Back in France, then back home

Lyon

We landed in Lyon around 9am. We had planned to stay with Reynald's brother and his wife in Grenoble at this point in the trip, but hadn't yet reached them because of lack of email access. We also realized that we didn't have their phone number. After a tense and lengthy stay at the airport, where we paid a ridiculous amount of money to use the internet for 15 minutes to email them, we decided to stay the night in Lyon. The guidebook described Lyon as being the second largest financial district in France, and as being busier in the fall than the summer. So after calling a couple hotels, we considered ourselves lucky to find a room for the night. We jumped on the bus and headed into town.

It turned out that we had picked a wonderful little hotel near the river. The staff were incredibly friendly, and the room had really high ceilings and old wood floors (and it had a full bathroom). We were so exhausted when we arrived that we took a long nap, then went out to explore the area and find internet access. It took a while, but we finally managed to find an internet cafe and were relieved to see an email from Reynald's brother with the address and phone number. We later made contact with them and agreed to meet the next day in Lyon, before going to Grenoble. That night, to celebrate our return to France, we had our most extravagant meal yet. It was an amazing three course meal (with cheese) and was absolutely amazing. We were so stuffed we could barely move when we left.

The next day we met up with Reynald's brother and his wife and walked around Lyon. We went to see one of their famous churches, then walked to the site of some old Roman ruins. The weather was so cold, and windy, and it actually started hailing when we were at the ruins. This prompted the decision to go to Grenoble in the early afternoon. We took the train, which was incredibly busy. Within a couple of hours we were in Grenoble.

Grenoble

We went to Reynald's brother's apartment, which was in an old building, but was quite modern inside. The next day we decided to rent a car and see some of the French countryside. Grenoble, being near the Alps, is surrounded by mountains and is very pretty. We decided to drive up Alpe D'Huez, made famous by the Tour de France. It is a long winding climb with 21 switchbacks. In the winter, it's a ski resort, but it hadn't opened yet for the season. The drive up was very scenic, but there wasn't much to do in the village. We spent the rest of the day driving, and saw some beautiful old roman style bridges, some nearby lakes, and lots of incredible views. On the way back, we stopped in Vizille, and took a quick look at their castle.

The next day we took it easy and spent much of the day playing the board game "Settlers of Catan". That night we went out for a nice fondue dinner in a unique little restaurant called "A Confesse" that had a real confessional at the front door. The next day we went to a huge french grocery store to pick up a few goodies to take home. It was very fun, and we ended up buying too much chocolate, and had to borrow a bag to fit everything.

Then it was time to catch our train back to Paris, where we would catch our flight back home to Vancouver. We stayed in a hotel very near the Notre Dame Cathedral, and had a wonderful view of it from our window. We went out for one last nice dinner.

The next morning, we made our way to the airport to take our flight home. Our flight ended up being painfully long, as we had a stopover in Calgary, and were on the plane for more than 12 hours. Then we had a long wait for our luggage as they had problems opening the cargo doors. It was with very great relief that we finally met up with my mother, who kindly picked us up at the airport. We arrived home around 8pm (around 6am in France), and were greeted by a couple of happy cats.