2022 Epic Adventure – Page 6 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Drive Day

Not too much to report today as it was a 6-hour drive day. We left our new friends in Rheinau this morning heading back into France. After driving for almost 2 1/2 hours, we stopped at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial. It’s dedicated to dead and missing from WWI. It was much larger than other WWI cemeteries we’ve been to, and like all of them, was very beautiful and peaceful.

From the cemetery it was a short, 15-minute drive to Montsec Monument, commemorating the Battle of St. Mihiel in September 1918, a victory for the Allied forces. In spite of achieving their objectives, the cost in lives was very high. Many of the men buried in the cemetery were killed in that battle.

Peter didn’t climb the stairs, so I stayed up there only long enough to grab a few pics. The view was beautiful.

We had our lunch looking out over the beautiful French countryside.

Then it was back in the car for the more than a 3-hour drive to next lodging. It’s a beautiful house that we could easily live in, if we wanted to live in the middle of nowhere…which we don’t. But we’re only 90 minutes from our first stop tomorrow….Orleans.

Driving Through the Black Forest

A more accurate title for today’s post would be eating our way through the Black Forest. First, why is it called the Black Forest? Well, when the Romans invaded the area, they noticed that the forest was very dense which made the green trees look black. So, there’s your trivia for the day. Just how have we lived without knowing that??

Just like yesterday (Monday), the day started very foggy and cold, only in the mid-40s. We started off for Baden Baden, about 45 minutes away from our flat. By the time we arrived the fog had burned off and, while still chilly, the sun was shining.

We stopped for coffee and hot chocolate but when we went into the café, we found some delicious looking ice cream creations. Since we didn’t want the chef to feel bad, we decided to try a couple.

Peters on the right was a vanilla ice cream sandwich on chocolate chip cookies. Mine on the left was vanilla ice cream topped with berry sorbet, coated in chocolate, nuts and some cool eatable decorations on top.

There was nothing special we wanted to do in town, so we just walked around for a while looking at some of the beautiful buildings.

We didn’t make it up to the church (pink steeple)….too many stairs to climb the hill.

The Bath and Spa. Baden Baden is the Bath of Germany. For many years people have traveled here to “take the waters.”

Giant statue of Otto von Bismarck. He was responsible for the reunification of Germany in the 19th century.

Spital Church, the only remaining building from the medieval hospital.

The Calvary Group is a monument from the late 15th century depicting Jesus and the sleeping apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus’ crucifixion.

There was no plaque on the fountain telling us its significance but we thought it looked cool.

After about an hour in Baden Baden, we headed out through the Black Forest to Hornisgrinde, which at 3818 feet, is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest.

There was a small lake with a path, which meant we could have walked around the lake….we didn’t. There were also paddleboats, but we didn’t do that either.

Even though we brought our sandwiches, we decided to save them for dinner and had lunch in the restaurant. Peter had bratwurst and I had what I thought was a tart. Turned out it was a giant flat bread.

My flatbread had tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and cheese. Apparently it’s a local dish. While not what I expected, it was very good.

Our plan was to have Black Forest Cherry Cake for dessert (I told you we ate our way through the area) but we were both full so we brought a piece home with us.

After a very leisurely lunch (service was incredibly slow) we headed back through the forest. Our ultimate destination was a winery that our host told us about, but on the way we passed so many adorable little towns and beautiful vistas. Most times there was no place to take pictures but we did stop in one of the villages for a few minutes. Here are some shots of Ottenhofen.

Almost every village had a little stream running through it.

At the Oberkirch Winery, we tasted several wines. Peter wasn’t crazy about any of the dry whites, but did pick up a small bottle of Rose. I loved 2 out of the 3 sweet wines I tried, so now I have 3 bottles of wine in the car. That should last me the next couple of weeks until we fly to Amsterdam.

Then it was another 30 minutes home where we sat on the front patio chatting with Stephan, our host. What a delightful person! He’s a local police officer, one of 5 in a town of over 12,000 people. He said they’re spread pretty thin, especially when the French cross the border (only about 5 minutes away) and start causing trouble. He also told us that the house we’re living in was built in 1770….how cool is that!

While we were visiting, we broke into the Black Forest Cherry Cake, and yes, it was as good as it looks.

The cherries and sponges are soaked in Kirsch, a cherry brandy.

Tomorrow, we’re back in France. It’s primarily a driving day as we head west towards the Bordeaux region. It will take about 4 days, though, and we’re excited about seeing some cool things along the way.

