2022_09/10 France – Page 3 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Cote d’Azur

Literally it means Coast of Blue but it is more commonly referred to as the French Riviera. We arrived on Saturday, which was one of our few rainy days. But even though it rained while we drove (5 1/2 hours) it seemed to stop every time we got out of the car.

We only made one stop on our way from Lyon at the Rhone American Cemetery in Draguignan (sorry….got nothing for pronunciation). It’s a small cemetery but very beautiful. The men buried here are the ones from the invasion of southern France in August 1944.

The names on the wall are of the men who are MIA.

The banner on the flowers says “Forever Young”.

After a stop at the grocery store, we headed to our resort in Mougins (pronounced Moo-een; accent on 2nd syllable). We used Hilton Grand Vacation points to stay and it’s quite nice, about 20 minutes north of Cannes. We’re in a ground floor flat and we have a king bed. We haven’t had a large bed in forever so we’re loving the extra space.

Dessert from Friday night. Peter’s was the chocolate and mine was pistachio. They were so good you just wanted to cry with joy.

On Saturday night we transported back to the dark ages….the time before the internet! Our UK SIM cards expired (stores do not open until Monday morning) and the WiFi in the resort wasn’t working. Actually, it’s the entire area not just our resort. You don’t realize how much you use the internet until you don’t have it. Luckily, the SatNav in the car works so we’ve been able to get where we need to go in the car.

Yesterday (Sunday), we drove to Nice. Our plan was to visit a museum that has prehistoric stuff in it but we never found it. But, we did find the port so we spent an enjoyable 3 or so hours hanging out there.

One of the two beaches we saw. Should come as no surprise that we didn’t go down there.

At one time we planned to take the ferry from Nice to Corsica but changed our mind. If we had gone, this was the exact one we would have been on as it was the day we planned to go.

This sucker was gigantic. It was pretty cool to see it turn around and back into the dock.

After Nice, we headed into Cannes but not much was open and I parked in the only spot in the city that had outrageously expensive parking ($7/hour) so we didn’t stay long. Instead we came home and spent an hour or so at the pool.

Today (Monday) we went back to Cannes and found a better garage to park ($6.30 for 4 hours). Our first stop was the Orange store to get new SIM cards. So, we’re finally connected.

After that chore was done, we walked down to the beach for a leisurely stroll down the promenade.

This is the building where they hold the Cannes Film Festival every May. The red carpet is a permanent fixture.

They have their own walk of fame. Or maybe handprint of fame is better.

Feet in the Mediterranean Sea. It was pretty cold.

We stopped for very expensive coffee and Fanta orange here. It was a nice spot to rest for awhile while we enjoyed our $20 drinks.

Inside of the restaurant where we had our drinks. It was pretty cool.

After walking a little more, we stopped for lunch. It had been a whole week since I had pizza so this one was a Parma and Peter switched it up with Penne Bolognese.

Along our walk we saw lots of real estate offices. These places aren’t cheap.

This was just one…about 355 sq feet 2BR 1 BA for almost $400,000. Yesterday we saw one in Nice that was about 500 sq ft for $1,050,000 but it was on the top floor with a view of the sea and a large terrace.

After lunch we had a long walk back to the car so Peter was getting pretty tired. When we got home, I dropped him off at the pool while I did laundry at the paid machines at the resort. The washers are small but the dryer is huge so I was able to get both loads into one drying cycle.

A church in Cannes we saw but didn’t go into.

The resort internet is still out but I have my computer tethered to the phone. That means I can do the blog from the computer which is much easier than doing it from the phone.

Tomorrow we’re going to one of the beaches where the Allies landed in Aug 44 after which we’ll head to Antibes where Peter found a fort he wants to visit. Hope everyone had a great weekend and we’ll chat again soon.

Lyon – A UNESCO World Heritage City

Our flat is a little further out of Lyon than I thought so it took about 40 minutes for us to get into the city. But, we’re only a short walk from the tram so it wasn’t really too bad.

