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To Lyon from Rome we have decided to take the train and enjoy the scenery, stopping at Milan to change trains. The Italian train was in better condition than the French version. Both trains had dining cars, between first & second class. We have taken the latter option.
The trip is supposed to take 10 hours, which is of course if you get off at the correct station.
From Rome to the French border the conductors announce each station in Italian, French and English. From the French border this all changes, as with the staff. No longer do we have tri or even bilingual announcements. We are reasonably confident as we had previously enquired about stops and are constantly reminded of how efficient the trains run in Europe. We are informed that the stop after Chambery is Lyon and that the train will arrive at 10:35pm. What we aren’t informed is that there are actually 2 Lyon station stops, the first being the airport (some 30 km out of the city) and secondly the train is running about 20 minutes late.
You don’t have to be Einstein to realize where I’m going with this. Our taxi fare from
the airport, to our hotel is nearly as much as our 10 hours on the train.
Hotel Central, in Perrache Lyon, is quite comfortable and we will stay here for three nights.
Lyon is a lovely, large University City and is renowned for its culinary restaurants; we must have been looking in the wrong part of the city, though we did enjoy some excellent meals and managed to sample some of their fine wines. (surprise, surprise I hear you say)
Dissected by two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone, the city has utilised the area very efficiently. Barges of varying shapes and sizes are moored along the banks, as private accommodation, restaurants and bars. Even found an Australian Outback floating Bar (wasn’t open during our stroll). A number of companies also offer river cruises that last several days or weeks.
Michelle has been at me for about a week to get a hair cut & walking down one of the quiet side streets she spots a hairdressers'. Here, she says and drags me into the shop. I don't know if it had anything to do with the cute looking fella that was there or if it was
pure chance, but I didn't need to push hard to get Michelle to have a wash & cut (oh, I got my hair cut as well)
From Lyon we have decided to take the train, to Geneva, to pick up our new car and after our last experience we decide to make sure we have the correct information. The official at the ticket office is very helpful, despite his obvious dig about our non-ability to speak French. We need to catch 2 trains, the first is local and we need to get off at the first stop, the time and platform information is also printed out for us.
At the first platform we ask a porter, who has excellent English, if the details we have are correct. He replies yes. First train no problem, we arrive at the station and proceed to the designated platform. The time and details displayed on the board also correspond to the information supplied. There are no porters or officials on this platform, however there are quite a few other passengers, to whom we ask “is this the train to Geneva” – Yes is the reply.
The train arrives and we embark,
a young German lad is sitting opposite us and he asks if we too are going to Geneva, to which we reply “we are”. Not long after the train takes off there is an announcement over the PA system (in French of course) and the young lad has a confused look on his face and starts to become a little agitated. He gets up grabs his bag and starts to move down the train. Several minutes later he comes back and once again asks if we are going to Geneva. Again we reply to the affirmative. He then goes on to explain that his French is very basic, but it would appear that only part of the train goes to Geneva and the other part goes to “who knows where”.
At the next stop we make a mad dash down the train and sure enough the back half of the train is uncoupled and heads in another direction. We all have a nervous laugh at the experience and thank the lad for his generosity. It would appear that he is a police officer in Germany and was visiting his girlfriend who was working in Lyon for the next 6
months. Lucky for us!!!! We spend the duration of our trip chatting.
Picking up our new car goes reasonably smoothly, despite the fact that the attendant for the car company speaks neither English nor we French. He makes out in some form of “pigeon English” that the service station attendants, several hundred meters down the road, speak excellent English and would be able to assist with any of our enquiries.
What do you think our chances were???
We are now on the road and have decided on making our way to San Sebastian, in the north eastern Basque country of Spain.
It will take us three nights, stopping at Perigueux for an evening (a mid- sized industrial city) and then on to Hagetmau a quaint French village, full of charm, where we will spend two nights.
In Hagetmau we stay in a delightful hotel, Le Jambon. Our host, Philippe Labadie's, family has own this establishment for what seems a couple of life times. Philippe is a renouned chef who, with his wife and daughter, has moved back to run the establishment after a distinguished career around Europe. His food (creations) is to die for!!
So far the scenery has been terrific and the French hospitality has been a gem. Despite our obvious lack of ability to grasp this delicate language we have enjoyed a very friendly and hospitable time.
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