On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I'm playing catch up.... The train ride to France sounds interesting and how cool that it's only a 35 minute ride! I don't think I would do well driving opposite side of the road. The Cathedral looks beautiful! Now, I'll get back to catching up.....
Wow! The montesary and the church look beautiful yet seem so vacant and spooky at the same time.... I hope I get to go there someday.... So glad you missed the tour group, it would have totally changed your tour and not for the better!
I'm all caught up! But please tell me what I'm looking at in this photo. Is this real people or statues, or is it just a back drop of sorts, it just looks bazaar to me....
I'm all caught up! But please tell me what I'm looking at in this photo. Is this real people or statues, or is it just a back drop of sorts, it just looks bazaar to me....
I wondered if anyone would notice this one - it is a painted facade on a building and I thought it looked wonderful. A very clever idea.
Saturday 20 March – part six: now we’re feeling the love for Lyon
We wound our way up hills and narrow streets and found the place absolutely packed. After going round the block a couple of times and not finding anywhere to park, Mark headed down a dead-end road, saying that he thought he’d seen the cathedral up there. It turned out to be a great call. Not only was he right, someone was leaving (two cars in fact) just as we pulled up and we were able to park right outside the cathedral, free of charge. We were very impressed with that.
We headed to the cathedral, which was covered in intricate stonework design.
I made it up the steps and that was the point at which I lost Mark. I stood there, trying to be as calm as possible, but he was nowhere to be seen. I decided to stay put and hope that he would come back into sight and eventually he did. He told me that he thought he’d seen me head round the side of the cathedral and that’s where he’d gone, finding an amazing view there. He showed me and it was quite something. It reminded both of us of the place we’d gone for lunch on the Disney cruise on our Florence day that had allowed superb views of the city opposite.
Right in the middle of shot, you can see the complex that houses the Hilton
We stood there for a while taking it in and taking lots of photos and then we headed for the church. This was now a madhouse, as it turned out that the 5pm mass was just throwing out. Oh my goodness, we were like salmon trying to swim upstream, but eventually I found another couple of people who were going in there and followed them. Inside, our jaws dropped to the floor. What a stunning place it was! This cathedral is one of the later ones in France, having been built in the late 19th century and they didn’t spare a penny on it, as you can see:
We sat there for a while, just taking it all in and I found the whole place very calming, particularly after my earlier scare when I thought I’d lost Mark...
We headed out and Mark suggested walking down to the Roman amphitheatres. I was feeling tired and decided to entrust things to fate instead. I said we’d drive down there, as we had seen a car park earlier, but it was full, but now mass was done, maybe there would be some spaces? If there were, then great, we’ll visit it. If not, it wasn’t meant to be. There were plenty of spaces in there, so we parked up and walked down.
These amphitheatres date from around 15 BC and were built to seat 30,000 spectators and are the oldest in France. It’s good to see that today they’re still being used for performances, hence all the lighting and things that you can see in these shots. As I was tired, we didn’t go too far down, we just got some photos and then headed back to the car.
From there, it was back down the narrow winding roads, getting photos as we went:
Then it was over the first set of bridges and into the “near island” area with its shops, restaurants and traffic jams. Just like any big city I guess.
Finally we were out of there and on our way back to the hotel. We parked up and headed back to the room briefly, before hunger drove us out. We’d looked at room service, but figured that, with a casino and cinema around, there had to be a variety of restaurants down in the complex. There weren’t that many. We found many four in the total and saw about three or four others that were closed. As to why they were closed, I have no idea. I couldn’t see any signs on them, so whether it was because it wasn’t peak season or down to the recession, I don’t know. It was a Saturday night, so it was a bit odd for them to be closed, but having said that, the place wasn’t exactly bustling... They certainly had some very odd art pieces in there:
We selected a nice bistro place and were seated. The waiter eventually came over to take our order and, when I got to the main course that I wanted, which was one of the fish dishes, he told me that he was very sorry, but they had no fish at all tonight. I looked through the menu and couldn’t see anything else that I wanted, as nearly everything else was either meat or salad and I wanted a hot meal. Feeling I had no choice, we sadly headed out, as it had looked like such a nice place.
