Soaked to the Beaune (and other misadventures)

Trip Start Sep 07, 2008

Trip End Oct 10, 2008

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Exclusive Hotels Park & Suites Part-Dieu Lyon

(Lyon hotels)

Flag of France Lyon, France
Saturday, September 13, 2008

Today marked the end of our Paris adventure and the start of the next phase of our trip, exploring on our own in a hire car. We picked up the car at Gare de Nord in Paris and endured a very nerve wracking ride through the streets of Paris, out to the Peripherique in our new 407 Peugeot. We made the journey about an hour south of Paris, to the little town of Fontainebleau, to see the chateau that had been the hunting lodge of many French kings from Francois I to Napoleon III, and was once the home of the lovely Mona Lisa. Upon reaching Fontainebleau, before even leaving the carpark, we met the loveliest French couple from Fontainebleau who had been married for 50 years. Despite them not speaking a word of English and our very basic French, we managed to exchange first some bumper paint, then addresses and insurance details and 2 kisses on each cheek, before parting ways. They were so lovely and quite excited and started clapping when we told them it was our "lune de miel" or honeymoon, and were very forgiving of our brief lapse in concentration while trying to park the car

Just a little bump

. It made what could have been a very difficult situation so much easier to deal with, although we were both a little shaken for the next few hours. I'm not sure if there is a record for crashing a hire car so soon after picking it up (ie. less than 2 hours!) but we may go close!!!

We did eventually get to the chateau and wandered around the courtyard in the freezing cold. The weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse today and we were shivering in our light jumpers. The chateau itself is enormous, as Napoleon I went nuts and added extra wings everywhere. We were able to go inside on our Paris museum pass, and wandered through the many rooms. Some were quite spectacular, including the ballroom, and they spared no expense with gold leaf on so many of the furnishings. There seemed to be some weird exhibits throughout including a cat on the ceiling attached to a cylinder of Helium, and a massive elephant, which we suspected weren't there in Napoleon's time, but were instead part of some strange art exhibition.

By this stage we were slightly behind schedule due to our adventurous morning, and we headed off to the little town of Beaune (pronounced 'bone') about halfway between Paris and Lyon. We had found it mentioned very briefly in the Lonely Planet due to the Hotel Dieu, which is an old hospital built in 1443 with a magnificent coloured tile roof

Fontainebleau chateau

. We decided to stop in and have a look for ourselves and were rewarded with one of the finds of our trip so far. Beaune is a gorgeous little medieval village, surrounded by rampart walls, and full of little cobbled streets. By this stage it was pouring rain, but we still couldn't resist getting lost in the little streets and marvelling at all the old stone buildings that still look in their original condition. There are signs for wine tasting on every second corner. Apparently under the streets of Beaune are many kilometres of wine caves with thousands of bottles of Burgundy wine waiting to be consumed. Sadly we didn't have time to visit them, or consume any of their wine, but we did get to visit the Hotel Dieu. You can catch a glimpse of the famous coloured tile roof from outside, but you do have to go inside to really appreciate it. You stand in the centre of the courtyard, surrounded by rooftops tiled in the most magnificent coloured tiles. You are also able to wander through the buildings of the old hospital, which I couldn't believe had still been operational as a hospital until 1971. There were some lame re-enactments, which seem to pop up every now and then in France, but still definitely worth a visit. We were very soggy by this stage, but very happy that we stopped in the lovely little village of Beaune. It is definitely on our list of places to go back to one day.

We arrived in Lyon at the peak of Friday afternoon traffic, but Tom helped us find our hotel with no problems

Random artwork in Fontainebleau

. Tom is the very original name we have christened our GPS, as he is a TomTom brand. We are aware that probably every owner of one of these has done the same, but we don't care. Our hotel in Lyon was a very good find by Matt on Last Minute. It is called the Park & Suites, and is a very modern hotel with suites rather than rooms. They are enormous with a living area and kitchenette, and separate bedroom and bathroom. Bigger than the flat we rented in London! We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Lyon as the staff are very helpful, there is a gym and spa, a laundromat, free internet, and it is only a 5 minute walk from the Metro into town. We headed into town to try and find some dinner in Vieux Lyon, the old city. We ate a terrible meal at a very cute restaurant called Le Petit Glouton. The crepes were good, but the saucisses de Lyon (hot sausages) may have had more random meat in them than my stomach would have liked. Gabriel Gate would have had a fit to see meals coming straight out of the microwave onto the table in the gastronomic capital of France.

However the Metro ride home made up for it. The Metro here is much more modern than most Metros in big cities in Europe, and very clean and efficient. The line we were on has driverless trains, where you can sit in the front seat and watch the tunnel ahead. It kind of feels like a rollercoaster ride as they do get up to quite high speeds. We thought it was great but I'm sure we looked quite the tourist sitting there in the front seats of the train getting all excited about riding the Metro.