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Published: August 15th 2014
France – August 12-25, 2014
The journey begins in Tacoma, Washington as my baby girl (turns 21 this month), Hannah, and I head off for SeaTac airport. The trip to France was a Christmas present from me. Hannah took French in high school and was supposed to have gone to France with school when she was a freshman, but she didn’t get to go. This was the trip she has wanted to go on since then. Last year when I walked the Camino I was supposed to finish my trip with several days in France. I opted to spend my remaining time in Spain, but wanted to come back to Europe and see France, so the trip with Hannah just seemed perfect!
We departed for France via Iceland at approximately 4:30pm on Tuesday the 12
th and promptly began time travel – it appeared we hurtled into the sun and came out at sunset the next day….landing in Iceland shortly after 6am the next day. Where had the day gone! With 55 minutes to kill at the airport there we ran to our next gate (Ever been to Iceland? The airport is very small. There were 30 something gates and
the distance we had to go to our next gate was maybe a couple blocks away.) Gate found we went in search of food. What they offer on the plane isn’t much and nothing is for free. We ended up ordering a pizza. It was made fresh and served to us on a really plate. By this time our plane was boarding so we rushed to the gate with the plate threw the pizza on napkins and head out to the tarmac. We were shuttled to the plane on a bus and loaded on the plane on the tarmac. It was a small plane – just a 3 hour shuttle to Paris.
The flight to Iceland was a very rough one. Very bumpy. At one point the turbulence was so bad that I was praying we were okay. I smiled and kept a good face as Hannah was a bit freaked out. She has never experienced much turbulence, and I have to say it was the worse I’d ever experienced. The flight map never indicated we had made any decent, but I know we lost some altitude during that one bit of extremely bad turbulence. I swear our pilot
to Paris was a newbie. On takeoff we veered sharply to the left and bounced a bit and then on landing he hit the ground very hard and bounced the plane a good bit. I actually had to grab the seat in front of me.
However we made it to Charles de Galle safely and proceeded to get our luggage and head to the car rental counter in the next counter. Trial number one started here! I was told I would have to pay a $300 deposit when renting the car – they wanted to charge a $1200 deposit on my credit card. They did work with us, but I still ended having a $600 hold for a deposit put on my credit card! There went my spending money for the first week of our trip! Hey but we are driving a brand new Fiat and having fun with it! WOW though – first fill up in this LITTLE bitty car cost me over $60 – won’t gripe about American gas prices anymore. LOL Finally on the rode we headed to stop one – Lyon! It was about a 6 hour drive with our stops. We drove on a
beautiful toll expressway through beautiful countryside and farmland – Charlois cattle and fields abounded. There were no towns to be seen on this freeway. There we signs for them, but they were removed from the road. In fact the gas stations were coupled with places to eat and positioned like rest area exits off the road. Really a neat concept. Speed limits ranged from 110-130 kmh for the most part and all the cars to be seen on the road were our size – small: Puegots, Opals, Renaults,Fiats, Volkswagons, Citroens, BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, and a sprinkling of Nissans and Toyotas. Even the vans and motorhomes (it was a Fiat!) were smaller than seen on the roads of the US. Saw my first Chrysler today – a Voyager mini-van of all things!
Upon arriving in Lyon Hannah again pulled out her journal where she had hand written our directions to Lyon and in Lyon. From there we proceeded to get lost for a good hour. We finally parked the Fiat - feeling we were close to our Air BnB, but just not able to find it - and took to the streets in search of 2 Rue Simon Maupin. We
were close, but wandered forever. Finally started stopping and asking on the streets. I have to say the French were lovely and a nice group of young people finally gave us directions that got us there. So after landing in Paris around noon we finally arrived at our home for the next 2 days at about 9pm. We rang the doorbell and were buzzed in. We climbed the 6 flights of 120 winding stairs to our place to meet Boris and his son who were waiting for us so they could depart for a party! Come to find out our building dated back to the Napolean era and he was the 5
th owner! It was a beautiful place and in the heart of the old city of Lyon. Everything we wanted to see was all around us – even the cathedral on the hill which seemed a ways away (as Hannah found out – all walkable – yeah for my Camino experience – walking is the only way). We changed clothes and hit the streets to find dinner. It was a great walk around that evening and we ate on the sidewalk at 10pm at night at a quaint little
bar called The Republique. I had cheese crepes and Hannah had a hamburger steaks and fries and we drank….WINE OF COURSE! Then a little post dinner walk to Bellecour and the breathtaking equestrian statue. Hannah was happy to find this jewel our first night. We stayed just blocks from it and so many other great plazas and artistic monuments! Time for some rest though. We had been traveling and not really slept since departing the US on Tuesday. It was now almost 11pm on Wednesday, so 2pm in Tacoma and we had been going for well over 24 hours. Tomorrow we would be able to enjoy the beauties of Lyon – the city the guidebook described as the hidden jewel of France. It proved to be just that!