4 Countries in 3 Days

If you count Switzerland, which was only a drive thru, we’ve been in 4 countries in 3 days…Italy, Switzerland, France and now Germany. Today started cloudy and very foggy but ended up beautiful, sunny, and warm.

We spent several hours in Strasbourg, France, a town that Peter has been wanting to see. I was here for an afternoon almost 30 years ago but didn’t remember anything. It’s very much like Colmar, a fairy tale town, with half-timbered buildings and a river running down the middle. But, this one had a Cathedral. Since it’s been 3 whole days since we’ve visited a Cathedral, of course, we had to stop in.

The Cathedral of our Lady of Strasbourg, the #1 tourist attraction in the city, broke ground in 1015 and was completed in 1439. Unlike most Cathedrals in Europe, it has only one tower instead of two.

Like all the others, the inside was remarkable. My favorite part was the rose window in the nave; the colors were gorgeous.

This was just a few of the many beautiful windows, 73 of which were removed during WWII and stored in a nearby salt mine.

This was another of my favorites. I love the circular windows above the arched ones.

Of course there was a grand organ.

Originally built in 1260 and rebuilt many times over the next 450 years.

The Astronomical Clock is one of the Cathedral’s most famous features.

The carved pillar was also unique.

After leaving the Cathedral, we enjoyed some music in the square. These musicians were wonderful, I could have listened to them for hours.

Then we walked to Petite France, the city’s lively tourist hub, known for cobblestone streets, canals, and well-preserved half-timbered homes. On our way, we stopped for a mid-morning snack of eclairs.

Peter’s was chocolate and mine was berry.

It was filled with blueberry…oh, so good.

And a few minutes later…

In addition to sweet eclairs, they had savory including salmon. A salmon eclair!?! That’s just wrong on so many levels.

We finally made it to Petite France and it was very reminiscent of Little Venice in Colmar.

It didn’t matter, though, as it was so pretty. We really enjoyed the view.

Then we saw the covered bridges from a distance. It was a bit too far to walk.

The tower in the background is one of two at the bridge.

Since we had seen everything we wanted to see, we headed back to the car, stopping first for a baguette to bring home and a sandwich to share. We ate on a bench on the Ill River. By this time the sun was out and the temp had warmed up considerably.

We were only about 25 minutes from our new Airbnb flat in Rheinau, Germany, just about 10 minutes over the border with France. We’re staying in a lovely ground floor flat in an old farmhouse. Our hosts, Stephan and Ruth, live upstairs. When we arrive, Ruth greeted me like a long lost relative with a big hug.

There’s a gorgeous garden and, once we were settled, we enjoyed a glass or two of wine while sitting in the sun.

Tomorrow we’re going to drive through the Black Forest on a circuitous route Stephan suggested. There’s even a great spot for some Black Forest Cherry cake. I can’t wait!

Colmar, France

After 3 lovely days in Italy, we’re back in France. The drive yesterday (Saturday) wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The weather was cloudy and drizzly, but the ride was an easy one and the countryside was beautiful, even in with the clouds.

Here’s a short video Peter took out the front window. It wouldn’t embed so, if you want to see it, you’ll have to click the link. Don’t know why that happens but luckily it doesn’t happen to often.

https://youtu.be/BAw7Afq9AKI

There were a lot of tunnels to get through the mountains, the longest of which was over 10 miles long. It was only one lane in each direction as the northbound tunnel was shut down. So, two lanes of traffic in each direction went down to one lane to get into the tunnel. The back up on our side was only about 5 minutes long, but the one on the southbound side was about 5-6 miles long!! It was going to take them hours to get to the tunnel. Once we got in it moved at a steady pace but the merge to one lane each way was cumbersome. We felt pretty bad for those drivers knowing how long that traffic jam was.

Beautiful Swiss Alps from the rest stop.

After about 2 1/2 hours of driving we stopped for a break and petrol. We wandered around the giant rest stop for a little while looking for yummy things to eat. Here’s a sample of Swiss pastries. We bought some Swiss chocolate instead…very good.

Once back in the car, we were just over an hour away from Colmar. It’s in the Alsace region of France which has bounced between France and Germany throughout the years. The German influence is very evident in the food and the buildings. Most people here speak both languages, but not much English. We’re managing with sign language, pointing, and google translator.

Statue at the entrance to the town of Colmar.

