The French Countryside heading South

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Dijon:
Early Tuesday morning, we hopped on our first train in France to Dijon. A first class ticket made the journey so comfortable as we were both able to lay down in the compartment. We reached Dijon, a small town in the Burgundy region on our way south, in a matter of hours. We didn't have set plans on where to go and what to see in Dijon so we decided to just explore in the 4-5 hours we had available before our next train. We found a hotel near the train station who we were able to convince to let us leave our bags there. This was after trying 3 other hotels. We headed to the tourism office and took a map to the city. They informed us of a free bus that would take you through the center of town and you could stop where you wished. We went to the bus stop and hopped on a bus with the name they had mentioned. The town was quaint but about 30 minutes in, we notice the bus heading out the suburbs of Dijon and realized we might have hopped on a local bus! It was great to have a chance to see a suburban neighborhood and residential life but we were worried about getting back in time. Fortunately, the end of the line was near and we stayed on to turn back. We had plenty of time to stop for lunch in old Dijon and found a great restaurant where we were able to enjoy food of the region. This included a grilled vegetable lasagna and gelato banana split! With time to spare, we strolled the streets and made our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and return to the train station. Next stop...Lyon.

Lyon:
We knew going into this trip that travel is unpredictable and you have to adapt to new and changing situations. This unpredictability began that afternoon. Our 4:30 train leaving Dijon was meant to arrive in Lyon (the largest city in France after Paris) around 7:30pm. However, about two hours into the trip, the train stopped, at which point we thought it was a temporary stop. A number of people got off the train and were standing outside. We jumped off to see what was going on and there seemed to be a train directly in front of us that was stalled. The passengers were talking amongst themselves and, of course, giving advice to the engineers on how to fix the train. The train repair lasted more than 3 hours! At about 10 pm, we had sent the other train on its way and continued our journey. Hungry and tired, we reached Lyon at 11:30 pm! Instead of walking to our hotel, we hopped into a taxi and reached our hotel at midnight. What we came to realize was that the lights were off and the doors were locked. With no phone, we had no way to reach the hotel. So, we walked down the street to a convenient store, which was one of the only places open at that time. We conveyed our dilemma to a nice security guard who informed us that everything in the area would be closed. He allowed us to use his phone and we first called our hotel to see if we could wake them up to let us in. We were able to reach the hotelier; however, he had lost our reservations. We told him that we had an email confirmation from him, but he had lost it and the hotel was full. Thanks, dude. Now where would we sleep?? Too bad we didnt have a car to sleep in! The security guard offered to let us stay with him. It was gracious of him but we didnt want to take any unnecessary risks. We walked around some more and found a hotel that was open. Fortunately, they had a availability and the rates were not unreasonable though at that point we just needed a place to sleep. We checked in, dropped our bags off, and went out to look for a place to eat, knowing Lyon had a vibrant night life. The first ten restaurants we visited were only serving drinks by then but we finally stumbled upon one who agreed to serve us but only had "snacks". We were happy to take what we could get which ended up being a delicious, exquisite meal not even close to what we expected for a snack. Ratatouille tart and salad for diner and a mind blowing pink almond apple tart for dessert. And this is what they call a snack?! Amazing! And you better believe we tipped our waiter (who happened to look like a mix of Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias!) well as we've all been taught to never bite the hand that feeds you...literally.

Lyon:
The train mishap robbed us of a few hours of time to explore Lyon so we had to make the most of our day time. We explored the neighborhood of our new hotel and made our way to Vieux (old) Lyon which was charming and similar to Paris in some ways. Two rivers go through Lyon and a number of bridges connect different parts of the city. Lyon is also known as the culinary capital of France, which explained our delicious late night snack from the night before. We quickly strolled through Vieux Lyon stopping for a rose and apple juice concoction at an awesome organic restaurant that had inspiring quotes, like Gandhi's "be the change. . . " in French on the bathroom walls. There was an open market that day as well which we peeked into. We've seen gorgeous, fresh flowers in every city and its not usual to see people buying bouquets for their homes. Crossing the bridge into the oldest part of the city, we take pictures and enjoy people watching. A group of preteens and teens are on lunch break from school and are similar to any group of teens you would see socializing, except that they are exceptionally well dressed. Lunch in the Vieux included a spinach crepe made right in front of us and a stop at the best known Glacier (gelato shop in Lyon) for coconut gelato. Gelato is a healthier option than ice cream because of its fat content and you can find it everywhere. Around 3 pm we made a mad dash to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the train station. We were headed to Cote...Cote d'azur (French Riviera) that is.

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