Heading to the South of France

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Sunday, June 14

We woke up very early on Sunday to take the TGV train to see my friend Pierre who lives near the French Alps in Grenoble. After saying sad goodbyes to our hosts Jean and Annick we took the local train into Paris to the Gare de Lyon. Tiffany somehow managed to get caught in the doors of the Metro train as they closed and screamed. Fortunately she was ok, but the next thought was "How embarassing!". The locals on the train took it all in stride, ignoring her like they ignore all other strange occurences on the train. Tiffany blames me of course because I took up valuable time looking for the perfect spot on the train with the least number of people. The TGV is remarkably fast and efficient and 2 hours after we left Paris we arrrived in Lyon.

Lyon is the second largest city in France but is still much smaller than Paris. Life in the south of France is much slower and more relaxed even in Lyon. It also serves as a convenient gateway to many places in the south like Grenoble. Our plan was to pick up a rental car from Hertz at the train station and use it as our primary transportation in the French Alps. Pierre was working at his job and wouldn't finish until almost 7:00pm that night so we decided to drive north into Burgundy (Bourgogne in French) and do some sight seeing from the Rick steves itinerary and also check out some vineyards.

Cluny Abbey

Driving in big cities (even Lyon on a Sunday) is bad luck looking for an excuse to happen. So we left the city pretty rapidly and set the Garmin for the town of Cluny, about 45 minutes to the north. For about 900 years Cluny was home to a giant abbey that was under the direct control of the pope. Then during the French Revolution the property was confiscated by the state and some of it torn down. Today there are still many buildings to explore, but the main cathedral is just a shell of its former self. The ruins of the entry arch span the width of a street if that gives you any indication of the size. Exploring the Abbey of Cluny is a great way to get a better understanding of medieval life. Check out this link for more information on the Cluny Abbey

Wine Country and the Beaujolais Trail

After Cluny and some lunch at the local Brasserie we headed south to hit the Beaujolais trail. The region of Burgundy is well known for its wine and the Beaujolais trail is very popular if you want to explore some of its vineyard and wine caves. We started at the northern most village of Julienas and made our way through small, twisty country roads filled with grape vines, the occasional tractor and wine caves. Just outside the village of Chiroubles we stopped at the top of a hill with a commanding view of countryside and sat down by a picnic table to let the images soak into our memories.

The weather had started to turn cloudy again after lunch and the crack of lightning quickly jolted us back to reality. When the rain finally hit a few minutes later, I knew the possibility of visiting more wine caves that day was over. If you like places such as Sonoma and Napa, or even just the picturesque countryside then I highly recommend Burgundy. I underestimated the time required to truly visit this place and next time would spend at least a weekend or more here. Click here for an article from the Seattle Times on Beaujolais.

From Burgundy we drove about about 90 minutes to south, past Lyon again to meet my friend Pierre near the Grenoble airport. Pierre works as the director of the local parachute center and has experience with over 5,000 jumps. It was really great to see my old friend again and he proudly showed us around the parachute center. We also met his girlfriend Christine for the first time who was very nice. Afterwards we drove back to his house for dinner and to begin the second part of our trip.

The TGV

The TGV is France's high speed train that zips you to all corners of France, avoiding highway tolls and saving lots of time. Getting a cheap ticket on the TGV can require some effort and planning. There always seem to be cheap promo fares leaving Paris, but they always jack up the price going back. For example, we only paid 22 euros per person to go from Paris to Lyon, but had to pay 75 euros to return (partly because we are going directly to the airport). It is possible to buy the tickets directly on the SNCF web site (http://www.voyages-sncf.com/), but try to click on anything in English and you get routed to the Rail Europe web site with more expensive tickets. Learn a little French, or follow some of the walk throughs on Trip Advisor before using the web site, and always use Internet Explorer. The promo tickets are usually non-changeable and non-reimburseable, but you can print them from the internet. The regular tickets are usually refundable and changeable but you have to pick them up in person at the train station using the same credit card you made for the purchase. It can be complicated to buy tickets for the TGV, but definitely worthwhile if you want the best price.

More on Paris Trains

There are many types of trains in Paris. The Metro is the most common and is equivalent to the subway system in New York but only serves downtown. There are also regional rail lines that take you to the suburbs like the RER and long distance lines like the TGV that take you to other cities. Major train stations like the Gare de Lyon connect the local trains with regional and long distance. The only thing you need to know is what zones you want to travel. If you are staying downtown you probably want zones 1 and 2 for all the touristy areas, if you are staying out in the burbs like we were then you want zones 1 through 4. The Charles De Gaulle airport is actually in zone 5, so we typically only buy a single ticket for it. The http://www.ratp.fr web site is wonderful for mapping out your journey from station to station. You can also print some nice maps from here or simply ask for a free map at any ticket location.

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Photos

Viewing the Ruins of the Abbey
Alyssa and Erin check out the ruins of the Cluny Abbey.

Comments

[Brad]

Trains
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