On Top of Mount Pipet (Pee-Pee)

From 5 a.m. until 8 a.m., we cruised down the Rhone River from our docking in Lyon toward Vienne, one of the oldest cities in France as founded in 47 BC.  Following breakfast, a brisk morning greeted the intrepid travelers, many of whom bundled up like it was an arctic winter.  I, however, bucked the trend and wore shorts (like any self-respecting Southern Ohio boy) and, as Tod Augsburger called it, a "sporty blue fleece".  I was plenty comfortable.  Spring in southern France?  Who needs long pants?

Vienne's original population of Romans numbered 30,000 and, interestingly, today's population is that same 30,000 people (10% of these are remnants of Armenian refugees, a story I'll need additional followup on as we earlier saw the monument in Lyon dedicated to their massacre). 

As Rome's major wine port, many Roman monuments survived twenty-plus centuries, including the remarkably intact Temple of Augustus and Livia in the town's square.  At 9 a.m., we split into several groups and ours was lucky enough to be the first to take a "train" from our ship up typically tight, windy roads on the nearby hillside to the top of Mount Pipet (Pee-pee).  Yes, hearing our French guide pronounce this word was cause for quiet laughter.

From the esplanade set out in front of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette chapel perched high atop Mount Pipet, there is a remarkable view of the town including nearly directly below a spectacular Roman amphitheater built into the hillside.  We could see for miles north toward Lyon and south toward the sea, and the importance of this site for the Romans was obvious.  Originally there was a wall around the city built by Caesar, not for defense explained the guide but rather to show his sheer power.

Back down the hill in our "train" and we disembarked in the town center and began our walkabout for the next hour or so.  Roman ruins uncovered by various excavations were in abundance with many of the other housing and shop structures dating back to the 15th. century or even earlier.  Two structures stood out:  first, the Temple of Augustus and Livia which was finished in the last decade before Christ's crucifixion, and second, the Vienne Cathedral.

The Temple was originally commissioned by Julius Caesar and later hosted him for a visit.  It remains remarkably intact - one of two of its kind in all of France.  Apparently, the main reason for the great state of preservation is that it was incorporated into a church perhaps as early as the fifth century and restored in the nineteenth century as a Catholic church.

Notice the missing heads, chopped off
by participants in the French Revolution

The Cathedral is a magnificent Gothic church built over a long period

between 1052 and 1533.  Huge inside, our guide noted it is enjoying a rebirth of attendance, but still bore the signs of, first, looting by the Protestants in 1562 (as they made off with nearly all the religious statues), and later in the French Revolution with a number of its icons and friezes with their heads chopped off!


The most beautiful lettuce I've ever seen

After leaving the Cathedral, our guide said au revoir and we dispersed.  Cheryl and I hiked back up the hill to the local market which was staggering with its choices of produce, fish, meats, clothing, jewelry, cosmetics . . . . .the list of items being sold was endless and the market was several blocks long, crowded by locals and tourists alike.

We made it back to the ship for lunch just before the gray clouds burst open with rain, had lunch (a magnificent "taste of Provence" with magnificent cheeses, bouillabaisse, lamb, duck - the list of deliciousness was endless.  After a wonderful meal, our next step was (I'm almost too embarassed to say it) off to bed for a wonderful nap.    We're moving down the Rhone River and through one of several "single use" locks toward Tournon, France where we'll be docking in the next hour or so. 

More tomorrow from Tournon. 

The Prussians are Coming!

Day 3 in Lyon began with a scrumptious breakfast before our early morning bus ride to the city center for touring the old (medieval) part of Lyon.  On one of four buses from the ship, our guide (a small little French woman who added an extra syllable at the end of each word, and whose name escaped us) explained that we'd be going from the southeast part of Lyon across the peninsula to the western part up on one of the two large hills where the city was originally founded by the Romans in 43 BC.

I had a small flashback to French class in high school (where I was not one of Mrs. Brookie's best French speakers) when our guide mentioned that the peninsula separates Le Rhone and La Saone rivers . . . ."le" makes the following noun masculine and "la" makes it feminine.  The Rhone River is straight, wide, and apparently masculine while the Saone River is narrow, windy and apparently feminine.  I'd completely forgotten about le and la so it was a nice reminder and nearly doubles the number of French words I know.

The ruins of the two Roman theaters in Lyon.

Up the "praying hill" we went through some incredibly tight streets with hairpin turns on roads the Romans actually built.  One important intersection was for continuing on to Britain while another went south toward Rome. 

