Blogs from Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 2

Today was an Alpine mountains and valleys day and it was wonderful. I asked at reception for a touristy map and armed with that and the French road atlas Bob chose a route through the mountains behind us. These are the French Alps leading eventually to Mont Blanc and Chamonix where we visited some years ago but on that occasion approaching from the south side. I had concluded that Mont Blanc, is pretty well due south of us here. We are at the far Eastern end of Thonon-les-Bains at the estuary of the river Dranse. Where it enters the lake there is a wetlands nature reserve and the campsite is located right next to that. The road Bob chose was lovely as the views were superb. Mountains all round and the view of the various peaks ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Heureux de vous retrouver, et j'espère que vous aussi, à en croire les chiffres. Le compteur des visites vient de passer les 40 000 il y à quelques jours. Depuis plusieurs années je vous annonçais comme prochaine destination Hawaï, le seul des 50 états américains, dans lequel je ne m'étais pas encore rendu. Lorsque que je vous ai quitté fin novembre, à mon retour de Nouvelle Zélande, les deux projets que j'avais en tête étaient, Oman, et Hawaï. Encore une fois j'avais repoussé Hawaï à cause de la durée du voyage, en moyenne 30 heures aller, et autant pour le retour. J'ai donc débuté la préparation du voyage pour Oman nettement moins loin. Environ 8 à 10 heures. Tout était pratiquement bouclé, lorsque mon correspondant local, m'a informé, que les dates retenues tombaient ... read more

Today starts the main reason for coming to France for this trip. It is time to start the research of which village or city will become our future home. This section of the trip is also a week of one nighters, in several different cities. All of them are not potential future homes, but several are a possibility. The next few days the title of the days entry will be the City we spend the night. The first stop is Grenoble. Before I get into the day’s events, of which there were not many, just a few musings on Lyon. The most important is that Lyon has completely redeemed herself from our first trip. Better hotel, better food, and just an overall nice experience. The breakfast crowd each morning was a hoot, all retired couples traveling ... read more

It’s Tuesday in Lyon, so it must be time for a cooking class. As is our tradition, we try to always take at least one cooking class on every one of our trips. Unfortunately, that did not happen last year on our Ireland/Scotland trip. It is simply not possible to go to France and not take a market hands on class and what better place the Lyon, the “gastronomic center of the world” or so said a critic in the 30s. This entry will be short, but plenty of pictures. We knew there would be a great deal of walking and that we would be on our feet for most of the day, so we took a taxi. This was the best decision of the day, since the walk was straight up hill. The class was ... read more

First, pictures from yesterday’s blog are now up, camera issue has been resolved. I am writing this in the early evening of our first full day in Lyon. It was a full day, but more about that later. Sunday was transition day and the real beginning to our tour of France. Paris was just a little appetizer and adjustment city. The day started early, to shower, pack and have a quick breakfast before we checked out and headed to Gare de Lyon to catch our TGV to Lyon. The two women from Washington must have had a late night as they were not at breakfast this morning. We did have a nice conversation with the other man that was from Yakima Valley, turns out he is an estate attorney. Breakfast complete, a brush of the teeth ... read more

Week 2 – Les Menuires, 3 Vallees (11-18 March) We immediately regretted our decision not to stay in Val for the whole two weeks. The last time we stayed in the 3 Valleys in 2015, we were in Meribel Mottaret. This time we decided to stay in Les Menuires, which is in one of the other valleys. First impressions? I don’t like it. We knew it would be ugly because it’s purpose built (aka ugly apartments rather than cute chalets) but the way it’s spread out with buses that only run every 20 mins, compared to every 5-8 mins in Val, makes it difficult to get around. Add to that the fact that whilst it snowed in Val, it rained in the 3 Valleys and as a result, the slopes at 1850m are a patchwork of ... read more