Lyon day#10

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The cruise is coming to a close and we have truly enjoyed every single day. We met and hung out with a really great couple and will share contact with them.

Today we are in Lyon, it is the 3rd largest city in France according to our tour guide after Paris and Marseilles. We went with the cruise motor coach city tour in the a.m. We generally avoid these types of tours but they will drop us off in the heart of the restaurant and shopping district so off we went!

First we went by some roman theater ruins and then on to the highest viewpoint in the city where the people of Lyon built a beautiful catholic basilica to honor the virgin Mary. The exterior was beautiful but the interior was completely being renovated and the entire church was covered with scaffolding. There were some beautiful mosaic wall murals that were viewable. The over look outside was beautiful, you could see all of Lyon from the high vantage point including oth the Rhone and Saone rivers.

Next we descended and stopped in the old town for a walking tour, back on the motor coach for the tour of the old city center. We arrived and took a walking tour of this very old city center. The tour dropped us off near the restaurant and shopping district where Jim and I along with Jane and Bill wanted to spend the afternoon.

First up, lunch at a famous restaurant called Le Sud which is owned by French chef, Paul Bocuse. We got a really great table out on the terrace and took pictures here. We shared a bottle of nice red French wine and each couple enjoyed a salad to share. Jim ordered penne pasta with a wonderful pesto sauce and the other 3 ordered a vegetarian lasagna with fresh homemade pasta and the best sauce. We were all in gastronomical heaven.Of course we had to have dessert and we saw they had a strawberry and raspberry tart with chantily cream so we ordered that to share along with coffee.

After lunch, we walked through the shopping district and I bought me another hat. I have to stop this addiction to hats....but I do look good in the ones I bought! We walked with our friends to the train station in Lyon so they could buy train tickets to Paris after the cruise.

We walked back to the ship, got an iced coffee, took a nap and got ready for the captains farewell dinner. Our waiter, Todor from Romania was waiting for us to arrive. Another great dinner but after at about 10:00pm, the ship had to stop before a bridge because whatever litte town that was ahead was having a fireworks display for the upcoming national holiday, Bastille day on July 14th. It was really fun watching them from the bow of the ship.

Another wonderful day. Bonne nuit.

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Photos

Basilica of Notre Dame
Statue to Pope John XXIII