Day 4 - Train-ing from Paris to Lyon - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

April 21, 2023

Day 4 - Train-ing from Paris to Lyon

We’re (Almost) Starting to Pedal

We did actually ride 3 km’s today; about 2.8 km from our apartment in Paris to Gare de Bercy and then another 200 m from Lyon Part-Dieu station to our hotel in Lyon.

As mentioned in our first post, our original plan was to train it from Paris to Geneva today and then start full on touring tomorrow. However, when we were unable to book both ourselves and our bikes to Geneva today, the plan changed to Paris-to-Lyon today and then Lyon to Annecy tomorrow, where we would start biking (honest 🤥).

So far this has worked out like clockwork and we’re comfortably ensconced in our (tiny) hotel room right by the Lyon station.

This also turned out to be another chance for serendipity to smile on us again. It turns out that one of our daughter’s very good friends from University has just moved to Lyon and we were able to get together tonight for a quick catch-up.

We were also fortunate that we heeded local advice (thanks once again Susan) and got to Paris Bercy well before departure time to secure a spot in the train for our bikes. We were the first of seven bikes in a space designed for three.

So, nothing more than a relaxed travel day and one step closer to actually turning the pedals for real.

At Paris Bercy station. It was fun Paris, thanks! See you again sometime soon.

Our bikes safely on board with the next one just coming in!

Nice comfy seats for the next 5 hours to Lyon

We’ve arrived. The start and finish of our trip coincided with the train start and finish. As a result our embarkation and disembarkation was pretty relaxed

Dinner was a really good Vietnamese bùn and a beer, what great place Chez Bànôi! Lyon is considered by many to be the gastronomic centre of France and there was no lack of choice of excellent places to eat. We were very happy where we ended up

The elevator in tonight's hotel. Our room is not much bigger, but it doesn’t need to be as we’ll be back on the rails to Annecy first thing tomorrow

It was nice to be able to meet up with Alison’s good friend RJ who’s now living in Lyon. That’s it for today!

And this sets up SOTD - Good Friends by Joni Mitchell

Our out of the blue meeting tonight with our daughter’s very good friend RJ put this ear worm in my head. We also spent a good portion of our train trip today fielding emails, texts and Instagram messages (Kirsten - I’m still a SM Luddite) from other good friends. To top it off, by the short time we finished dinner at Chez Bànôi, Nhu the proprietor felt like a new friend. With that, Joni strike again.

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Gilles RobertI am truthfully enjoying this blog. I love exploring new words (ensconced) and utterly appreciate 'votre belle plume' (serendipity to smile on us again). La touche spéciale of adding video clips bring this journey to another level. I woke up and was excited to read more. Now, you will arrive shortly in Annecy, one of my favorite places in France. If you can, please take a pic of paragliders (this is where I fly when in France). À bientôt!
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1 year ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Gilles RobertHi Gilles,
We are happy that you are enjoying the blog. We love getting comments so keep them coming.
You and Lyle must think alike as he had already taken some paragliding photos. Which I am sure he will post.
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1 year ago