Day Four France - Lyon to Annecy

Today is Thursday September 29. Day Four of our visit to France.  We were on the road from the hotel at 9:15 this morning.  Our objective was go to Bernachon’s.  Bernachon’s is rated as Lyon’s best pastry shop.  It was fabulous.  Mary and I could not resist.  Several pictures below. 

After Bernachon’s, it was off to Aix-Les-Bains.  What a pleasant surprise and treat.  What a beautiful small city.  Lots of very nice big hotels and lots of nice places to eat.  There is even a 4-hr boat ride on the lake but we decided that we couldn't be in Aix-Les-Bains for more than a couple of hours.  Mary and I had lunch in one of the pleasant squares.  Here are pictures of Aix-Les-Bains

Note on the lower right of this picture the SNCF train station.  Quite convenient for the train travelers.  Very close to the main action in Aix-Les-Bains. 

Now we’re off to Cruseilles (rhymes with Marseille) where we will be spending two nights.  What we found out is that the Chateau de Avenieres is way up into the hills above Cruseilles.  Here are pictures from today of the hotel and our room. 

Day Three France - Provence to Lyon

Today is Wednesday Sept 28. Day three of our visit to France. A few notes on traveling by rental car. 1) Our VW Passat is too electronic and technical. Much should have been explained at the rental counter. It’s day 4 with the car and I just learned how to show all of the screen messages in English. Not much good in French. Even the door to the gas cap has electronics that you have to figure out. 

2) Francine, our Garmin Nuvi GPS continues to be awesome. Just a few places that she couldn’t figure out but the rest has been truly amazing. Roundabouts are a breeze with the GPS. And, you will go through a serious quantity of roundabouts. Francine really knows all of the streets –even the narrowest of alleys. Mary and I continue to be amazed at the streets that Francine directs us to turn on. To me, these are not really streets. Yes, they are paved but some are so narrow, the car can barely make the turn and the car can barely fit.

3) Even many of the major roads are narrow. Our driveway at home is wider. Big trucks and lots of cars use these narrow roads in both directions. This is a lot like the A and B roads in England. You are constantly slowing down and measuring your way through as a car or truck passes you in the opposite direction. Avignon and Arles have lots of these narrow streets. In the hill towns in the southeast of Provence, these narrow streets are the highways. It’s a lot of narrow driving. Numerous times, we have come to a complete stop to squeeze our way through.

4) You pay for parking everywhere you visit. On the streets, there is literally no free parking available when you need it. The residents have them all taken. What you can often find are paid parking areas. You park at regular places in the streets but you go to a machine and pay in advance for the time you need. In these areas, the parking is usually free from 7:00pm to 9:00am the next morning. In the larger cities, you can find nice parking garages. You’ll pay about €24 per day to park 24 hours in the parking garage. With the exception of Lourmarin, which did have free parking everywhere, every tourist town has paid parking places. You can find some free parking is some of these towns but you will have to walk a good distance to see the sites you came to visit. 

5) The major highways are mostly toll roads. To give you an idea of expense, we drove 155 kM on the A7 and we paid €14 for the toll. One thing you quickly get used to is the toll gates all being automated. No staff anywhere. You take a ticket and off you go. When you get to your destination or you arrive at the place where the toll road ends, you insert your card and the system calculates your toll. Many locals have their electronic pass but for the tourist, you better have cash or credit card. There are plenty of stops along the motorways where there are petrol stations, places to eat and WCs. This part works very well.

6) Still, if you want to see areas outside of the major cities, you will need a rental car. We really are enjoying our visits to all of these nice out-of-the-way places.

Now for the report.

We checked out of the hotel at 8:00am and departed for our next night in Lyon. Quite a drive but on the way, we would stop in Orange, Vaison La-Romaine and Grenoble before completing our drive into Lyon. 

Orange was quite nice. One of the main tourist features there is a Roman amphitheatre. The acoustics on the inside are reportedly quite good. We did see the outside but it didn’t seem worth the expense to go inside. So we decided to have croissants. I had café au lait and Mary had her herbal tea. Many shops and places to eat nearby the amphitheatre. Lots of locals walking around so that was a good thing. 

One difficulty with trying to have coffee and pastry in the morning is you generally can’t have them together in the same place. Boulangeries and pastry shops don’t make or sell coffee. The bars all have the coffees but no pastries.  I suppose that works out OK as the cafe drinkers sit out in front and smoke, smoke and smoke some more.  Even the women smoke cigarettes.  Really disgusting.  I guess that the boulangeries and pastry shops don't want to put up with the nasty stuff.  We did find a bar that told us we could by the pastries around the corner and then, we could bring them to the bar and have their coffee. That worked OK. Here are a couple of pictures of the Roman Amphitheatre.

Vaison La-Romaine was yet another pretty town with squares, shops, restaurants and lots of traffic. Again, parking in the square and surrounding areas was all paid parking. Not expensive but still you have to pay. Here are pictures of the square area from Mary.

