Un verre de vin rouge, sil vous plait.

Settle in, this is going to be a long one...

France Trip

On Saturday morning, our Air France flight arrived at Charles De Gaulle in Paris.  After a long taxi in from the landing strip, a long tram ride in from the plane and a long wait for our luggage, we finally made our way into Paris on the RER Line B.  We navigated the RER and the metro with relative ease and arrived at our hotel, Hotel du Cadran, just after 10:30am.  Although it was early, they had our room ready and we were able to check in and take a shower, which was fantastic.  

After freshening up, we went exploring.  Our hotel was very close to the Eiffel Tower, so that was the first place we went.  Seeing the tower for the first time is always an amazing experience.  I think it was just as amazing this time as it was the first time, six years ago.  

After walking the length of the "mall" area to the tower, we went in search of food.  We ended up finding a great little Brasserie just around the corner from the tower.  We shared escargot, which was a very different experience than at home as you are required to dig the snail out of its sauce-filled shell with a tiny fork.  Nick eventually got the hang of it and I got an entertaining video (which I unfortunately shot sideways, like a moron).  For our meal, Nick had steak and frites and I had chicken, which, although dark meat, was fantastic.  Thankfully, the waiter steered me clear of the beef tartare, which I later found out is raw hamburger meat with a raw egg on top.  I also had mayonaise with my frites, which seemed to be a lot tangier than I remembered.  The best part of the experience was our waiter, Jonathan.  He spoke to us in English, tried teaching us a little French, recommended great wines and had an excellent personality.  After lunch, we crossed the Seine to head for the Arc de Triomphe.  On the way, we passed the Palais du Tokyo, which is in an awful state.  The building and sculptures were covered in grafiti and the area is now a hangout for teenagers and skateboarders.  So sad.  We eventually reached the Arc, which was exactly how I remembered it.  We didn't end up going inside, due to the lines.  After that, we walked down Champs Elysees, looked in a few shops and people-watched.  We took a rest on a bench near Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt and chatted with a friendly, middle-age Frenchman on rollerblades.  At this point, we were exhausted.  We headed back up toward the Arc and stopped in a bar and had a few drinks.  At the bar, we were able to get directions to the Hard Rock Cafe and went there for dinner.  After dinner, we went back to the area of our hotel, Champs de Mars, and had one more drink outside at one of the cafes.  It was a very long day, but a great one.  Nick's favorite thing was the accordian player on the way in from the airport on the train.  Although he was asking for money, we didn't mind giving him a little for getting us in the mood for Paris.

On Sunday, we slept in until about 9:30am, showered and had breakfast in the basement of the hotel.  The breakfast room was really cool, with an old-looking stone ceiling and modern furniture.  I had ham, brie, baguette and coffee.  Nick had ham, cheese, a croissant and coffee.  After breakfast, we checked out and went to pick up our train tickets to Lyon and to stash our luggage for the day.  We had no problem getting our tickets, but stashing our luggage was a different story.  The luggage storage area (lockers) at Gare de Lyon was closed due to a techinal malfunction with the x-ray machine.  The only other place I could think to stash our lugggage was Gare du Nord.  Thankfully, that one was open and after dropping our luggage, we were finally on our way to the Louvre.  We had a quick lunch in the food court area of the Louvre shops before going into the museum.  

Being the first Sunday of the month, we were able to visit the Louvre for free, along with many, many other people.  We went straight to the Mona Lisa, which is not impressive, but a must-see when visiting.  During the rest of our visit we walked through the European paintings (to find the nipple-tweakers) and the italian sculptures.  

After just a few hours, we had seen all that our brains could manage and went to Notre Dame.  I think Nortre Dame was Nick's favorite part of our trip, and I pretty much have to agree.  Being Sunday, mass was going on while we were there and there were tons of people.  We walked through the whole cathedral, through the niches and even in a small museum full of relics, artifacts and clothing.  The most interesting thing in that area was what appeared to be a leg bone, but we couldn't tell whose leg bone it may have been.  After walking all the way around the outside of Nortre Dame, it was time to go back to pick up our luggage and take the train to Lyon.  We made it back to Gare du Lyon in plenty of time to catch our train, so we went to a small cafe in the station for a drink and baguette for dinner.  We were in Frist Class on the train, but ended up spending most of the trip in the train bar.  Kristina and Ben met us on the platform at Gare Part Dieu in Lyon and drove us to their apartment.  Their apartment is a very decent size for a city like Lyon with two bathrooms, two toilets, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a large living/dining room.  After some drinks and visiting, we went to bed.

