very much more likely to be the latter. The other thing is, in Oz there would have been repeated announcements and probably staff wandering round to check that passengers weren't being left behind at the old gate.
9/9/17Reply
0 likes
Spydah Golden Anniversary
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Sep 8, 2017, 8:08pm
- 🌙 19 °C
- Altitude: 176 m
- France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon Lyon 05 chapelle Notre dame de Confort 45.760777, 4.83423245°45’39” N 4°50’3” E
Day 16
We discover Lyon
September 8, 2017 in France ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
Our only previous experience of Lyon was many years ago when we dropped a rental car off at St Exupery and flew back to Brisbane. More recently, several people had told us that it's a beautiful city with spectacularly good food and wine. What's not to like about that?

Waking up and taking in our surroundings, we realised that we had chosen well with our hotel, the Novotel Beaux Artes. It's in an old building, but the interior has been tastefully renovated in a very modern style. Our room was quite spacious, especially by European hotel standards. It is only 50 metres from the impressive square known as the Place des Jacobins. (We soon discovered that Lyon has a number of impressive squares, of which this is but one). Prepared for a day of exploring, we found our way to the tourist office, which proved to be very helpful and which supplied us with a map of the city and its recommended attractions. Even with a map it took us a little while to get our bearings. There are two rivers, the Rhone and Saone, which meet at Lyon, and the roads certainly aren't laid out in a grid pattern. For example, at Place des Jacobins, there are seven streets all coming off the square at various angles. Navigation, at least initially, was quite a challenge.

Eventually we sorted ourselves out and were able to take in the beautiful scenery and architecture of Lyon. We discovered that our hotel is in the middle of a very upmarket shopping area, with Pucci, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and every other prestige brand one may or may not have heard of all within walking distance. Not that they would ever benefit from us being there.

We first walked over the Bonaparte Bridge, bought two-day public transport passes then caught the funicular railway (cable car, in Wellington-speak) up the very steep hill to the Basilisque Notre-Dame de Fourviere, the massive cathedral which overlooks the city. We spent quite a bit of time in the cathedral and its precincts then took a leisurely walk down the hill to the city. We were certainly pleased that we hadn't pushed ourselves into walking up the hill, though many people did. At the bottom of the hill, we visited Lyon Vieux, the old town with its narrow cobblestone streets, and the nearby Cathedrale St Jean - also very impressive. Wherever one looks there are great things to view and to photograph.

By then, we'd done quite a bit of walking, so after savouring some excellent local ice-cream we decided to rest up at our hotel for a couple of hours before setting off to forage for dinner. There weren't all that many restaurants in our immediate area and given the tone of the other shops, we thought the prices would be so high that we'd need a bank loan to get a bowl of soup. We decided therefore to head towards the the old town, where we'd noticed a number of restaurants in the narrow winding streets. It was around 9pm, and getting there after the 15-minute walk we got quite a surprise. There were just so many restaurants, side by side by side, with tables spilling out on to the footpaths and roads. And all of them were absolutely jam-packed. The place was like Park Road, Milton, or Wellington's Courtney Place, times fifty. Eventually, we picked out a place from the many which had tempted us, and had a really great dinner. The city's bridges and major buildings are all lit up at night, and it really is a beautiful place. We'd known very little about the city beforehand, but were certainly very impressed by the place.Read more
Traveler So in Lyon the kings don't go north-south and the queens don't go east-west? What kind of a city is that? How does anyone cope? :-)
9/8/17Reply
It's OK. By the time we leave we will have sorted them out.
9/9/17Reply
1 like
Spydah Golden Anniversary
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Sep 9, 2017, 6:26pm
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 176 m
- France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon Lyon 05 chapelle Notre dame de Confort 45.760777, 4.83426845°45’39” N 4°50’3” E
Day 17
A change in the weather
September 9, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
As mentioned already, we were really impressed with our hotel, and even though it's on a busy road, the double-glazed windows meant that we couldn't hear a thing. We set off as usual for our petit dejeuner of jus d'orange, croissants and café. The moment we stepped outside, we saw that there had been a change in the weather, with the calm warm night giving way to a chilly and very wet morning. Not that we were complaining, as the weather up to this point had been anything but wet, and certainly on the hot side. we dashed inside for our warm clothes and borrowed one of the hotel's courtesy umbrellas. The weather wasn't going to stop us, but it could cause us to modify our plans.

Breakfast over, we headed once more over the Bonaparte Bridge to the old city. Much to our surprise, a whole big area from the end of the bridge and throughout the St Jean square had been transformed overnight into a market for pottery. Hundreds, and it must have been at least a couple of hundred, potters had set up their stalls and were selling a great variety of handmade pieces in all sorts of styles. Most of it was in absolutely beautiful taste, and if we'd been in the market for tasteful ornaments, and had the money, we could have picked up the odd shipping container or two of beautifully-designed original items. We felt quite sorry for the stall-holders though, as their sunshade umbrellas were of little help in keeping them warm and dry.

After a bit of a browse around we then caught the cable car, a different one from the previous day's, up to the old Roman ruins. Our rides weren't totally incident-free. At one of the stations, the automatic card reader refused to recognise Brian's day pass ticket, and at another, Mary's ticket wouldn't function. No big deal under normal circumstances, but what do you do when everything is automated and the station is totally unmanned? (Confession: Brian's problem was his own silly fault for being smart, because he was demonstrating to Mary how to use the automatic turnstile, so went back out of the station and tried to get back in. The system realised that he had already passed through and wasn't going to let him go through a second time). With the help of a couple of helpful but amused locals we found out eventually how to beat the system and were able to continue on our way.

Having sorted things out and then explored the Roman ruins located high above the city. The rain had lightened off by then, which was good. We decided though that we should go to Plan B and make this largely a museum day, so we took ourselves off to the Gadagne Museum, which is nearby in the old town. The extensive main display is a history of Lyon from the 1st century BC, when it was known as Lugdunum, through to the present day. It was interesting, though hard to take everything in in one go. The museum is located in what was once a historic home, spread over four levels and with a maze of rooms. We found ourselves up and down numerous stairs and in and out of many doorways, but it was all very interesting.

The museum was showing a temporary exhibition, also quite extensive, on the history of puppets and puppetry. It too contained a lot of interesting exhibits, mainly antique marionettes from various periods of history.

After a largish lunch, neither of us was especially hungry, but we thought we'd head out anyway towards the old town where we could enjoy another beautiful dinner. It takes a while to get the hang of the geography, but we finally realised that it was an even shorter walk to the restaurant area than we'd realised. The only problem was that the rain had returned, which meant that nobody was wanting to sit outside and therefore there were far fewer tables available. Even before we reached the old town, we stumbled across a maze of old streets filled with restaurants on our side of the river. Very impressive, but at that time, round 8.30pm, there were no spare (dry) tables to be had. In the end, we decided to head back to our hotel and to fill up with a big breakfast the next morning instead.Read more
0 likes