July 6 - Exploring Lyon - Pt.1

Lyon

We are staying in vieux Lyon, the old section.  We are in the 5th arrondisement, on the rue Juiverie, one of the oldest streets in the city. Lots of buildings here from the 1300s some older, some newer.  Our apartment has been completely renovated, and is very very nice.

 View of the complicated skyline from our window.

 The building we are staying in at street level

 Rue Juiverie Lyon, France.

Another interesting building on our street.

 The Bonaparte bridge over the river Saone.

 Le Lion de Lyon

 The cool staircase in our building (we are on the 5th floor, but there is also a lift)

Dinner out with Rachel for her Birthday.

 Part of the expansive Lyon street cafe (Bouchon) scene.

July 5th Orange, and Rachel's Birthday

July 5th Rachel turns 8 and we travel from Provence north to Lyon, through Orange.

Orange is the site North of Avignon which has the best preserved Roman Amphitheatre in the western world.  While the one in Arles is very good, Orange still has the sound wall, and is still in use as a concert hall.
Looking up from the lower levels it is clear to see that 10,000 people can attend a concert here.

 They were setting up a show, obviously involving a ship, and the shore.

 The emperor ..."I'll be here all millennium, tip your wait staff"

 Someone...was very psyched to be 8

You aren't a Roman city if you don't have an Arc de Triomphe

Tour de France

Today like other days we woke up in France. But today we went to see the Tour de France.

The stage (stage 6) was run from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier (176.5 km), the winner of the stage was German Andre Greipel who finished the race in under 4hrs (3h 59 02).

This is where we watched the race, on the D17, just north of the start of racing, which happens several km after the rolling start.

We waited 1 hour to see 45 seconds of biking.
Some other people also waited.

We were waiting at the top of a fairly large hill so we got to see the riders, for a long time (about 30 seconds)

video goes here once figure out how to load it.

Stills of the race:

Zip-Lining near Aix-en-Provence

When we were in France with the Figliomenis last year, we went Zip lining.  The girls both wanted to go again, but alas the place we went is closed the first few days of July prior to summer vacation.  So we went online and found another place, that is actually much closer, basically in the city of Aix in a park area.

 Sarah stepping out...

 Rachel...one foot on the wire

We went fishing and caught a Rachel
Christine .. Just hangin' out

Zippp....

Market Day - Aix-en-Provence

Today we went on a visit to Aix-en-Provence.  We have been there many times in our stay last year, but due to full parking lots this visit brought us to a new parking lot and then up into a new square of the city that we'd never been to before.

Like most the of the squares in Aix, this one has a restaurant in it.

Market day in Aix means flowers in the town square, and veg/meat/fish in the next square down the hill.

By the time you get to the Cours Mirabeau it is time to shop for clothing

We found some good deals on scarves and shirts and dresses.

One of the highlights of any trip to Aix are the many many cafes on the Cours Mirabeau, and the many many fountains (Aix after all means water/springs (aquae) )

 I love the long white aprons the waiters wear.

After Aix-en-Provence, and some lunch, I found a giant butterfly in the pool:

Back in Provence.

Well as fate would have it, reading the title of the last entry "Going back in 2 days", it took 2 full days to get here.

Our flight from Thunder Bay to Toronto was late into Thunder Bay, and thus late to Toronto, and our flight to Munich had already departed.  The end of school must be a very busy travel time to Europe as all flights from Toronto that night were full full full ...Heathrow, Frankfurt.  So we had a nice stay in the DoubleTree Hotel, and tried again the next day.

Saturday the 29th, we get on a flight from Toronto to Paris (CDG), which went on time.  However we did not have a way to get from CDG to Marseille.  We managed to get a reservation on Air France from CDG to Marseille, before we left Toronto but we did not have an actual ticket.

In Charles de Gaulle we retrieve the luggage (always a challenge), and go to the Air Canada office to switch our Munich - Marseille leg to a coupon for Air France CDG - Marseille(MRS).  We are told that yes, we _had_ a reservation for the CDG_MRS leg, but Air France cancelled it as there was no ticket associated with the reservation.

So Air Canada issued coupons for an Air France flight from Orly to MRS, and coupons for the bus.  We catch a bus, to Orly and figure out how to exchange coupons for boarding passes, and get some much-needed lunch and fly to Provence.

In Provence we pick up the car (Passport required but not a drivers license)  and drive to our house in Venelles for the week.  THANK YOU Jim and Cindy for dropping off supplies prior to your departure, or we NEVER would have found this place.

.... off to grocery shop.

The house where we are staying in Venelles:

We are staying the in "Basement" section, in front of the car.  It is a nice enough space, a bit musty, but maybe we'll find a bottle of Le Frebreeze at the Carrefour.

Going Back.....in two days..

Well, as the last post (September 2012) said, we are planning on returning to France.

The girls asked to go back to see their school friends, and we are leaving on Friday July 28th...the day after school ends in Canada.  School continues in France until July 5th so we'll be able to connect with their school friends in Venelles.

The plan is somewhat loose, but the general idea is:
Venelles - 4 or 5 days
Lyon 4 or 5 days
Strassbourg - 4 days or so
Luxembourg - 1 day
Brussels - 4 or 5 days
Arras (near WWI sites ) 1 day
Amiens 1 day
Paris 3 days
Home July 26th.

We'll post updates from the road!