Nadine came to join us for a week on board – second visitor who has joined us without the boat going anywhere! But at least we were in the water this time!!
Nadine had come to France after teaching for a month in Spain and was sorely in need of some R & R! So we did our best to provide this…… we went to markets at Pont de Vaux and Tournus; we visited the town of Bourg en Bresse; walked; went swimming; ate some super meals, including a return visit to Aux Terrasses to celebrate Nadine’s birthday; bought some nice wine and then all went down to Lyon to return her to Sophie and Hubert before she had to fly off to Brisbane to see her brother.
We also stayed for a couple of days in Lyon and thoroughly enjoyed the break. We met Sophie and Hubert and all had dinner together. We have each heard a lot about the other from Nadine over the years so it was nice to meet properly. We went to a restaurant called Le Sud which was excellent.
We visited the Musee des Beaux Arts with Nadine and then Adrian and I walked around le Vieux Lyon enjoying the quaint old streets, traboules (passageways between the streets that were used as short cuts by the silk weavers in times gone by), and little shops. The whole area is becoming increasingly focused on tourists so that many shops sell rather overpriced touristy-type-tat but I did find an interesting photography shop ina traboule selling compilation photos of old Lyon – so I bought one of shop fronts which is now adorning the back cabin – overpriced no doubt but rather nice.
We then met Nadine and Sophie for lunch at the newly opened Musee des Confluences. We managed to drive to the vicinity pretty easily but finding the car park for this huge new attraction was a different matter! On the third attempt and about 20 minutes later we finally got there. After another good lunch we all wanted to go to the newly opened musee – but so did half of Lyon and their kids! Half term hols we think. The queue was horrendous and we all decided that this was not the time to go ……. if it was this noisy outside what would it be like inside!!!
So we took our leave of Nadine and Sophie and went to visit the new port and the chandlery. We saw the berth that we had been offered at Lyon – beside the shopping centre, under the rail bridge and both agreed that we were much happier at Pont de Vaux with places like Lyon, Tournus, Macon and Lechatelet within driving distance.
Piedaleau 