Chateau de Collanges

... reached the Millau Bridge, super structure and amazing piece of engineering, by late afternoon. It was no way I would make the Loire by 7 pm so we reach the little town called Issoire and stay the night at Etap hotel (like formula one). Tomorrow short drive big day.

Left St Eloy fairly early and lunched at a motorway aire (with free electricity to cool the fridge, and services for the van's wastes) at La Fayette. On to Le Puy with fantastic volcanic mounds with statues and churches atop.

Coubon a small village with the site 7m above the Loire (unexpectedly this far south), but showing signs of having been 2m underwater in the winter.

En ce frais matin, nous sommes fébriles car nous allons pouvoir bientôt gouter une nouvelle aventure artistique: Jean-Louis V, le célebre cinéaste, va bientôt se livrer a une transe créatrice dont il a le secret, et nous serons au premier plan! Après un travail sur les camions, puis sur la couleur, quelle sera sa source d'inspiration cette année?

... and gone by, very cool!! We watch the chase group come through then the mass of the Peleton and the Lampre team nursing their injured rider and that was about it. We bought some Tour duds, gathered up our foam hands and after Elke snapped a shot of the winner, a German rider, through the fence, we headed back to Lyon. Lot's of pretty good shots were got so I'll post them at the next stop. A trip to the Tour is well worth the effort, too much fun!

Plus que deux semaines avant notre départ à Paris où nous ne resterons que 3 jours avant l'avion pour Mexico City. Les premiers cartons du déménagement sont faits, les premières démarches administratives aussi. Nous commençons juste à réaliser que dans peu de temps nous abandonnons notre ancienne vie.

Traveled from where ever we were yesterday, to st etienne, and went to the usa v samoa game, and the atmosphere was great, we parked in the car park, for the stadium, where we intended to leave it and try and find it later full, it was gonna be a great game. gav did the drive, point to not efor later. so were sitting around with loads of american at the game, and they all know were irish, but they're not telling us were drinking non alcholic beer, and halfway down ...

... and one has a drug problem. Oh-la-la! 2. Racy television programs. Last night I was watching a show and a warning came out, just like our warning in the states. The screen flashed red and yellow and said, "The following program is not suitable for children under the age of 12." So I shrugged my shoulders and thought of my students this past year....twelve, huh? So maybe there would be some cursing and a few inappropriate kissing ...

While DH went to a meeting, I slept in a little (stress the "little" here). I got up and headed back out to the shops. I found some tres chic clothes and had the best time shopping. Oh, I love French clothes. And to top it off, I learned a new French word: Soldes...Sale!!! Everything was on sale, lol, which made it even more fun. [Side Note: I have found out since that retailers in ...

We got off the train at the Perrache station which was quite close to our hotel (thanks to the folks on the train for that hot tip). Took a quick taxi and voila, we were at the Lyon Sofitel Hotel right on the Rhone river. We found out rather quickly that people in Lyon don't speak English as much as they do in Paris. The hotel was nice. Our room was beautiful: Big bed, plasma tv, nice big ...

Seule connaissance en Europe, du moins avant mon chantier. Je vais chez Jacques et Élisabeth. 2 personnes formidables et que j'admire. Petit tour de Lyon c'est une ville sympa. J'apprend que j'ai la possibilité d'avoir une chambre gratuite a Paris. Ca tombe bien je ...