After Vaison La-Romaine, we were getting a bit behind schedule. At this time, we decided to forego Grenoble and head straight for Lyon. Our plan was to arrive around 4:00pm, have an early dinner and rest up a bit. It did take almost 2.5hrs to drive to Lyon. This is where the toll was €14 on the A41.

We checked into the Hotel Central which was really well located in the older area of the town. Our room was small be clean and very modern. We had to pay in advance though which is not always a good sign. But, it turned out just fine.

During our drive, we checked our travel books for places for dinner. One restaurant that seemed appealing was the Brasserie Georges. This restaurant has been in business since 1836 and the food there was described as being very reasonable. While settling into the hotel room, I noticed on the hotel receipt and travel book that both the hotel and the Brasserie Georges where on the same street and the address numbers were 4 numbers apart. I walked outside and the restaurant was 2 doors down. Not bad.

The Brasserie Georges seats 400+ people. We scanned the very large main dining room and we could see approximately 240 seats. Quite large. The menu was quite provincial French and not bad. We ordered. While waiting for our food, we noticed a couple of small mice running around the floor. No big deal. The waiter just stepped on one and killed it and then kicked it along down the aisle.

Our dinner was just fine. Mary had a nice chocolate desert. By the time we left, the restaurant was about 60%-70% full. For awhile, there was a line out the door. Off we went to our hotel where we had little mice dreams.

Day Two France - Provence

Today is Tuesday September 27. We're waking up at normal early hours in Avignon. For breakfast this morning, it's croissants, coffee for me and chocolate for Mary. What a quick change from going to bed in Barcelona at 1:00am and getting up at 9:00am. 
Our priority for the Provence visit is the hill towns in Southeastern Provence. We visited Lourmarin, Roussillon, Gordes and Les Baux en Provence. The four are all hill towns and the four are on the list of the 144 most beautiful vilaages in France. Along the way, we passed through Bonnieux which was smaller but equally as beautful. First, the Bonnieux pictures.




Now we're in Lourmarin which is another 10 kM or so more to the Southeast. What a beautiful villiage. All free parking and a pleasant stroll though the many shops, restaurants and galleries. There are public toilets on the outside stairs next to the information office but no TP. You can tour the chateau but they were closed from 11:00am-2:30pm so we missed the opportunity. But, we didn't miss a nice lunch.   

We had lunch on the back terrace of L'Insolite, one of the many restaurants and eating places in this small village. €30 for a nice hamburger and Mary's pizza. Food is not cheap in France. Interestingly, the mustard on the hamburgers is Dijon-style. Even McDonalds uses it instead of our typical yellow mustard. Daughter-In-Law Lora, who owns Au Marche, A European grocery store in Lawrence, KS will be very glad to hear this. One specialty in her store is mustards.   

The Chateau at Lourmarin

The Village from the Back Street

One of the Entrances to the Village

Lourmarin Shops and Restaurants to the Right

Lourmarin Shops and Restaurants to the Left

After lunch, we walked all around the small and narrow stone streets and alleys. Very clean and beautiful. Then we were off to Roussilin, our next stop. Roussilin was genuinely a hilltop village but it was really touristy. Parking was not easy. Any place you could find to park, you had to pay. We parked in a nice lot down the hill a bit. €2 to park wasn't too bad. Roussilin is known for the really red cliffs. Here are a couple of pictures.

A petite cup of gelato (Glace in France) and off we go to Gordes. For this village, parking is really limited and there is someboday at any parking location looking for your money. You pay in advance to park. Many visitors park up to a 1/2 mile away and walk into the village. Again, the village center is small but very attractive with its shops and restaurants. The best visual feature of Gordes is from a distance where the houses are built right on to the sides of the hill. Here are pictures.

Day One France - Provence

On Monday, September 26, we departed Barcelona on the Renfe train to Figures-Villifant.  At Figures, we transferred to a French TGV for the remainder of the journey to Nimes which was our destination.  At Nimes, we rented a car for our travels from Provence to Burgundy where we will turn in the car.  The car is wonderful but there is too much electronics.  We still haven't figured out how to use everything.  Oh well.  Our first task was to set up our new Garmin Nuvi GPS with European maps.  We've named the GPS Francine.  So far, it works more than great.  It's been awsome. 

We rented the car in Nimes so that we could begin our touring by visiting the Pont Du Gard.  The Pont Du Gard is probably the best remaining example of the Roman aquaducts.  The following are our pictures from Pont du Gard.   

Larry & Mary at Pont Du Gard (France)

Roman Aquaduct at Pont du Gard (France)

 

Roman Aquaduct at Pont du Gard (France)

No need to bore everybody with the hotel check-in.  We're in a small B&B in Avignon called Hotel Le Colbert.  Quite charming and reasonably priced.  What was special was our nice provincial French dinner at a nearby restaurant up the street called Le Pieddore.  Here's a quick picture of the interior of the dining room.  Dinner was fabulous. 