Our bus driver proved his driving skills to be without equal as he didn't crush a single car lining both sides of the street (as I would've).  I'm not quite sure how he did it but he certainly earned his gratuity today.  Near the top we saw two side-by-side ruins which were a large and small theater (again, Roman-built) but there was little left of them as successive wars saw them gradually dismantled for building elsewhere. 

After winding around on these roads which I'd be reluctant to drive on, we arrived at Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.  A beautiful church built in the 1870s, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who saved the city a number of times during its history - first from the bubonic plague, the Black Death, that swept Europe in 1643.  The most recent salvation of Lyon attributed to the Blessed Mother was her intervention in saving the city in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War from the dreaded Prussians who got as far in their invasion as Dijon. 

From the basilica, a view of the "Pencil" (right) and
"Eraser" (left) in Lyon's financial district.  On a clear day,
the Alps (including Mont Blanc) are visible
 in the far background.

There, according to the guide, they either got tired or drank too much beaujolais wine and stopped.  Meanwhile, the women of Lyon were at this site praying for the intervention of Mary.  In thanks to Her for sparing their city, the people of Lyon built this magnificant church on what was, in Roman times, the Forum.   From this position, it overlooks the city with spectacular views and has become the de facto symbol of Lyon.

Next our bus took us down to the city center to the medieval area which was gentrified in the 1960s from a slum to the hottest restaurants and shops in town.  The cobblestone streets are a bit rough to walk on, but certainly added to the charm.  Interestingly, the French resistance during World War II started in this area because the narrow passageways were conducive to the locals (provided there were two entrances/exits) because they were not known to the Gestapo.

"Nothing quite like a double espresso en Francais!"

We stopped at a local store and bought some wonderful chocolate and took it to a nearby coffee shop where we enjoyed espresso and cappucino while we ate chocolate.  Then, back on the bus and back to the ship for lunch. 

There are afternoon tours but one per day seems to be enough for us, so we'll likely spend the afternoon taking a nap and then sitting in the sunshine.   Tonight we leave to go south on the Rhone river and on to our next stop - Vienne, France, one of the oldest towns in all of France.

Forced to Relax

We should've known that today was going to go not according to Hoyle as half of our cabin's electric power wasn't working this morning, discovered by Cheryl whocouldn't get the hair dryer to work.  Seems like my suggestion last night for plugging a heating pad into a 220 outlet caused it to fry and knock out power, discovered this morning.    A quick response this morning by their engineer who said he "worked magic" (i.e., reset the fuse) fixed the problem, got the hair dry, and sent us off to breakfast.

Here's what the Abbey of Cluney would've looked like
had we been able to see it with our own eyes.

Counting on a nice leisurely morning before our afternoon tour of the Abbey of Cluney, that thought was interrupted in the middle of my eggs by the overhead announcement that the bus for the tour of Burgundy and the afternoon excursion was leaving.   Seems as if our move from one dock to another during the night poleaxed their ability to separate the two excursions from each other, so it was leave then - midbreakfast - or miss the Abbey of Cluney.

Cheryl tells me that I can be diplomatic like Henry Kissinger but I was anything but when I went to the desk to doublecheck my hearing.  I was told that, in fact, it was leave now or miss the afternoon tour.  And, a cab ride later to the Abbey of Cluney was a mere 100 Euros (about $130) so that didn't present a practical option. Faced with a quick decision on how to spend the next several hours, we chose to skip both so now it is 9:00 a.m. in France and we're giving thought to how to spend the rest of the day.

We ventured up onto the top deck to look around and found, no surprise, we're docked in a fairly industrial area so looks like we won't be walking around the city.  Perhaps a nap (or two or more) might be in order.  After all, isn't vacation supposed to be restful?  (Hence my decision not to rush around and go on a tour I didn't want to this morning and spend the whole day out running around)

Just after noon, the ship moved from its overnight dock back up the Rhone river to our original location.  That made it possible for Cheryl and I to venture back uptown so we made our way toward the public square where I was yesterday.   Overhead we saw a hovering helicopter, and noticed an increasingly large police presence that became lots of police in full riot gear.  A local told Cheryl that a day of protests was about to occur, and likely fights and violence, and to leave immediately!

Even the French were crabby today, protesting what they
see as government overreach toward Muslims.

And across the bridge they came right toward us, a long column of people waving flags, banners, and chanting slogans.  Turns out that about 2,000 persons were, in fact, protesting a French government "temporary" rule that gives the police and military carte blanche powers over people (Muslims) felt to be potential criminals and terrorists.   At least these folks felt like a Trump-like gesture in France was, well, unFrench.  Nonetheless, we decided to end our downtown visit before we became embroiled in anything we didn't want, and headed back to the boat.

