France – Worktime

13 – 15 March 2019; Annecy

The perfect weather we had been enjoying on our trip so far, had to break eventually and alas, it happened during our visit to Annecy; the forecast predicting rain turned out to be 100% accurate.

Our transit from Lyon included a brief stop at Bourg en Bresse to change trains. The wind was biting cold and the rain was falling as sleet making our wait on the platform most uncomfortable. Hot tea and a chocolate bar provided some relief.

The rain had stopped by the time we arrived at Annecy. This proved to be most helpful as we dragged our bags from the station to our accommodation in the middle of the old town, adjacent to one of the arms of the river Thiou that cross Annecy in a number of places forming attractive canals.

The view from our window looking towards the lake and the distant snow capped mountains, was very pretty despite the weather closing in.

Dumping our bags, we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out. A foreshore path wraps around the lake’s edge near the town and we walked along imagining what the view would have been like in better weather.

The next day I stayed in (working on our trip blog) while Chris went out to wander in the rain and make enquiries about a boat trip on the lake. In the afternoon, we climbed the steep and now slippery, cobble stone streets to the Château d’Annecy (a restored medieval castle and museum housing regional sculptures & paintings along with contemporary art) which overlooks the town. One of the castle’s towers was given over to providing historical information on human interactions with the lake, going back several thousand years. Growing concerns about damage to the lake caused by run-off and related pollution, led to the formation of a local environmental group during the 1950s. Significant remedial work was undertaken, in association with the creation and enforcement of strict environmental laws. Lake Annecy is now considered one of Europe’s cleanest lakes, with a number of the townships surrounding the lake, drawing their drinking water directly from it. The water is the clearest I have ever seen (look at the boats floating on air in the next picture).

Despite the rain and biting cold, we did go on the boat tour of the lake. The commentary was in French and the windows required constant wiping to clear the fog caused by our breathing- enough said!

The clouds parted on the morning as we were packing to depart. Chris darted out to grab some pictures (this time with sunshine – see above) and we dragged our bags to the railway station under a cloudless, blue sky.

Our transit to Geneva was to be via bus. The bus eventually arrived forty minutes late and it was somewhat frustrating to stand there waiting, not knowing when it might arrive, while there were many great photo opportunities going begging, not more than 500 metres away.

We were stopped at the Swiss border and our passports inspected by a pair of machine-gun toting guards, who boarded the bus. Geneva is very close to the French border and we were soon recovering our bags from the luggage compartment underneath the bus.

Au revoir France; bonjour Switzerland.

10 – 12 March 2019; Lyon

Our transit from Nice to Lyon involved four and a half hours on a very fast train. The speedometer app on my iPhone clocked a top speed of 311 kph as we sped along, the active suspension providing a surreal floating effect that didn’t quite match the frantic pace of movement outside the carriage. Chris was watching a documentary on Lady Gaga and I was continuing with “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”.

Our accommodation was too far from the station to drag our bags and so we did a crash course on the metro system before diving into the subway. Having dumped our bags, we set off to explore our new surroundings.

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière from the River Saone

Lyon is an ancient city trisected by two rivers; the Rhone and the Saone. Our accommodation was located in the 1st arrondissement (suburb) of Lyon, on an isthmus sandwiched between the two rivers and smack in the middle of the cultural centre of the city and a two minute walk from the nearest river. From pretty much anywhere in Lyon, the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière standing on the hills of Fourvière presents a dominating aspect to the city’s skyline.

We took a funicular railway tunnelled through the bedrock of the mountain to reach Fourvière and the basilica. The views over the city from the basilica courtyard are impressive.

Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in the foreground from Fourvière

These images have been scaled and compressed to make them blog friendly and don’t really present the grandeur of these buildings and the resources consumed in creating them. They certainly make you feel small and insignificant.

Interior La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

We invested more euros and time in prayer for our departed loved ones.

Votive candles in La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

Not far down the hill from the basilica we visited the Gallo-Roman Museum containing a large collection of art, pottery and coins. The museum is cleverly buried inside the hill overlooking the ruins of two amphitheatres and other Roman archaeological elements making it almost invisible. In the picture below, two black rectangles set in the hillside are the only evidence of the museum. These are viewing ports accessible from inside the museum.

Lyon was called Lugdunum in Gallo-Roman times and was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus. It served as the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis and was an important city in the western half of the Roman Empire for centuries. Two emperors, Claudius and Caracalla, were born in Lugdunum.

In many places around the city, evidence of current archaeological work is under way and the occasional Roman column can be spied poking out behind a bus shelter or in a side street.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon is housed in a magnificent building dating from the 17th century which used to be the Royal Abbey of the Sisters of St. Pierre. Its collections are exhibited in over 70 rooms and range from antiquity to contemporary art.

During our day long visit, Chris invented a game to mask the pain in our legs from standing for hours in pensive thought and focused gaze. “Best painting in the room” is where, having surveyed the room in detail, we each had to select our favourite painting and explain why using descriptive arty words like composition, perspective, tone, symmetry, negative space, brushwork, Monet, etc – you get the idea.

Christine is soooo competitive; she just had to win and crushed me 43 to 3. We had lunch in the museum cafe and I ordered something from the menu that tasted unusual but looked like meatballs; Chris played it safe and had lasagne. As I was paying the bill, I enquired what it was that I’d eaten and was told it was a local delicacy made from “mostly blood” – I didn’t ask where the blood came from but it was about this time that Chris engaged smug mode as I headed for the toilets.

