Hmmm, so Bordeaux was ok... frustratingly, the main thing I wanted to do in Bordeaux was go to the Musee d'Aquitaine, which traces 2500 years of history in the Aquitaine area. Of course, it was closed; until May 10. Ugh.
Instead I:
- Took a walking tour around the older areas, and learned a lot about the history and the architecture.
- Took a wine tour to a winery. It was ok. Didn't like the wine much, but LOVED my French guide's disparaging comments on France's current anti-alcoholism education. She considers this to be CRAZY, as it is anti wine! Her secret for health and happiness was drinking wine regularly; that is, every day.
- Visited an awesome monolithic (underground, carved into the cliff face) church in the very cool medieval village of St Emillion.
- Bought a skirt. It is very hard to find a coloured skirt in France. I had to settle for brown...
- Ate some very good food, especially confit de canard at Bistro Eduard.
- Took an eight hour train ride to Lyon.
Upon arriving at Lyon, I:
- Got annoyed at the metro ticket machines for only taking coin and microchipped bank cards.
- Waited ages in line to book my train ticket to Strasbourg (mostly so I could get change for the metro machine).
- Was given ticket advice by a beggar after I gave him some change.
- Wandered around at the bottom of a large hill, trying to find the way to my hostel.
- Learned the best way up the big hill, as my hostel was mid way up it.
- Wondered if it was unreasonable to want an escalator to be built into the hill.
- Discovered that the reception to the hostel was closed (dinner break).
- Went back down the hill to eat kebabs with chips in it.
- Marevlled at the truly amazing view from the hotel- it actually makes the climb worth it (just).
- Found that my room was full of English speakers, including a girl from Ferntree Gully, with whom I spent this morning wandering the city.
- Visited the Printing Museum, which was ok; started out with English translation, but they petered out by the second room, so it was just a case of looking, without extra understanding.
- Visited the Lumiere Museum, which was fantastic; it didn't hurt that it was housed in an exquisite Art Nouveau building.
- Ate bread and cheese while checking out the view.
- Wandered at random, taking photos of pretty things and street art, and enjoying the lat sunshine.
- Concluded that I really, really like Lyon. One of my favourite places so far.
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Nice wizard of oz reference sweety. xx
ReplyDeleteI loooved the Lumiere Museum, it was so much fun! And of course I loved the Printing Museum because it combined my geeky passions of printing and French all in one :):):) I've missed the provinces a lot - one of the main reasons I'd like to live in Paris again is to be spend some time *outside* of Paris, exploring other parts of France. We'll see what happens.
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