Monday, we had lunch at a very good pizza place.  Kristina took us to see Old Lyon, which is a site with two amphitheaters and other ruins that date from BC and were built by the Roman Gauls.  We also visited a large church on the hill called Fourviere Basilica, and was built in the 1800s.  Although the church is relatively new compared to Notre Dame and the Amphitheaters, it was still amazing.  The inside was filled with intricate mosaics of various Bible stores.  Gold is a popular color inside the church and it seems to make the inside glow.  Kristina said it is even more amazing when the sun shines in on the gold, but the sun was not out that day.  We also went into the crypt, with was really more like a chapel.

  After visiting the church, we stopped at a small cafe on the hill next to the church for an

 espresso.  The cafe has a beautiful view of the city and it was so nice to sit there and take it all in.  That night, Kristina had volleyball practice, so Ben took us to dinner.  We went to a street that had many cafes to choose from.  The one we chose was somewhat small and had a bar.  After dinner, we went to the Rambler, which was a decent, but empty, Irish Pub.

Tuesday, Nick drove Ben's car and he and Kristina and I went to Geneva, Switzerland, which was about an hour and 45 minutes from Lyon.  We walked around for a bit after finding parking and had lunch at a place called The Spaghetti Factory, which was excellent.  After lunch, we went to the Saint-Pierre Archeological Site.  The site is located below the current cathedral and has been excavated during the last 30 years.  They have been able to trace the area and artifacts back to around 100 BC.  The site was amazing and definitely one of my favorites from this trip.  After exploring the site, we went into the church over it and into the towers.  The view from the towers was amazing and gave us a beautiful picture of Geneva.  

Nick and I also took the opportunity, while in Switzerland, to buy Swatch watches, which I think are very good souveniers from our trip.  We drove back to Lyon and went to the 

St. James Irish Pub, which is a very cool bar and a favorite of Ben and Kristina.  On the way home, we grabbed Kebobs for dinner, which are actually more like Gyros.  

Wednesday Ben only had practice in the morning, so after he came home, we went to a winery just outside Lyon.  The winery we went to was Georges DuBeouf and is in the Beaulojais region.  It is a huge estate filled with a cave, museum, and many gardens.  Since we didn't have a ton of time, we just went to the museum, which was quite extensive, but in need of updating.  At the end of the museum tour was a large wine tasting area with a bar.  We tasted several wines, but didn't find any we were crazy about.  

Despite that, we still bought a bottle for my collection.  On the way home, we grabbed a snack at McDonalds.  We hadn't had lunch, had lots of wine and were going to have a late dinner, so it was necessary.  Back in Lyon, we had dinner at L'Est, where we were treated to complimentary soup and a dessert because one of the waiters recognized Ben (Ben is a professional basketball player in Lyon, but he is not French, he's American).  After dinner, we had a quick drink at a restaurant/club called Boudoir.

Thursday we slept in late.  We had lunch at a place called Hippopotamus and visited Saint Jean Cathedral, which is just at the bottom of the hill from Fourviere Basilica, but much older.  On the way home, the three of us had a mini pub crawl at James' Joyce Pub, St. James Pub, and the Smoking Dog.  We met up with ben at Caffe Milano for dinner and had some excellent Italian food.  That night, we packed up and prepared to say goodbye to Lyon.

Friday morning, Kristina, Nick and I got up early to catch a train back to Paris.  Although the train was 30 minutes late, we still got to Paris at a decent time.  We went directly to our hotel, but because we were early, we were not able to check in, so we stashed our luggage in the hotel luggage room.  From there, we walked toward Notre Dame, stopping for lunch at a small cafe across from the Pompidou Museum.  There were a few less people at Notre Dame because it was Friday, but it was still decently crowded.  It was nice to visit the cathedral one more time.  From there we took a train to Versailles and visited the Chateau.  We went into the gardens, around the palace, and took an audio tour in the palace.  By the time we left, all three of us were completely mentally and physically exhausted.  7 days of walking had taken its toll.  Before going back to Paris to check into the hotel, we had a few drinks at a Tex Mex restaurant next to the train station.  We then went back to Paris, checked into the hotel, and had KFC for dinner before going to the Scottish Pub (The Auld Alliance).  It was almost exactly as I remembered it, but not quite the same without my 40 travel companions from Term In Europe.  Saturday morning, Nick and I got up early again to go to the airport.  Our trip was over and we were heading home.