You might be wondering why there is a Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the town. Well…Colmar is the home town of August Bartholdi, the Father of the Statue of Liberty. This is one of several replicas throughout Europe.

Other than the birthplace of Bartholdi, Colmar is most known for it’s well-preserved old town and the half-timbered buildings. Yesterday we took the Petite Train through the city which gave us an overview of the tourist part of town and an idea of the things we wanted to visit today. Here are the highlights of our wanderings. As you can tell, it was cloudy both days but, luckily, we didn’t have much rain.

The Unterlinden Museum used to house a 13th century convent but is now the most visited arts museum in France, outside of Paris.

We only covered one floor of the museum as the other floor had archeological artifacts and we’ve seen enough of that to last awhile. The salons we saw contained mostly religious art.

Isenheim Altarpiece c. 1512-1516. It is stunning.

This is one of the other altarpieces. In all there were 5 of them.

This painting was from the mid-16th century.

There were so many beautiful buildings in town, it was hard to decide which ones to include but there are a few that are notable.

The House of Heads was built in 1609 and got its name from the 111 heads that decorate the façade of the house.

The beige house on the right is one of the oldest in town, dating from about 1450.

To the immediate left of that house is this one, built in 1575 and originally used as a guard house.

Don’t think there’s anything too special about this house; we just thought it looked cool.

There are several churches in town but we only visited this one.

Close up of the beautiful roof tiles of the church.

Large clock on the outside of the church.

Of course I have to include at least one stained glass window.

We visited Little Venice, one of the most photographed areas in Colmar. There is a small boat ride down the river but since we’ve been on a gondola ride in the real Venice, we passed on this ride.

Here’s the exact same shot but without our big heads blocking the view. This is the most photographed spot in Colmar. It was so pretty, even with the clouds.

Statue of the Little Winemaker. This was also done by Bartholdi.

Part of the covered market. It turns out that grocery stores are closed on Sunday so in retrospect, we should have picked something up for dinner here.

Pfister House was built in 1537. Here’s the entire building.

And here’s just the top part without all the tourists.

In addition to walking around and looking at the very cool buildings, we had some wonderful local Alsatian cuisine.

The first two pictures are Saturday’s late lunch. Both mine (top) and Peter’s (bottom) were Cordon Bleu but with veal rather than chicken. Mine had a rich mushroom sauce while Peter’s was smothered in cheese. The Alsatian pasta was actually spaetzle, a German pasta. This was very different from the Cordon Bleu we had in Paris which was cooked in the traditional French way.

Today we had a little snack mid-morning.

Peter had ice cream and I had a crepe suzette. There was so much brandy on it that I wouldn’t have been able to drive for an hour after eating it.

Then for lunch today, Peter had a burger and I had what was basically a broiled ham and cheese sandwich but, oh, it was delicious.

Colmar is on the Alsace Wine Route which is France’s oldest wine route. It spans about 100 miles north to south along the region. We only visited a couple of them on Saturday but driving to them through the picturesque villages was a lot of fun. The wines are more of a sweet variety which I love. Peter, not so much. He didn’t even get out of the car for the 2nd one. I bought a couple bottles of lovely sweet Gewurztraminer (impossible to pronounce correctly) wines that I get to enjoy all by myself.

There are vineyards everywhere you look.

The only shops open today were the tourist shops and, while we only went into a couple, we really enjoyed the Christmas shop.

Peter in one of the 5-6 rooms of the store. It was great fun wandering around the rooms but it was almost sensory overload as there were so many ornaments and other Christmas decorations.

Even with the cloudy, cool, rainy weather, we thoroughly enjoyed our short stay in Colmar. It is well worth a visit if you ever get to this part of France. Tomorrow we head about 40 minutes northwest of here to Strasbourg where we’ll spend the next couple of days. The weather is supposed to clear up a little so maybe we’ll see the sun.

Duomo d’Milano

Before getting into today’s adventure, here’s a clip from last night (Thursday) I took from our back balcony. This is what we love about staying in Airbnb flats versus hotels. We were in a regular neighborhood, listening to the local kids playing. It totally flashed me back to when I lived in Sicily 30 years ago as I used to watch the kids play in our courtyard. Of course those kids are now approaching 40 years old, but…

We had a very short drive today, only about 90 minutes, but it rained all the way. Not terribly hard, just enough to have the wipers on. As I didn’t want to drive into Milano and deal with trying to park the car in the city, we found a park and ride. It was at the end of one of the metro lines and, once on the train, we were at the Duomo in less than 20 minutes. Perfect.

