France - Part Quatre
Managed to get up at 7:30am and Tim did the mountain of washing up. We stopped in Nevers for petrol, it was 23°C by 10am, a cloudless sky.
It was a lovely drive to Lyon with some beautiful views. We arrived at the Camping International site, 9 km from lyon centre, at about 2pm. Chose a pitch near to the amenities — toilets, showers, games room (table tennis, table football), washing machine — and set up camp. Relaxed for the rest of the day ready to take on Lyon the next!
06.09.04.
Got into Lyon at about 11:30am and took the funicular railway up to see the Roman theatres. Then back down and wandered around the Presqu’Ile, a peninsula between the Rhone and Saone rivers. The campsite had given us a really excellent tourist booklet about the city, very well written and humorous. We went to see the underground car park the centre of which is designed to look like the tower of Pisa, with a revolving, angled mirror! Very cool, took some photos and did some filming.
Had a meal at a cafe in Place des Terreaux, a large square with a huge fountain involving a large guy and some horses. Found a chocolaterie, they just seem to call to us! Incredibly yummy dark chocolates called Palet d’Or.
Went to a lovely internet cafe but struggled with a slow computer running Windows for nearly 2 hours :-( trying to get some photos up.
The Lyon transport system is amazing. You buy a single ticket, we got ours at the campsite on the bus, which can then be used to travel on bus, metro or tram on a journey in one direction within the space of one hour. Really good value too, 1.40 euros for a single and 4.20 for a day travelcard. The metro trains are very cool, funky seventies-style decor and driverless!!
07.09.04.
Relaxed at the campsite for most of the day, did a load of washing. Went into Lyon and wandered around to pass the time before meeting our friend Simon, who works in Lyon Tuesday to Thursday every week. Found some cool, little shops and bought a few gifts (it’ll be Christmas soon you know). Took some photos of a beautiful church and a waterfall.
After meeting Simon he showed us a whole area of Lyon we had missed the previous day which was great and he took us to a lovely little Bouchon — not one of the ‘official’ ones but what does it matter — where he knows all the staff and the owner! The food was heavenly and the wine wonderful, we talked and talked and then thought we had missed the last bus back to the campsite.
On our way to get a taxi, after saying goodbye to Simon, realised there was a night bus, waited for 40 mins, then found out it was the wrong bus stop so had to wait another 30 mins for the right bus. Got back to the campsite at 1am! Tired but very happy!!