Blogs from Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 7

So having already spent two nights at my AirBnb place, I finally decided to see Lyon properly. I arrived too late on Thursday to go to the tourist office, so I just wandered around Place Bellecour (where the main tourist office was) and walked to Vieux-Lyon. Friday I spent in Le Puy, but managed to snag a map at the Vieux-Lyon tourist office. Again, I didn't do much more than look around and get some food. Saturday was the day to really dig in to Lyon's tourist sites. I decided to get a Lyon City pass. It was a bit pricey, but gave me two days to use the public transit system (unlimited), take a guided tour, go on a boat cruise, and visit a bunch of museums. I'm sure that over the two days I ... read more

It has been one very long day and I am barely maintaining consciousness as I type this, but we have successfully installed ourselves in Lyon (really St. Priest, a suburb), ready for tomorrow's inaugural day of cycling. Our flight left even later than advertised (and then we got stuck behind another plane on the taxiway that had mechanical trouble), but was otherwise uneventful. When we landed at 10:10AM local time, passengers dutifully stayed in their seats so that a couple in the back could deplane quickly and have a hope of making it to their daughter's wedding at 11:00. Once I got through customs ("how long will you be staying?" being the sole question asked, almost as an afterthought) the luggage carousel discharged only a handful of bags before coming to a dead stop for a ... read more

We got into Lyon around 7pm and took off to find our hotel. We were definitely worried as we were walking down the barren streets, buildings with bars on the windows, totally ghetto. But we found the hotel eventually and inside it was beautiful and super modern. So nice to be out of that crazy small apartment in Paris and into a big room with a big bathroom and a good shower, as well as Binnson’s favourite – breakfast buffet. Lyon is a much smaller city than Paris, and although it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed we still found plenty to walk around and see. We started out in Old Town and walked around the tiny weaving cobble stone streets, passing by cute little cafe’s and bakeries. There were a ton of ... read more

The morning started out pretty nice, I got up and headed out around 8. The weather was cool and not raining so I was pretty happy. I wanted to take the scenic route today so I checked the boxes on my GPS to avoid motorways and tolls. I went up into the French Alps and was I glad I had a GPS because I had to get redirected like a million times that day. First it was nice no other cars on the road and a lot of turns and great views, then the road construction came… I don’t read French all I saw was diversion so I turned in the direction the sign pointed and my GPS was like “dude what are you doing I said go left and you are going right”. Then the ... read more

Chamonix is located not far from Genève and Lyon, so it was only natural that I should visit both cities during this skiing temptation. The disadvantage of inexpensive flights is that sometimes they are late at night or early in the morning; I had to be at St. Petersburg airport at about 3 o’clock in the morning. The flight to Lyon was by Lufthansa via Munich. The check-in time approaching, a huge crowd gathered near the entrances, but soon it began dispersing as passengers were allowed to proceed to check-in and passport control. In the Munich airport, German authorities put a stamp in my passport though I really hoped that a transit flight would not involve a needless entry in the Shengen zone in Munich, but in Lyon I would get a French stamp. I believe ... read more