We were left with no choice but to head back to the Hilton and their restaurant. It was the most pricey (unsurprisingly ) of all the ones we’d seen that night, but where else could we go? The other couple of restaurants we’d seen on our walk hadn’t done much for us. We walked in and it was certainly a beautiful setting. I think it’s fair to say that we both felt very underdressed, especially as the French do tend to dress up a lot more than we would at home. It was nice to see, but certainly left us feeling a little left out...
We were seated and the guy asked us if we’d prefer English, which is a nice way to put it and he quickly found English menus for us. Some of the translations left a bit to be desired and I said to Mark that I might have found the French menu easier to translate.
We debated for ages and, after they brought us a fair bit of bread and we ate a fair bit of it, we both decided to pass on appetisers. I went for the scallops with parsnip tempura and Mark wimped out and went for the Hilton burger.
Before we got either of them, we were presented with an amuse bouchee to start our meal, which our waiter told us was courgette, not knowing the English translation, which is in fact courgette! By the way, to my American friends, that’s zucchini. I dug in and it tasted very nice, then Mark said the immortal words “I think it’s got chicken in it.” Indeed, there was something in there that I fortunately hadn’t got to yet. He sampled it and confirmed it was chicken, so I stopped eating it. He kept telling me how nice it was, so I gave him mine as well.
Finally, our main courses arrived (you have to keep remembering this is France and dining takes a long time here) and my scallops were absolutely out of the world. It was just one of those perfect dishes where all the flavours blended together perfectly and I was in heaven with every mouthful. The right choice.
Mark said his burger was ok, but it was a bit dry, as he’d asked for it to be well done and, as a result, it was a bit dry.
We decided to look at the dessert menu and Mark went for the crème brulee with Nutella, which he liked, but found the chocolate way too rich and had to leave it.
I went for the chocolate fondant with hazelnut ice cream. Mark was very disappointed that, when I put my spoon into it for the first time, the chocolate didn’t run out it. I was a bit disappointed too and it was a little dry, but with the hazelnut ice cream, it still tasted absolutely wonderful.
It had been a great meal and I happily put it on the room on my credit card, as it had been a great end to a great day. The bill came to €74 in the end ($100), which included a large glass of white wine for me and a beer for Mark.
La Brasserie:
Entree 10 8
Dessert 9 9
Service 8 7½
Atmosphere 9 8
Value for money 8 7½
Average score: 8.40
We headed back to the room and off to bed. Another wonderful day. Tomorrow we would finish the day in another country.
Today we drove 220 miles. The weather today was cloudy with some rain and temperatures in the high 50s. The best thing today was being able to go into the Hotel Dieu in Beaune. The worst thing today was driving around Lyon and getting to the hotel. The funniest thing today was “this reminds me of France”. Today we tried going to the old town of Lyon And the result was this is a beautiful area with some stunning views. The most magical moment today was walking into the cathedral in Lyon for the first time.
Next: I’ve never seen such clear water Please note this will be where the trip report jumps forward a bit, as I’ve already posted the section about Grenoble by accident. You will join us next leaving Grenoble on the next day – sorry for any confusion
The photos of Lyon Cathedral are amazing - I am glad you enjoyed it.
Lyon is a lovely city, but as you say very spread out, and there is a big difference to the feel of the city in the old town and the suburbs (which I found when I stayed in 2001 and 2003)
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OK, I gotta say this: 
. The Cathedral looks beautiful! Now, I'll get back to catching up.....
. Is this real people or statues, or is it just a back drop of sorts, it just looks bazaar to me....
I decided to stay put and hope that he would come back into sight and eventually he did. He told me that he thought he’d seen me head round the side of the cathedral and that’s where he’d gone, finding an amazing view there. He showed me and it was quite something. It reminded both of us of the place we’d gone for lunch on the Disney cruise on our Florence day that had allowed superb views of the city opposite. 
and then we headed for the church. This was now a madhouse, as it turned out that the 5pm mass was just throwing out. Oh my goodness, we were like salmon trying to swim upstream, but eventually I found another couple of people who were going in there and followed them. Inside, our jaws dropped to the floor. What a stunning place it was! 
Just like any big city I guess. 
They certainly had some very odd art pieces in there: 
Please note this will be where the trip report jumps forward a bit, as I’ve already posted the section about Grenoble by accident. You will join us next leaving Grenoble on the next day – sorry for any confusion 
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