France - Lyon

Ok so after a short two train journey we arrived in Lyon (pronounced Leon) a city that will be buzzing over the next few days with people coming from near and far to enjoy the Festival of lights.  We had some pretty good instructions to get to our hostel, and arrived there without a hitch, only to be told we were in separate dorms, because ‘we don’t mix sexes here in France’ say what – you don’t mix sexes?  Must admit I think France has been the most, gay happy, publicly touchy feely race we have come across but anyway, when in Lyon you do what the ............ In La Rochelle we had not found this problem, and we had actually booked a twin room, but anyway cut a long story short we waddled off to our separate sex rooms and picked our beds.  We were pretty confident our 27 year old marriage could survive two nights sleeping in separate rooms!

Lyon stood ready for exploration, it had begun to lightly rain, but it was still pleasant enough to wander around.  Two rivers split the city into three parts, we were on the first part, the main city in the middle and the main train station was on the third.  The hostel was half way up Fourviere hill, so we headed down to the shopping area and had a look around that, saw some preparation work for the festival, lights and public barriers were being erected.  We crossed one of the many bridges, over the mucky fast flowing water to get to the main city part. The river appeared to be very high, in fact the lower floor of the car park, was closed.  It was running really fast, maybe around 25 knots. The city kind of had a different feel to it really,  people were excited about the lights and the streets were a bit wider, lots of huge pedestrian walkways, gardens, park like grounds and of course many statues.  Europeans are very keen to keep their history alive by erecting these statues and monuments everywhere – some are really neat, but I don’t mind if I never see a man on a horse ever again!  No disrespect intended.We got some supplies from the local supermarket and headed back to cook our dinner.  The hill to the hostel was a big one, but we got there, blisters on little toes (i brought new boots) and all. Murray got that job, ravioli pasta, with sauce from a jar, sprinkle of cheese on top and we’re done!  Good one.  That evening we spent reading, emailing and planning our route to see as many of these lights the following night as we could.  There were so many to visit and there was no way to see them all as they were spread out.   We wished each other ‘sweet dreams’ and headed off in opposite directions to bed.

Fourviere Hill

Gorgeous posy of flowers - made a change from man on a horse!

Lookout from the hill over the city

The river, it was pretty high, there was two levels of parking under the cars that you can see.
The bottom level was closed because the water was so high, as you can see nearly overlapping into it.

 The next morning we woke to light snow showers, the young Taiwanese girl in the dorm, was so excited!  It didn't settle, so her excitement I guess didn't last that long.  But it was nice nonetheless. The plan for the day was to find some of the underground Traboules and explore the city again, then head back and rest our feet for awhile in preparation for the nights festival walking.   The hunt for Traboules was a difficult one, with not much information on where to find them, but we did manage to find one, which was closed but then a lady came along and showed us how to open the door and we go in.  Not much to see though, just a big solid wooden door leading to a corridor which in turn led to more doors.  I guess you could have gone in the olden days from one to the other all underground.  Every street was lined with competitive chocolate and pastry shops all with tempting and scrumptious looking edibles on display.  Walked past a butcher, who had a couple of customers and took a photo of a bird, still with feathers on its head and feet!  We checked out a few more sights before heading back up the hill, this time by funicular,  to the top of Fourviere hill to enjoy the view over the city.  It was truly amazing and truly freezing!  Very small white fluffy bits began to fall from the sky again.  We ended up by walking back down the hill, which was OK  as the snow didn't eventuate to much.  After a bit of a rest up and replenish we set off on the Fete Des Lumieres rampage of the city.

Haha - a chocolate lab in a butcher shop, better hold that lead tight fella.

Can't really see the bird very well, a fancy kind of chicken the head and neck and feet feathers on,
you can just see some others on the counter.

The fast flowing river.

Clever stilt walkers negotiating the cobbled streets

At last we found one a Traboule - (ancient passage)

Front of the church on Fourviere Hill.

Don't know how many steps there were, but it was so steep!

 We could already see some lights from the hostel, but nothing compared to what we would see.  It was beautiful, and the best part is that all the displays were completely different and well spread out.  There were of course crowds of people moving about the city, but it was spread out really well.  We watched a performance with flames by four men which was really good, and a bit different.  The light displays ranged from being quite static to 3D projected ones that felt like they were coming right at you.  Amazing, you can look at more photos on www.fetedeslumieres.lyon.fr   There were the huge animals that were doing a parade with bright colours and moving arms, legs and tails.  Just too many to describe or show, maybe you could check out.  It was a late night, so after a brisk walk home we settled in for our last sleep in Lyon.

AMAZING!

