Up this morning after a fairly poor night. R encouraged me to read Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul as we happened to be in the area, and once started, it was rather hard to put down! So, when I woke up about 2 am, I went out to the couch until about 4 – 4:30 am to read. Then back to bed for a few hours, but I can’t say it was a good night’s rest! Fortunately, I am galloping (like Caesar?) towards the end, so hopefully I won’t have the same problem tonight!
Lovely Vienne Museum! Some of the most beautiful mosaics! And some just fun! A cute duck! Me against a wall painting Musician playing instrument Looking from the museum across the Rhone
We
decided this morning that we would make our day trip to Vienne, which is about 30 km down the Rhone River from Lyon. I took friend Stew’s advice and booked us two train tickets in 1st class, to see if it made any difference from our second class experience of last Saturday. (Actually, as the regular second class ticket was 14€ and first class was all of 17€, it wasn’t too much of a stretch.)
Girls are becoming more important!
Got back to Station Lyon Part-Dieu, and truly, looking at it today rather than last Saturday when we arrived, I can now understand why we had such a difficult time getting oriented when we arrived! Everything – and I mean everything – has been torn up to either make an entirely new station, or to repair the one they had – but the signage is temporary and terrible – we finally found the sign to the taxi rank (now that we don’t need it), but the problem last week was that you only see it when you are coming in, not when you’re leaving the station … UGH! Useful, it is not!
We found our train easily and got settled in the 1st class carriage. The problem was, though, that there didn’t seem to be enough 2nd class seats to go around for all those wanting them … so they just sat on the first-class steps. R wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to get out at Vienne, but no problem. However…that is not by any stretch of imagination the end of our adventures for the day!
Walked out of the Vienne train station to find that, while there were 2 cabs parked there, the drivers were chatting to either other, and obviously how could we even dare ask if they wanted a fare? There was an “official” taxi stand but it had no cabs in front of it, and no way to communicate from the stand to a taxi! Interesting! Finally, as there were buses coming and going from the station, I got on one and asked the driver if he went near the Roman museum. He indicated that he did, but that it wasn’t a direct route, but if we wanted to go with him, he would get us there and tell us when to get off. So … we’re on a smallish bus with maybe 15 people – all of whom, I’m thinking, probably knew each other. Lots of older men with what looked like their weekly trip to the grocery store; also, some women with shopping carts. Well, we wound around Vienne, past the museum, through the suburbs and down some fairly deserted tracks – and finally the driver announced Termine! Well, as it turns out, he had forgotten about us! (Although how he could when we were sitting immediately behind him…). At any rate, he assured us that if we stayed on the bus, we would eventually get to the museum – which we did, although it must rate as one of the most circuitous routes known to man!
We then had about a 10 minute walk across the bridge to the museum; no problem. Our health passes and bags were all checked, and into the museum we went. We had been there twice before, but they’ve done a really good job on it. In fact, this time, there was an entire section supposedly written by les femmes – women! On how women were heroines in ancient history, and some of their stories. We had Penelope’s and a few other prominent ancient women. All in all, it was very nicely put together and we enjoyed the museum very much.
By this time, seeing as that we had had no breakfast at all, and remembering that their restaurant had a very good kitchen, we decided to eat. And we did! We started out sharing a salad of red leaf lettuce with walnuts, granny smith apples, dried tomatoes, and what we call Canadian bacon, along with wonderful croutons of bread with warm goat cheese on them. It was wonderful – the very light mustard vinaigrette is amazing. For mains then, R had flank steak (cooked rare) with a shallot dipping sauce and (of course) French fries; I had their pintarde in a wonderful sauce with grilled cepes and a ramekin of potatoes dauphinoise. YUM! Again, if you’re only going to have one meal a day, make it a memorable one! And this was!
My pintade lunch! R's flank steak, chips and salad Salad of Chevre Chaud & other good things! Inside of restaurant Me at lunch!
After this, and seeing that the day had been cold, breezy and hazy, we decided against viewing the actual archaeological site (outside) (already seen twice…) and head back to Lyon. Lots of trains between Lyon and Vienne, so not too long a wait and in a very quick time – I’m thinking in the range of 20 minutes! - we were back at Part-Dieu.
Now, as we had arrived this morning on the C3 bus, we had somehow (silly us!) expected we could return that way! However, when we got to the C3 stop, turns out that something was happening in Lyon, and there would be NO C3 buses for at least an HOUR! UGH! However, figuring that just getting out of the area would be a help, we boarded a T1 tram towards the Confluence Museum, and hooked up with a Metro line D which dropped us off at Vieux Lyon – a 10-minute walk from the apartment! What fun! I’d still like to find out what was happening in town this afternoon, but I probably never will!
So … back to the apartment to find that all the laundry I had strategically draped over the drying rack and many other places, was actually dry! Now all ironed and put away, and ready to go. Feeling that tonight will definitely be an earlier night, as the lack of sleep is catching up with me now!
So! More later!
m
xxx
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