Dining Room at Le Pieddore (Avignon)

Day One Barcelona

We're here in Barcelona.  We're staying for four nights in the Hotel 1898 in the heart of La Rambla.  The room is a bit pricey but it's really nice.  Stepping outside, you immediately see the beauty of La Rambla.  The architecture of Barcelona is uniquely Art Nouveau Modernisme.  If fact, it's the architecture found throughout Catalunya, the region in which Barcelona is located.  Modernisme flourished after 1854 and continued into the 1920s.  It's everywhere in Barcelona and it's just stunning.  You will see some pictures throughout our blog on many of these buildings. 

Stepping out onto La Rambla you find a street with an island in the middle that is about 80-90 feet wide.  Shops flourish up and down La Rambla on this island.  On the sides of the streets, there are shops, shops, places to eat, and more shops.  Thousands of people are roaming La Rambla as well as other nearby streets until late into the evening.  I really meant to say early next morning. 

La Rambla Just Outside Our Hotel

The first thins we wanted to do was explore a bit down the La Rambla to the harbor area.  It was a leisurely walk past the shops for about 3 blocks.  And then we discovered the Mercat.   The Mercat is an open, but covered, market place.  The fruit, vegetables, fish, meats and poultry as well as candy, spices from around the world and eating establishments was a remarkable treat.  We were in there for about 90 minutes. 

The Main Entrance to The Mercat

And then we saw the food stands. 

 

You get the idea.,  I've never seen such a great display of food.  We had lunch which consisted of three tapas with some lettuce and dressing picante.  It was quite good.  We found a nice table but it appears that all of the tables around the perimeter of the Mercat are run by small bars and restaurants that do not have stands in the Mercat.  As soon as you sit down with food that didn't come from their establishment, they are quick to tell you.  Interestingly, they are quite nice and they would at least like to sell you something to drink.  Many people had a beer.  Mary and I had a Coke Light.  Below is what our lunch looked like. 

Lunch at The Mercat

Off to Barcelona

As usual, our multi-week travels begin at 3:30am in the morning with a Super Shuttle ride to the airport.  Being a regional airport, flights out of Sacramento International are very early in order to get you to larger hub airports or other transfer airports.  For us, it's a 6:00am United flight to Denver where we will transfer to Air Canada to Montreal.  From Montreal, it's an overnight flight to Barcelona.

Our Air Canada flight to Montreal was on an Airbus 319.  Because the ticketing for the United Airlines partner airline had difficulties, I sat in seat 28A and Mary sat in seat 28F.  Both of us had window seats in the same row.  Funny stuff.  On this plane, there was an individual screen on the back of each seat along with a USB port and an electrical receptacle capable of 120V and 220V.  The entertainment was free.  I watched Paris at Midnight, a Woody Allen film.  Not bad.  On arrival at Montreal it sort of reminded me of London Heathrow in that each passenger gangway that connects to the planes was sponsored by HSBC.  Same thing at London Heathrow. 

Upon exiting the plane at Montreal, Mary and I took the longest walk to Canadian Border Control that I believe I have ever taken.  About a mile of walking with all of our luggage.  There were moving sidewalks but it was still a hike.  Both Mary and I cleared Border Control quite easily.

After Border Control, we exited into the Montreal gating area for our next flight.  The Barcelona flight was to depart in 2 hours.  Next to our gate was a superb gelato shop and a foreign exchange booth.  I exchanged $20 U.S. for 16 Canadian dollars and a bit of change.  So much for our sinking U.S. dollar.  This bought us each 1 medium gelato and one bottle of Dasani water.  They only had Evian or Dasani.  

The flight from Montreal to Barcelona was ontime for departure.  It appeared to be an older Boeing 767-300ER.  No overhead pop-down monitors.  Instead, there were larger screens in a couple of places in the plane.  Our seats were 13 rows from our screen.  The seats and passenger heads in front of us were high and cut off the lower part of the screen.  The resolution on the screen was not the best either.  Fortunately, we rented The Kings Speech and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and placed in on our IPAD 2.  We watched The Kings Speech.  Mary watched it again. 

The flight to Barcelona was uneventful.  We arrived in Barcelona at 7:20am.  A few surprises when when we got to the Barcelona airport.  First, they don't seem to have enough gates so many of the planes have to park out on the ramp area.  You have to carry all of your luggage down stairs and then hop onto a group of buses that are very low to the ground.  We were then driven to Immigration where again, things were uneventful. 

From previous research, I knew that there was a Renfe train station at the airport.  Well, not really at the airport.  It's really about 2 miles away.  You catch the green connecting bus to Terminal 2 which is also 2 miles away.  You get off at Terminal 2 but then you go up to an enclosed overhead walkway that goes to the railway station.  That's another 1/4 mile walk. 

At the train station, Mary and I purchased the Tarjeta Dorada (gold card).  This is a discount card for senior citizens.  They logged our birthdates into the computer.  But, for Renfe travel on Monday-Thursday you get 40% off.  For Friday-Sunday train travel, you get 25% off.  Our tickets to the Barcelona Sants main station was 1.90 Euros.  The journey took about 25 minutes.  From the train station, we took a taxi to our hotel.  13.80 Euro for the taxi fare.  We got to our hotel on La Rambla at about 9:30am.  Fortunately, they had a room available for us and we were able to check in a catch a short nap. 

Pictures begin in the next post.