The next morning was an early start, we were to meet in the breakfast room at 5.30am.  Murray didn't show up, so I went knocking on his door,  his alarm hadn't gone off, so the panic was on, we were cutting it so fine anyway, without sleeping in.  The receptionist couldn't get hold of a taxi and we had to run down the hill to the metro station catch one then change to a tram because the next metro was on strike then get to the main station.  Just ten minutes after waking Murray, we were running down the hill, the wheels on the packs flicking up stones, and spinning out of control.  Hilarious to any one peaking out their windows at that time!  and just got to the metro door and we spotted a taxi, we jumped in and could breathe again – we were after all, going to make it.  We have four trains to catch today.  Lyon to Geneve, then to Zurich, then to Buchloe and then to Weilheim.  But hopefully we will catch up with Reinhard our second helpx host  in Zurich for a quick coffee.

Oh  lala 

France, thanks for having us!

France - Marseille

A short drive from Lezignan to Narbonne to meet the train for Marseille was a good early start to our Monday morning.  The train got into Marseille at around lunchtime.  The train station was big and a bit confusing, it took a little time to find the right exit door, once we did we had many steps to carry our packs down – yeeks!, then go down a hill until we found the hotel, which wasn't far.  The city was a busy one, with people on the streets and traffic tearing around.  We could smell that sea air again, and we had to go and find it! And we did.  Another city central marina/port, with yachts and motorboats of all shapes and sizes.

Steps at the Main station - too many !

A real cappuccino

Typical apartment block

We managed to get a cheap hop on hop off ticket as it was late in the afternoon, which turned out to be a great thing.  It was a really good circuit and the commentary was good, even though it was an Aussie accent.   We were truly on the Mediterranean  blue skies, calm sea as far as you could see and white wash and cream coloured houses, with bright shutters and would have once been only a month or so ago beautiful gardens.  There were little boat harbour tucked in everywhere they could squeeze one.  It was really interesting landscape as it was gentle rolling country so things were built on the side of hills and added to the character of the city.  We saw the sunset over the Med and the city, it was beautiful, our photos haven’t really done it justice I’m afraid.  We had a nice dinner at a waterfront pub, that served traditional foods, Murray had scallops with pasta and myself pork hock with potatoes and onions.  Both very nice, the hock was massive and so we took it away for tomorrows lunch.  No deserts were required as we had eaten our quota – the walk back to the hotel was good to shake down all the food!   On the way we stopped at the supermarket and picked up some supplies to have for breakfast.

Little boat harbours tucked in everywhere

The gorgeous Med.

Next morning we woke to sunny skies, and cool sea breezes.  We headed off in the general direction of the Notre Dame de la Garde, but we did get side tracked a little.  We found some interesting streets with a huge African influence.  We had noticed there were many dark skinned people, and they certainly added colour to the city.  I am not meaning this in a racist way, more that they actually do add colour.  Often their clothes are bright colours, there big smiles and cheerfulness was bright and then their graffiti and artwork on the buildings were bright.  We came across a street market. Brought a pair of jeans, which I had to climb in the back of a van to try on – by the time I had tried on 3 pairs I was sweating like a piglet!  Nice jeans though.  We brought some other bits too, started our xmas shopping even!  We continued on head in the general direction, brought some buns and cheese to go with our bacon hock and tomato and arvo and went and sat in a park with the homeless!  H hmm slightly depressing, as we left two people quickly rushed over to see if we had left anything behind and we saw them walk away shaking their heads.  Two, too tidy kiwi’s I guess.

The walk up to the cathedral was a steep one, but it was worth it.  The view was fantastic.  The wind was bloody horrible though.  You could see for miles out to sea and then along the coast and back into the country to the east of the city.  Huge limestone hills in the distance stood out, would be nice to get up on one of those hills and look back towards the city.  The Cathedral itself was beautiful,  in cream probably limestone bricks, the towers were 41m and then the statue of Mary and Jesus and its platform  was 24m and it weighed 9796 kg.  The circumference of the baby Jesus wrist is 1.10m, so it was pretty big really.  The statue was all in gold and stood out for miles.  Originally this hill provided a good place for a lookout, then in the 15th century someone built a fort and in 1853 this basilica was built.  It was not the first church built on this sight though. 

After some time spent looking at the landscape of the city, we headed down for a snack and another look around the city harbour.  Marseilles sure is a pretty place.  I think it would be frantically busy in the high summer months.  The next day we were back on the train heading north for Lyon our last stop in France.

France - Lezignan

Phil was at the station to meet us and take us back to Chateau Ventenac.  The kitchen was busy as we entered and were introduced to Julia our host, her sister-in-law Maureen from the UK and the other helpxers - Meredith from USA, Amy from NZ and her French boyfriend Nicolas  - but the French don't pronounce the 's' so he was Nicola.  Everyone was really nice and it was a lovely huge house or Chateau I should say.  We settled in and went down for a delicious dinner.   After a wee chat it was decided to start the next morning with a tour of the grounds and then we could pin point a few jobs.