The official name of the Duomo (Italian for Cathedral) is The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That’s quite the mouthful so it’s no surprise everyone just calls it the Duomo. It is the largest church in Italy, 2nd largest (after St. Peter’s in the Vatican) on the Italian peninsula, and 3rd largest in the world after St. Peter’s and Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida in Brasil.

Construction began in 1387, was consecrated in 1418 but took 600 years to complete, with the final touches being done in 1963. There are more statues on this gothic-style cathedral than any other building in the world. There are 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures, and that’s just on the outside. There are hundreds more on the inside.

It was heavily damaged in WW2. Luckily the incredible stained glass windows had been removed so those were saved.

A close up of one of the panels from the main door

The last time we were in Milano in 2016, we didn’t go inside because the line was crazy long and it was crazy hot outside. Seeing the inside was the main reason we came back this year. Because of our handicap placard, we didn’t have to wait in line and we didn’t have to pay. I’m so glad we came back because the inside of this remarkable building really takes your breath away. The carvings and windows are beyond belief. You almost don’t know where to look first. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took.

Windows and statues above the main door.

Long view from the Nave to the front of the Duomo.

Two of the enormous windows behind the main altar.

Closeup of one of the hundreds of carvings in the Duomo.

There is an archeological museum in the basement of the Duomo, but there were too many stairs and there was no handrail so it wasn’t safe enough for us to go down. Instead we went to the Duomo Museum, which was phenomenal. It contained many of the original windows, carvings and spires that are too old to expose to the elements. There were also original tapestries, chalices, and molds used to make the components of the Duomo. I took about a zillion pictures but here are some we (Peter helped pick them out) think are representative of what we saw.

This is the Pax of Pius IV. It’s made from gold, lapis-lazuli, agates, diamonds, rubies, garnets, and wood. It was made sometime between 1559-1565.

Chalice made from gold, rubies, pearls, sapphires, rock crystal and glass. This was made the end of the 15th century.

Some of the original early 15th century spires.

This is a wood carving of the Madonna and Child, circa 1425-1450.

There was an entire room of stained glass windows. Unlike the ones inside the Duomo, I was able to get up close to these. The workmanship was incredible.

There were quite a few tapestries as well. This one was our favorite.

This is an original mold for one of the wall panels. The detail was unbelievable.

I could go on and on, but I won’t. I think you get the idea that both the Duomo and Museum were well worth the trip.

Here’s a short video of the Piazza from the front of the Duomo.

Then it was time for lunch. We wanted to eat at the restaurant we visited in 2016 that specialized in Risotto, but we couldn’t find it. If it hadn’t been raining (just drizzle but enough to get wet), I would have left Peter on a bench and looked a little harder for it, but I didn’t want to drag him through the streets without even knowing if the place was still open. So, we ate at a restaurant just behind the Duomo. They had outside seating under a large canopy and heaters so we were perfectly comfortable.

We started with bruschetta. Those cherry tomatoes were hard to control. Even cut in half they kept rolling off the bread.

Today we switched it up. Peter had pizza and I had Risotto alla Milanese.

This was so creamy and delicious. I will have to find a recipe and try it at home.

Our last stop of the day was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is on one side of the Piazza Duomo. Factoid: Every city in Italy has dozens of things named Vittorio Emanuele II. Why you ask? He was the first king of the unified Italy.

Anyhoo….the galleria is 4 stories and is meant to look like a covered pedestrian street. It was built between 1865 and 1877 and is Italy’s oldest active shopping mall.

One of the mosaics on the floor is of a bull.

The Milan Bull. Notice the indentation between the bull’s back legs.

Legend has it that spinning 3 times on your heel in this exact spot will bring good luck. Well, Peter needs all the good luck he can get right now so it gave it a whirl.

OK, so he only made it around once but some good luck is better than none.

Here are some yummy looking pastries we found a few steps from the bull.

If Milano is on your bucket list, there are many more things to see/do than we did today. We spent 4 days here in 2016 and didn’t feel the need to repeat those adventures. But if you come be sure to…

Say hello to Leonardo. This is in the piazza just outside of LaScala.

Go to the refectory of Santa Maria della Grazie to see DaVince’s masterpiece The Last Supper. This is the hottest ticket in town so be sure to buy a ticket in advance.

Visit Sforza Castle. The Sforza family were rivals of the di’Medici family.

