Ibis Besancon Centre Ville Besançon

... houses a zoo, aquarium, and several museums. <br><br>We just ventured to Lausanne and Montreux on Lake Geneva. HUGE Lake! Chateau de Chillon is the best castle in Switzerland&#8230;so the Swiss say. It is very interesting. As they build it on a mountain of rock right in the lake. Lord Byron , English poet , wrote the Prisoner of Chillon which ...

Finally got to a chateau today, but not the sort I had anticipated. I had been expecting something more grand with lots of fine furnishings, gillt etc.. and while this chateau was grand it was a bit more medieval. It had been an important line of defense in the many wars that have featured in France's history. After the Revolution the revolutionaries ordered it and many chateaux to be destroyed because of what they represented, so this magnificent ...

... to have dinner at. We sat outside at first, but there was a crazy guy walking around on the bridge right by the restaurant, walking and ranting and it was a little unnerving, so we moved to seats inside. After dinner and some wine, we walked around town a little more, then stopped to buy some eggs for breakfast the next morning, since our hotel had a little kichenette in it. Ed decided to watch some TV in French and I was exhausted and fell asleep.

... s someone else doing it too. The scenery varies between narrow gorge and wider embankments leading to dams every few miles. There are castles and churches everywhere. Its very pretty but after the first twenty or so. I needed to make a bit more progress, my initial target came up about 12.00. So we had lunch in a pretty glade by the river and she turned off to geocache and I pushed on. It was an even narrower gorge and quite pretty. I ...

... daughters had taken up residence. They all spoke in whispers in a language I didn't recognise and seemed to make some effort to avoid eye contact. But with this many people going to bed the progress through the bathroom took time. I.t was all very proper and rather like being on the tube. Dad snored from the word go and one of the daughters had the gene. The room also got fairly hot but with the windows open options were limited. Later I realised I had sunburn too. So it was ...

... Lots of people out for the day. There was also a rather neat powerless ferry that used the current to pull itself across while attached to a dolly on a wire suspended across the river. There were now people sunbathing. Regensberg is as fine as I remembered it; a wonderful combination of river parks and history. I was looking for an independant hostel and have found it. Its very quiet but there's only a micrwave to cook with and I have very lttle ...

... and it looked like a shorts day. The cathedral at Dole incidentally looked particularly fine picked out of the mist. Todays route was largely based on the Eurovelo route 6. I've been roughly following it but today its "chemin de haulage" particularly beckons. It's a canalised river; periodically there are weirs to maintain the water level and locks to enable navigation. These weirs are often very wide indeed. There are also substantial periods of canal where the ...

... today we checked in at 10am to a Campanile (a chain like Best Western) on the outskirts of Strasbourg, then took the very efficient,quiet, tram into the city to explore. It is a very attractive city, a real mix of French and German truly European! It is one of the three capitals of the European Union and has a medieval cityscape of bridges, black &amp; white half- timbered Rhineland buildings, cobblestoned streets ad squares and a famed 12th century Gothic ...

... up a conversation with a French couple that was sitting next to me. I was for some reason having problems with my French this particular day and my waitress knew from my accent that I was an English speaker so she gladly carried out my order with me in English, and this had grabbed the attention of this couple because both of them have traveled to the US and they were interested in practicing their English I believe as well, but I didn't ...

Don't go on Tuesdays, because all the museums are closed, as we discovered when we had to stay an extra day due to our train not running that day, either! We had a great crepe and wine dinner and met owners Stphane and Anna, who have Polish friends in Edmonton. Small World, eh? The River Doubs loops around to nearly circle the old city centre. Over-looking the city, is the Citadelle, built for Louis XIV in 1688.