Thursday began after a short sleep and we headed out to find breakfast and rent bikes for the day. We thought it would be awesome to tour the city by bike. Boris had suggested it and given us tips on where to go – all within the area where we staying. We were in the city center of Lyon, situated between the two rives that run through the city – the
Rhone and the Soane. The rivers and the three bridges made awesome markers to help keep us from getting lost. We never rented the bikes. The bikes are rented through a machine that we could never get to take our credit cards. After NUMEROUS attempts we scrapped the idea and headed to the car – still where we had parked it the night before when we had abandoned it to try and find our home. After an hour driving the one way streets and odd turns and trials in downtown Lyon – an OLD European city (those having been to Europe understand what that means as far as the streets go) – Hannah gave up and we took to sightseeing on foot. I let Hannah drive that morning and we actually quite the adventure driving the same 10-20 block area. At one point we ended up driving through a plaza and getting stopped by one of the barriers that goes down into the road to let you through – which amazingly it did; we thought we were trapped. Anyway, it was meant to be and there was so much we would have missed if we hadn’t been on foot. We
found the plaza with the statue by Bartholedi, artist of the famed STATUE OF LIBERTY, depicting France as a woman with the four horses representing the four main rivers of France – it was breathtaking! The cathedrals we visited were exquisite and several had some pretty wonderful stories behind them. We even hiked up the hill to the huge cathedral of Notre’ Dame Fourviere (it was like hiking up a small mountain – as I told Hannah, I hiked over the Pyrenees we can do this and we did! What a glorious day!
Around 5pm we went back for a siesta before heading out for dinner and a cruise around town in the evening. We ended up eating at the pizza place we had seen the night before, but hadn’t gone to because it had been so packed. We were seated in a row of tables right next to a very nice couple – natives of Lyon – whom we ended up having a very lovely dinner with – so nice to connect with locals like that and enjoy an pleasant chat over dinner. The margerite pizze and caprese salad and wine were delicious as well. As we left
the restaurant we lamented we had not even gotten their names. One more cruise by the equestrian statue and then off to bed. Now we are on the road again headed to the Mediteranean and Marseille. The country we are driving through has changed noticeabley from the countryside we drove through on Wednesday. Also we left a down pour and cooler temperatures in Lyon and now are driving in clear skies and a temperature in the 80s! Beach and sun ahead! Woo hoo! So more to this story later. First two days in Marseille and Orange and Avignon to experience! Chat with you then. Au revoir!
PS I HAVE TO EDIT AND CAPTION PHOTOS YET. I WILL DO AS SOON AS I AM ABLE. WE ARE HEADING TO ST. TROPEZ EARLY IN THE MORNING SO I MUST BE OFF TO BED.
8-17-14 I actually uploaded the pictures all over again. The old ones are the ones with all the random numbers under them. I still have a few to delete and I have to turn a bunch of the new ones the correct way, but they are all captioned. My phone died before we actually made
it to the massive cathedral on the hill. When I get the photos from Hannah I will have more. Good night from Normandy!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
It's great to see you back on the road again, this time with you daughter...
You are going to love France. Our favorite town on the Riviera is Antibes. I Followed you on your Camino trip, which has inspired me. I've read many TB blogs from others who walked the Camino and have downloaded a number of books on my Kindle. I probably won't go until September 2016 or 17.