Sleepy regional France

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The last few days in Paris were relatively quiet, though we did manage two dinners at the Aussie Embassy! Very nice view of the Eiffel Tower I must say, just metres from the back terrace, lucky you Louise and Paul! We had our biggest night to date after our second dinner at Damien and Syl's house after which we headed to a few dodgy bars.

Despite the pouring rain we managed to find our way to the Musee d'Orangerie which has the most delightful Monet waterlillies. They were just huge, too big to photograph though I did try (and almost got into trouble because I left the flash on!).

On our last day we made it to the Sacre Coeur in Montmarte. I just loved the ambience, although i'm sure most of it was for the plebby tourists. A totally different feeling than the rest of Paris, and the obligatory artists were out in force with paintings galore. The view was well worth the small climb up the hill (did you do that MB?!) We wandered around down to the Moulin Rouge, might have been less disappointing had we gone inside though it looked a bit of a dive to be honest. Walking back to the metro we went past the Galleries Lafayette, the shops to go to apparently. The windows put Harrods to shame, not only were there heaps but they were all made up of moving animals!

Well we arrived in Dijon on Saturday afternoon and the town was buzzing! We ambled around the cobble streets (again!) checking out the cafes and shops (and of course churches) deciding what to do on Sunday. We found out on Sunday that not much happens at all in Dijon, so we just kept walking around and around and around...!

We had great hopes for Lyon after the peace and quiet of Dijon and had quite a list of places to visit on Monday. Top of the list was the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere perched upon the hill overlooking Lyon. From below it looked very majestic and very high. We were to discover that not only is France quiet on a Sunday, but also a Monday! The funicular to the top was closed meaning we had yet another climb :-( Definitely worth the sore legs to check out the view of Lyon, plus the fake Eiffel Tower just next door to the Basilica! And around the corner were some roman ruins of a theatre, quite a bizarre find in Lyon! The nothing open on a Monday pretty much applied to restaurants also which is a shame, because that's why we went to Lyon in the first place, being the 'gastronomical capital of the world'. We could barely find anything open that wasn't steak tartare and at one stage it looked like we might have to settle for Italian much to Nick's disgust. We found a 'bouchon' which is supposed to specialise in meat, meat and more meat, but I did manage to find a couple of vegetarian options on the list even if I still don't know what quenelle is... so Nick had his genuine French meal after all.

Off to Switerland next, will write soon from there.

love lise and nick xx

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Photos

Lyon's version of Notre Dame
We did some serious stair climbing to see this up close.