Our flat is on the top floor but in the back where the roof is steeply pitched. We should have brought a crash helmet with us.

Once we got into the city, it was a 10-minute walk to the river for a cruise but on the way we passed an amazing market. It was about 2 blocks long and contained stalls for just about any food you could want. I had to practically drag Peter away from there.

While walking through the market we also had a beautiful view of the Basilica.

The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere.

This was as close as we got. We’ve reached our saturation point on anything that resembles a church so trying to get up that hill to see the inside was a non-starter.

Lyon has two rivers, the Soane and the Rhone, the latter of which is the longest river in France. You know how we love our river cruises, so we enjoyed another one today that took us to both rivers.

The Cathedral of Sainte Jean Baptiste from the River Soane.

Part of the original city fortification.

The green building is also called the pencil sharpener building.

Thought I’d start hiding the daily pastry pic. These were 6″ cakes and they look amazing.

Once the cruise was over, we headed across the river to wander the streets of the Vieux Lyon, the medieval part of town. It was filled with shops, restaurants and bars. We had eaten our sandwiches on the river cruise but we wanted to find something sweet. We found glace and sorbet…very good.

Peter enjoying his coffee in the square.

Just as we got to this little corner, the clock struck 12:30pm.

During our wandering, we stumbled into the front of the Cathedral and Peter made me go in. It is quite old, finished in 1476 but built on the ruins of a 6th century church.

The sun was glaring on the screen so I didn’t realize how crooked this was…sorry.

This astronomical clock is a unique feature of this church.

This is the last cathedral pic for a while…promise.

On our way back to the Metro we found this large fountain in the middle of a square.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Riviera to stay at Le Club Mougins just north of Cannes, of the Cannes Film Festival fame. It’s about a 4 hour drive but, depending on weather, we may stop along the way to break up the ride. Thanks for traveling with us.

Is it a Castle or is it a Chateau?

While this may look just like the castles we saw in England and Scotland, it’s actually the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

We moved from the land of castles in the UK to the land of chateaux in France. Before you panic and reach for the “close this blog” button, this is only one of two chateaux we plan to visit. The other won’t be for at least 10 days so this will be it for awhile.

But first, we had a great time last night with out friends Romain and Charmine. They live in the suburbs of Paris and came in after Romain finished work to have dinner with us. It was a wonderful evening and it was terrific to see them again.

We loved our 5 days in Paris and especially enjoyed our vibrant neighborhood. If our travels ever take us back to Paris, we’d stay in that area again.

Evening in Paris enjoying the sidewalk café.

We had a rocky start to the day when our driver, who was supposed to take us to Europcar to pick up our rental, instead dropped us off at the departure terminal. I tried to explain what we needed and he kept smiling and nodding, but the language barrier got in the way. The good news is that we had a luggage carrier and we were in the right terminal, just on the wrong end of it. After about a 15 minute walk, we finally got our car.

On the way to Lyon, we stopped at the 17th century Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte. We saw it on a Rick Steves episode and it looked interesting, and since it was on our way, we thought why not. It had been a whole week since we’d been in a castle and we were starting to go into withdrawal.

This was a super high domed ceiling in the large reception room. Unlike the rest of the ceilings, it was monochromatic rather than brightly colored.

Back of the Chateau. For an additional 3 euro you could climb the stairs to the cupola at the time of the dome. It should come as no surprise that we didn’t do that.

We ate our lunch in the garden before starting the 4-hour drive to Lyon. We’re in an Airbnb flat just outside the city center but it is on the 2nd floor with no lift!! This would be the 3rd floor in the U.S. as we start counting from 1 on the bottom. In Europe the bottom is the ground floor, then 1 and 2. I’m not sure how I missed this as I’m usually pretty careful but this time it got passed me. Peter made it up the stairs ok and since we’re only here for 2 nights I guess it’s not the end of the world. We’ll just go slow.

Not much else happening except for yet another load of laundry tonight. Tomorrow we’ll explore Lyon.