Then, of course, there’s the shopping. Milan is the fashion capital of Europe so there are more than a few shops for you to browse. Depending on what you like to do, you could easily spend several days enjoying Italy’s 2nd largest city.

Tomorrow we have a long drive (about 5 1/2 hours) through northern Italy and Switzerland to Colmar, France. I looked at places to stop along the way but we’ve already been to Lugano and there wasn’t much to see/do in Bern or Basel, so we’re going to power through to Colmar. Besides, weather is still rainy and we’re driving through the Alps, so I’d rather get it over with before snow starts.

Hopefully we’ll get to Colmar in time to actually enjoy some of the city before checking into our flat. It will be sad to leave Italy but we’ll be back next year. Buona notte cari amici.

Beautiful Day in Torino

It turned out to be a very nice day. Rain is still forecasted but not until much later this evening.

We started the day at the Egyptian Museum just a few minutes walk from Gelato Pepino.

Statue of Isis. The ancient Egyptians worshiped cats.

The color on the tiles was amazing considering how old they are.

The museum has one of the world’s most significant papyrus collections. with nearly 700 whole or reassembled manuscripts and over 17,000 papyrus fragments. The one below is one small section of a very long death story.

The picture on the top right: The person who died wants to be reincarnated as a falcon and the cow with the double ostrich plume is the heavenly goddess of creation. These were so cool and in remarkable condition.

In the early 20th century, an Italian archeologist went on an Egyptian dig to look for more artifacts. Here’s one of the cameras he used to document their work.

How would you like to drag this around on vacation.

Funeral figures found in many of the graves.

After finishing at the museum, we walked about 10 minutes back to Piazza Castello and headed to the Royal Palace. I know I said we wouldn’t be going to another palace, castle, chateau or church for a while but that was before we decided to come to Italy. So…here’s the next palace.

The Royal Palace of Torino was the home of the Savoy family who ruled much of Italy for many years. In case you didn’t know, Italy was only unified as a country in 1861. Prior to that, it was made up of kingdoms ruled by the most powerful house in the kingdom. One of the most famous is the di’Medici family in Florence. The House of Savoy ruled the Piedmont (far northwest) and Sardinia areas. Upon unification, the country was ruled by a King until it became a republic after the war.

Peter with an elephant in front of the Royal Palace.

Six years ago there was a statue of a bull in this exact spot.

Sept 30, 2016…almost exactly 6 years to the day. He had a few extra pounds on him back then.

The front of the palace was covered in scaffolding so there wasn’t much to take a picture of but here’s a shot from the garden.

One of the wings of the palace from the garden.

The palace was originally built in mid-16th century and modernized about a century later.

The armory was modeled after Versailles outside of Paris.

In one of the rooms, a restorer was doing work on the wall panels. It was pretty cool to watch her work.

The Shroud of Turin has been housed in the Royal Chapel since the mid-15th century. Once believed to be the shroud used to wrap Jesus after the crucifixion, carbon dating in 1988 shows the cloth is from the Middle Ages.

The image on the right is the product of digital filters being added to the image.

The Holy Shroud is kept in this box on the High Altar. It’s only taken out on certain occasions.

The chapel dome was amazing.

Next we planned to visit the Cathedral but by the time we got down there it was 1230 which is when the building closed for riposo. In Italy virtually everything, except bars and restaurants, shuts down for from about 1-3pm and sometimes even longer. The Cathedral wasn’t opening again until 4pm so this is the only photo we were able to get.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is in the front and the dome of the Royal Chapel is in the background.

So instead of visiting the Cathedral, we headed around the corner to Pizzium for lunch. According to TripAdvisor, it has the best pizza in Torino. Northern Italy is not known for pasta or pizza, but lunch was pretty good.

And the lasagna?? This was pesto lasagna and while Peter likes his with Bolognese better, he said it was still very good.

I could tell Peter was getting tired, so after lunch we headed back to the tram. We got home early but that gave me a chance to do a quick load of laundry. There’s no dryer but the sun is on the balcony so, hopefully, everything will dry before it rains later this evening.

We enjoyed our short time in Torino but 1 1/2 days is plenty. We were only here for a half day in 2018 but we were able to walk a little farther than we did this time. Here are a couple of other pictures from that trip.

One cool building in Torino is the Mole Antonelliana, which for a time, was the tallest masonry building in the world. It now houses the Museum of Cinema. We didn’t get that far this year but saw it in 2016. It’s in the middle of the block and is so tall that it’s almost impossible to get it in a picture. Here’s one I found on pixabay.