Enough excitement for today, so we'll join Ray and Mary Lee for dinner in a couple hours and then more catching up on sleep.

We've Landed in Lyon!

Nearly 24 hours of flying from Columbus-to-Detroit-to-Amsterdam-to-Lyon, and we're here at last!  That may seem like a daunting agenda but actually it was one of the easiest international flights we've ever had.   And, we especially liked the almost-no-waiting-through Customs in Lyon - almost unheard of - even if I did draw a scowl from the gendarme who wanted me to remove my Harley Davidson hat.  I think he snickered when he saw what I could've told him - no hair up there.

A 45 minute drive followed from the airport to our boat, the Viking Delling parked with several others on the Rhone River.  An offer was made for a 90-minute walking tour of the city but I was the only one foolish to take them up on that, as ML, Ray, and Cheryl slept while I hoofed it with about 10 others around the city.

We'll be back on Friday for a indepth tour of the city, particularly the medieval portion, so today was more about a quick overview of the city center.  Lyon was first settled by the Celts at a time unknown, but became an official city in Gaul in 43 BC and sits largely on a peninsula between the Rhone and Saone rivers.  With a population of about 1.3M in the metro area, it is one of France's largest cities and known for its 3 univerities, one of which - Lumiere University - was adjacent to the boat's docking and founded by the Frenchman (Lumiere) who invented moviemaking and cinema.

We hiked to the city center and its public square which features a large statue of the Sun King, Louis XIV.   And, another interesting landmark was a tower saved from a hospital demolished in the late 19th. century.  The citizens wanted it saved even if it meant having to build a new road around it.  Dozens and dozens of young couples enjoyed the sunshine, and otherwise it was young men ogling the dozens and dozens of really nice looking French girls.  Ah to be young again. (Note that these observations are purely academic as, once you have the best . .  . )

Soon we have the obligatory safety drill, dinner at 7 p.m. (5 hours ahead of EST in Ohio), and then an early call for me for bed as I've had about 30 minutes of sleep since Monday night.   We'll be cruising from Lyon north on the Rhone starting at 9 p.m. and docking for Day 2 in Macon, France (you know, Macon where the Allman Brothers were from) and our tour of the Abbey of Cluney.

Very much looking forward to going horizontal in the next couple of hours, and will be back with you tomorrow.

Getting Ready to Leave and the Last Minute Rush

Trying to avoid the last minute rush to get everything in order to be gone for nearly two weeks - it's hard!  Got a note from Mary Lee Hess last night - half of our faithful travel companions - with a loooonnnnngggg list of things she's working to pack in a carryon like Cheryl.  I don't think she's going to make it, but she can always be counted on for a spare this or that while we're halfway around the world.

This time our trip is a Viking river cruise of southern France, starting after our Columbus-to-Detroit-to-Amsterdam-to-Lyon flights which take most of a day.   From Lyon, we board one of the very nice Viking ships and start an eight-day cruise south toward Avignon.  My friend Tod Augusburger tells me that Avignon was the home of a Catholic pope who decided he wanted to be French and moved the papacy there, so that'll be interesting.

After disembarking in Avignon, we travel to an extension of three days in beautiful Nice, France, and have scheduled a day-to-night excursion to Monaco for a late afternoon/evening look at one of the world's most fabulous cities.

As always, I'll be putting up a nightly blog of our day and its wonderful activities in, arguably, my favorite foreign country - France.  Looking forward to the opportunity to speak some Francais with my southern Ohio accent - the ones that both my boys implore me "Dad, don't, you're hurting our ears" whenever I break it out.

And, just to show we're actually getting warmed up for an on-the-water experience, I've posted a photo of Cheryl and I on the famous Duck boats in Boston last week.   The Charles River may not be the Saone or Rhone Rivers where we'll be in France, but by gosh it was American and a ton of fun.  We loved it as I'm sure we'll love our trip to France, so hoping you'll have time to follow our latest adventure.  

Finally, a special thank you to my late parents, Woody and Dorothy, for insisting that I go to college so I could get a "real job" to be able to have opportunities like this.  Guess they saw that a future as either a cowboy or a rock star didn't hold as much promise as one in Radiology.   As almost always, they were certainly right and, of course, without my partner Cheryl the furthest we'd get is Circleville.  But together, en Francais!