Our last day in Lyon was spent searching for, and then traversing, some traboules followed by a long walk to the Parc de la Tête d’Or that contains the Lyon Zoo and botanical gardens.

Traboules are passageways used to ferry silk merchants rapidly between the river and their places of business. There are a number of these hidden behind closed doors and visitors can transit “quietly”, being magically teleported between adjacent streets. We were able to traverse three of the four on Chris’ list and the fourth was locked.

Our walk to the park crossed the two rivers. Both rivers are broad and fast flowing with water from the winter’s melting snow.

The Parc de la Tête d’Or is a large, 19th-century park with statues, fountains & many tall trees, plus a lake and botanical and rose gardens – oh, and a zoo.

Attractive view – Lyon botanical gardens

At the edge of the park is the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon (Museum of Contemporary Art). We had lunch in a cafe adjacent to the museum but did not venture in for a look. I couldn’t bear to lose another round of “Best painting in the room”.

Lyon is a beautiful city and we very much enjoyed our visit, having mastered the metro system in yet another European city with the weather remaining absolutely perfect; clear skies and cool temperatures.

We depart Lyon for Annecy which will be our last stop in France before heading onto Switzerland where our remaining euros will be mostly worthless. The weather forecast is not looking good but we expected rain at some point.

À la prochaine Lyon.

6 – 9 March 2019; Nice

Our first stop in France was Nice; a popular seaside resort fronting the Ligurian Sea. Alas, no white sand or anything that might be confused for surf but pleasant none-the-less.

Our transit from Turin was uneventful. On the train, Chris was watching a series downloaded from Netflix on her iPad; “After Life” starring Ricky Gervais (who also wrote and directed the videos). I was binging on the short and punchy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” series.

Dragging our bags from the train station we found our accommodation just a hundred metres from the white / grey rocks that present a poor excuse for a beach.

Having settled in, we set forth to investigate our surroundings. Old castle battlements at the eastern end of the beach provide stunning views back over the beach and the city.

On the other side of the old castle (facing east) is Nice’s main port with the ubiquitous marina containing millions of dollars worth of boats.

We walked the old city before proceeding up steep and winding roads past old Roman archaeological ruins heading towards a Benedictine monastery and associated church and museum. The monastery gardens are open to the public and provide wonderful views of the city and port. Along the way Chris discovered her next new car – it’s so cute you could pick it up and cuddle it.

We visited the Marc Chagall National Museum which was built in the 1970’s. While Chagall worked in many mediums; paint, sculpture and ceramics, he is best known for his beautiful stained glass windows. On a previous visit to Zurich, we have been fortunate to view the series of five window panels installed in the Fraumünster church.

The museum in Nice comprises mainly paintings pertaining to themes from the old testament.

Cannes

We took the train to Cannes to tread the red carpet along the promenade with the rich and famous – but we were the only ones who showed up.

The beachfront is quite narrow compared to Nice and to make it even less attractive, a significant length of the shoreline is being actively developed. Heavy machines have been at work pushing back the rocks to create a barrier to the water and provide a level surface.

All this feverish activity appears to be for the creation of beach front restaurants. This work was under way for many hundreds of metres of the beach front. While this detracts from the feel of the beach it sort of makes sense given you wouldn’t want to swim in the water, lie on the rocks to sun bake and building sandcastles is just not possible without a bulldozer and a back-hoe.

We walked away from the Canute like structures on the beach, through the marina and then up a steep climb to the hill overlooking the western edge of the city towards the Church of Our Lady of Esperance.

Sections of ancient Roman walls still standing in this area provide a wonderful panorama of the waterfront.

Monaco (Monte Carlo)

Chris wanted to break the bank at Monte Carlo and I wanted to pretend to be a British secret agent licensed to kill – so we took the train to Monaco for an afternoon of fiscal fun and dastardly deeds.

We walked across the promenade, around the marina containing way too many boats. Why would you buy a boat and then park it for extended periods in such a fashionable location? Aren’t these things supposed to be out in the ocean?

Walking through the marina proved to be quite tiresome and I cannot image how it could be accomplished in heels.

When we reached the external side of the marina (where the bigger boats are parked) our attention was drawn to one that was just too big to be real.

Called Dilbar; this boat was massive and can only be viewed in total using a panoramic photo. With a length of 156 m and a beam of 24 m, it is the largest “yacht” in the world (by displacement). It’s owned by Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov and reportedly cost more than USD $600 million to build. A full time crew of more than 80 is on hand to look after the needs to the passengers (limited to 40). The helicopter buried inside was customised for the project – and there are two helipads for it to use.

Continuing up the hill overlooking the Monaco waterfront, a manicured park and gardens provide stunning views in all directions. We departed Monaco by train with a secure bank balance and all of Q’s gadgets intact.

Our final day in Nice was spent at a zoo called Phoenix Parc located on the western side of the city near the airport.

The continuous passage of aircraft arriving and leaving didn’t seem to worry the inhabitants – we even found some kangaroos and wallabies who have undertaken the French lifestyle and were lazing about on the grass smoking gauloises and drinking strong coffee from small cups.

Nice was an attractive city and proved to be the rose between Cannes and Monaco.

Our next stop in France will be Lyon. Au revoir Nice.