Beautiful sunset picture of Torino showing how much taller Mole Antonelliana is than the rest of the city. The Italian Alps are in the background.

Tomorrow we head about 90 minutes east to Milano. We spent 4 days there in 2016 but since that was the way we had to go to get to our next stop in France (weird to have to drive east to end up north but there are only so many ways through the mountains), so we decided to spend the day. We saw the Milan Cathedral from the outside in 2016, but never made it inside. We hope to do that tomorrow so be ready for more pictures of stained glass windows. Fair Warning!

Back in Our Beloved Italy

But before I get into that, have you seen what’s happened to the UK Pound?? It’s totally tanked, dropping to less than 1:1 against the dollar. OMG! Can we go back and redo the first 8 weeks of this trip. We’d save about $2000-$3000. When I was in the UK in 2002, it was 2:1 pound to dollar. Oh, how times have changed.

We had an uneventful drive from Mougins to Torino (if you don’t count all the construction slow downs), veering from the beautiful Mediterranean coast into the foot of the Italian Alps. We arrived in Torino early afternoon and got into our flat without difficulty. Then it was a 30-minute tram ride into the city center. We’re a little farther out than I like to be but we have a very nice, large flat with free parking and it’s right around the corner from the tram so I guess it evens out.

Have no idea what this building is but it looks very stately.

Dead dude on a horse in the same piazza.

We were hungry as we skipped lunch but by this time it was just after 4pm which means no restaurants are open. In most of Italy, restaurants will be open for lunch until about 3pm then close until dinner at 7-8pm. So we knew we couldn’t get real food but thought we might get an adult beverage and a snack. Well, we found Gelato Pepino. Founded in 1884, it’s one of the longest lived ice cream parlors, not just in Italy but in all of Europe.

My drink was a frozen margarita with lemon ice cream and Peter’s was a mimosa with orange ice cream. They were so good. Yes, I had massive order envy when I saw Peter’s snack. My fruit pie was very good, but his gelato was seriously delicious. We may have to go back tomorrow.

Italy isn’t known for its pastries but these looked pretty good

After our snack it was a quick stop at the grocery store then back to the tram for the ride home.

Palazzo Carignagno; this was in the same piazza as Gelato Pepino.

Everything here is so familiar….the dirty streets, the graffiti, the cigarette smoke….it’s just like every other city in Italy. We love it!! Ok, I could do without the cigarette smoke but it’s great to be back. I was able to go into the Tobacco shop to buy our tram tickets and understand what the clerk said back to me. My Italian is on the level of a 2nd grader, but I can make myself understood, which is more than I can do in French.

Tomorrow we’ll go back to city center to see what kind of trouble we can get into. Hopefully the rain will hold off. Night everyone.

Driving the Coast

Today was a very low key day. We slept late, had a lovely breakfast, then headed to the town of Frejus, about 40 minutes west of here. Frejus Beach is one of the places the Americans landed on Aug 15, 1944. So, of course, we had to visit and Peter had to get in the surf. Except it was a little cloudy, a little cooler and the wind was gusting like crazy, up to 30 MPH. So, he decided walking on the beach was enough.

We also saw the monument to the men who died in the 1st Indochina War from 1946-1954.

We took a short stroll down the boardwalk, trying to stay upright in the gusting wind. Once back at the car, we decided to drive the coast back to Cannes and it was a gorgeous drive. The clouds had cleared so it was a beautiful sunny day.

The road was filled with switchbacks and there weren’t many places to stop, but we found a few.

It took twice as long to get home as it would have if we’d taken the freeway but we had nothing special to do here and it was well worth the extra time.

Today’s pastry picture. We didn’t have any of these but they sure look delicious.

We’ve had a change to our itinerary. Originally, we were leaving tomorrow and heading west to catch the southwestern part of France and Andorra before heading up with western coast. Well, Peter has decided that he wants to go the other way instead. So, tomorrow we leave for Turino Italy where we’ll spend two nights. We were there in 2016 but only for an afternoon and Peter doesn’t even remember being there. So, this time we’ll take a little more time to explore the city. It will also give us a chance to practice our Italian, which is much better than our French, which of course, is practically non-existent.

We’re only about 30 miles from the Italian border and it’s pretty much straight freeway so it should be a pretty easy drive; at least I hope so. I’ll let you know.

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.