Allo! Allo!
Whew, we made it to Lyon! Wasn’t sure there for a few minutes! Got up and ready to go in Sarlat at the usual time – somewhere around 8 a.m. R got our croissants and we finished up our strawberry jam. We’ve actually accumulated so much stuff that R took an advance load to the car – thank heavens it’s a BIG car! And believe it or not, I’m already getting into the “dump it or leave it” mode...It was quite a schlep (mostly uphill) getting the suitcases to the car in the public parking lot. As the main Sarlat market is on Saturdays, they close the main street through town at midnight on Friday...so, the schlep...Weather was coolish and overcast, but not threatening. Headed out through Les Eyzies and Tursac – ran across the incredibly beautiful field of poppies above – it would have been absolutely glowing had the sun been out, but I think it looks pretty terrific as it is! Finally hit the peage, and headed toward Lyon ... which is quite a distance across the country to the east. It also crosses the Massif Central, where we’d never been before! Who knew?! I remember in French class in high school learning that the only thing there is Clermont-Ferrand, and for some reason, I remembered they make tires there – was gratified to see tires on the C-F sign heading into town!! Wow! It turns out there are other things there as well, including a volcanic area – it’s way high up, and we hit fog on both the way up and the way down; a real pea-souper! Crept along at some points with almost 0 visibility; made for some very slow going. Finally left the fog behind, and headed into Lyon, only to have it start to rain – hard! So, our first impression of Lyon was that it resembled Newark, with lots of refineries on the outskirts – and it is a HUGE city; MUCH bigger than we’d expected! After more than one wrong turn (even with a great map) we found our hotel, located in the city center right across the street from the Celestins theatre. The hotel isn’t great; 2 **’s, but it’s clean and convenient and even has WI-FI (again, prounounced WEE-FEE). We schlepped everything up 3 flights of stairs ... oh, I forgot ... it doesn’t have an elevator, which has suddenly become a major requirement for Dr. B! Settled in and then decided to have a look at the city – and it’s lovely! Very Parisian; lovely old stone buildings, lots of wrought iron balconies; beautiful wide streets, many of them pedestrian and a Metro! (Also street entertainment – I’ve included R’s picture of what he called the Ohio State Marching Band; absolutely a riot; great band music and lots of fun on the street corner.) We had a nice walk around – found out that the Roman ruins we want to visit are UP on top of the hill (see cathedral picture), and we will probably take either a bus or the Metro AND the funicular up there to visit tomorrow! Also want to see the Cathedral, as it looks really spectacular from down below. All this is located in Vieux Lyon, and is our destination for tomorrow. Stopped at the tourist information office for a metro/bus map; have decided that we will buy all-day passes so that we can get around easily without having to use the car (safely parked in the next-door underground garage). Ended our outing with an early evening dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant. We both had lettuce and tomato salads with a balsamic vinaigrette and then R had pasta alla arrabiata (spicy) which he likes. I had a trio of pastas with different sauces ... preferred the cheese ravioli with a sauce bolognaise. Had a nice cote du Rhone to go with it – a lovely ending to a lovely day! Are now back in our room, watching the theatre crowd in the square below. Early evening tonight, as the drive was a long one. This will probably be our one and only excursion into Lyon, as it is a very large city, and we tend to avoid those when we travel – greatly prefer the smaller, quainter places – but have to admit, this is a very enjoyable city!!

Take care – more tomorrow!
Much love,
m