Looking from the canal up towards the Chateau.

Phil showed us around and some of the projects on
 the go, which were many.  We together decided that the upholstering would be a good one, but the shed needed to be sorted to do that.  So I started by weeding some pathways and trimming some ivory.  Murray started to build a mezzanine floor in the shed.  After work we had a bit of a walk around the canal, visited the winery for some tasting next door.  Today was a special day, American Thanksgiving day, and since we had an american in the house, the feast preparation began with great gusto!  The eggnog was knocked up by Meredith the girl who said she was no good in the kitchen!  My gosh it was truly delicious, actually couldn't get enough of it.  There was turkey legs, sweet potato casserole, beans with almonds, Phil's bread glue - whoops I mean bread sauce, broccoli and a vegetable frittata and gravy.  Desert was pumpkin pie, pineapple and ice-cream.  What a feast, lots of laughter around the table which we shared with the two guests that night.  Our first thanksgiving dinner ever.

No this is not porridge, it is Phil's bread sauce.                                              

 Next day I got started on some preparing then painting some rails,  it was slightly chilly but not as bad as the days that followed where the wind got up and it was really cold painting.  Murray continued on with his jobs, the floor, some concreting, and then some more concreting.   Each afternoon we tried to either go for a bike ride or a walk somewhere.  One day we headed out with Meredith in search of a big cross, which we found after cutting across and in between the vineyards.  It was just simply a huge cross that was a tribute to a young lad from the local village Ginestas.  A good ride though and a good way to pass the afternoon.  Tonight was kiwi night, so I cooked a vege curry and a chicken curry and Murray made Clive's favorite chocolate pud.  A nice finish to a good day.  Meredith and Amy were keen to play "therapy" a board game, so we played too, interesting questions were asked and answered !  Bit of a laugh and a way to spend an evening.

Along the Canal Du Midi

Heading towards Ginestas

Beautiful main roads lined with Plane trees.

Another angle looking towards the Chateau and the big Winery next door.

Work continued the following day and so the afternoon was a relaxing one.  The following afternoon, Julia had kindly offered to take us and Meredith to the medieval village of Minerve.  I had seen a few pictures of this place, but it wasn't until we got there that you could actually see the greatness of it.  Literally it was built on a rocky outcrop in between gorges where the two rivers the Cease and Brian meet.   The rivers tunnel through the deep gorges and disappear for awhile.  A village in the centre of the Cathar times; in 1210 Simon de Montfort laid siege to the fortress village, he attacked the well which supplied the water to the village by using huge catapults. The village has double walls around it and a big high bridge to get to it.  The viscount Guilhem knew that his 200 men, could not resist the onslaught by Montfort so he negotiated the towns surrender.  He saved many people but 140 Parfaits who had taken refuge where burnt at the stake, because they refused to deny their faith.   The village today has still got the winding cobbled pathways and narrow streets, wonderful views in every direction.  It looked really pretty with the autumn colours.

Entering Minerve across the bridge

Public phone box - French style

A doorway for little people

Our next outing was on our day off.  We got dropped at the train station and caught the train to Carcassonne, yet another city taken by the powerful Simon de Montfort. The city comprises of two distinctive parts the old and the new.  The old city up on the hill is lovely, walled of course, with just one way in across a bridge.  It was a cold day, but it was still nice to walk around.  The old city was lovely,  and we found a great place for some traditional French cuisine.

The old walled city on the hill in the distance

The one and only entrance into the old city.

View back down to Carcassonne from the first wall.

In between the walls

Typical streets

Beautiful old buildings

The time had come for Amy and Nicola to leave and also Meredith the next day.  So Julia and Phil kindly took us all out to dinner to the local restaurant.  We had a lovely meal,  I had bbq beef kebabs french style, and Murray tried frogs; verdict = little bits of white meat on lots of skinny little bones.

The frog

Frenchman, Kiwi and and half an American - sorry Meredith

Phil and Julia

Yummy yum yum

Another day we biked along the canal from the Chateau, there were so many places to visit and it was so pleasant biking along beside the water.  Our remaining days were spent painting, concreting, sorting out some curtains and doing a bit of ironing.  And a couple of days watching crazy truck drivers, trying to manoeuvring long trucks around a corner and over a narrow bridge - impossible, they both ended up by reversing up the road and going somewhere else.  We had a mix of weather, from really quite hot and sunny to windy and freezing cold.  We woke one morning to see snow on the Pyrenees range.  One after noon we rode along the canal for about 80 mins and then back again via the road.  It was a nice ride.  The canal water was nice and clear in some places.  Not much movement with boats though.

Along the canal a little further

Sunset from our bedroom window

Next it was our turn to leave, we crammed stuff in our packs again 

and left Chateau Ventenac and headed for our next stop Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea.