Blogs from Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 5

I settled into my new environment fairly quickly. I liked my room, simply furnished, yet cosy. I met 4 of my hostess's children, 3 of her sons and her youngest daughter. Her youngest daughter, I can say spoke the most English in the family. We became friends easily enough. I spent my initial days in Lyon wondering around like a tourist, starry-eyed with wonder. The 16th century architecture captivated me. The narrow streets were endearing. Now, I am from Mumbai (or Bombay if you will) and if you will ever visit downtown Mumbai, you will encounter a lot of old world charm and archtecure from a few centuries ago. In a way my craze for Europe's old world charm stems from where I grew up. But coming back to Lyon, i found the city endearing. School ... read more

Lyon Last night we arrived in Lyon after dark. It is an exceptional pretty town to sail into by night. There are new unusual buildings fully lit up in different colours. Also as you look up to the hills all the old buildings are beautifully lit with the cathedral at the top being the crowning glory. Lyon lays at the point where the Rhone river and the Soane river converge or as the say confluence. It has a long and distinguished history for silk and textile making and is known as the world’s leading centre of textile design. We went on the usual walking tour with a guide for an overview and to hear a brief history. First stop in the morning was the famous food market Le Halles who famous patron is Paul Bacuse the ... read more

Tuesday 12 July 2016 Rain poured for most of our northbound journey. Neville welcomed the planned stop at Lyon. This stop was extremely significant for Mabel. Her only brother, Lyon, was named after this city. Her father, Sgt Wesley Charles Rivers Taylor, had travelled by train through France from Marseilles in 1916. After his time in Gallipoli he wrote the following in his diary: Thursday 30th March 1916 Arrived Marseilles 7 oclock. I am in love with France Friday 31st March 1916 Left the Briton at 8.30 & entrained an hour later Saturday 1st April 1916 Stunned by the beauty of France Sunday 2nd April 1916 We have been travelling for 26 hours. It is glorious. Hot tea is waiting for us at every main station. I am writing this on Les Laumes. (Venarey-les-Laumes is in ... read more

In Marseille, I had reached a crossroads. Originally, I was going to stick to the Mediterranean, following the southern coast of France along the French Riviera to Italy - but that was going to be too expensive. I considered going directly to Italy and Turin - but by now I had become travel-weary and really just wanted to stop somewhere to regroup for a few days, preferably for free. And thus I thought about going to Zurich where I have a friend - my mate Corb who I visited in Basel four years ago. So Zurich was the closest place I could get to for some much needed, cheap R&R - therefore, I decided to head north, stopping in Lyon en route. Finding reasonably-priced accommodation in Lyon was a struggle thanks to Euro 2016 - but ... read more

We put the black out blinds in our room down by mistake, and wake up at 9am thinking it's still the middle of the night. We walk across to Old Lyon in search of somewhere to get breakfast. Issy's not keen to cross Place Bellecour. She says the en-tout-cas will get into her shoes and make her feet hurt. The square's enormous, and I'm sure they could hold multiple tennis tournaments here simultaneously if they felt so inclined. It seems that the good residents of Lyon aren't into breakfasting in cafes. Grabbing a breadstick and a few croissants from the local boulangerie and munching on them at the kitchen table must be more their thing. The next square on the itinerary is covered in grass. Wherever we've seen grass in French towns it's usually been accompanied ... read more