Play Misty For Me: Day 7 - Montalieu-Vercieu to Lyon - Hey Buddy, You're Going the Rhone Way - Rhone Source to Sea 2018

October 10, 2018

Play Misty For Me: Day 7 - Montalieu-Vercieu to Lyon

Spoiler alert. The title has nothing to do with Clint Eastwood's psycho-thriller, from the '70's. It's just about the weather.

We got off to a fairly early start (for us) after having breakfast with our Firemen friends. It had rained during the night and although it had stopped by morning, the clouds didn't really want to clear off. Very misty riding through nice rural villages and countryside.

Around the halfway point, near Jons, we noticed a distinct rise in the number of people out and about and an increase in the general 'busyness' as we approached Lyon. At about this same point we were on dedicated bike paths that lined both side of the Rhone... very nice. I even broke out the 'boom' and we were listening to tunes as we road along.

Overall just another good day of biking, and although Lyon is France's second largest metropolitan area, with about 2.2 mm people, it was a piece of cake to ride right into the center of town on bike paths.

However, once we were right in the center, Lyon gave us a geography lesson! It sits at the confluence of two large rives, the Rhone, which we've been riding for the last few days, and the Soane, which flows south from Burgundy. There is an island / peninsula in between these two rivers where 19th century Lyon was built. Old Lyon (very old .... think Romans) is on the west bank of the Soane, and the hotel we booked, a beautiful old monastery right beside the Roman amphitheater, is on this side.

At the top of a hill.

An extremely steep hill.

So steep the fine folks of Lyon built a funicular train to get to the top. We found that out when we saw the summit station near our hotel after pushing and riding our bikes up the hill!

Anyway, it was a good work out to get to the Hotel Fourvier and we got immediate payback. It is a very, very beautiful establishment, and we showed up in lycra and very sweaty wool cycling jerseys. So what does the woman who's checking us in do? But of course, she gives us an upgrade to their best suite in the entire hotel! It is spectacular and will be our lovely home for the next two nights.

Lyon is renowned as the gastronomic heart of the country, and we intend on testing this out over the next 48 hours. Till then, salut!

Heart

Comment

Link

SOTD

Flipside by Norah Jones

'Cause today was the flipside of France for us - we swapped rural zombie villages for the big city of Lyon ... and the food and accommodations changed considerably as well

I was playing the boom as we cruised into Lyon along the banks of the Rhone ... this came on about halfway through the ride ... resonated with me.