Lyon to Paris

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Lyon to Paris

Vacated our stateroom by 8.30 and enjoyed our last breakfast on ss Catherine. Very sad to say goodbye and psyching up for getting back to looking after ourselves. Filled in the morning doing blog photos admin and then got the taxi with a couple of our Uniworld buddies to Lyon train station. We were both on the TGV to Paris but had to split up on boarding as our seats were at opposite ends of the train (Two trains joined together). The trip was two hours and we arrived by taxi from the station at our hotel by 3 pm. Fortunately, we looked over our itinerary on the train to find we were booked into a restaurant for dinner. Being kiwis and not knowing where we were going we left early and we arrived at the restaurant an hour before they opened... Baptism by fire we found ourselves in a suburb shall we say, colourful, busy, populated by immigrants, homeless drunks asleep on the footpath; and 1000 pigeons hanging out under the memorial. We garnered a bit pf attention looking like we had beamed in from another planet. We quickly entered the nearest bar and ordered some courage in a glass. It was small, loud, lively and cheap, a great refuge. By now we were worried about what sort of place our restaurant was. We needn’t have worried. It is a registered historical building in the Art Nuevo style, and as it got later more and more patrons turned up. The food was French and Grant took the opportunity for another Tarte Tartan his new favourite thing. I’m enjoying Pate foie gras and terrines... oh! and red wine! This morning we cracked the Musee du Louvre, or should I say the Musee du Louvre cracked us. Our tour guide was great and we were able to wiz past the early crowd with two other couples for a rough overview and tour of a few highlights including the Mona. This was the best way to start. I have to say I’m glad I returned back after 30 years as there have been so many changes in that time. It is so amazing trouble is we still reached saturation after only a few hours. Walked home in the rain for a couple of hours rest before leaving for the night bike tour of Paris. Suddenly wondering what I was thinking to suggest that. Now worried about keeping up or falling off……in the rain!

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