Off to Lyon, France!

Well, last night I didn’t sleep, hardly at all; I don’t know whether it was the thought of leaving Paris or the over-fatigue of the day at Versailles. I swear EVERYTHING hurt, and I was really exhausted; which means I was moving really, slowly, in the morning. We had a late check-out at 1pm, and our flight didn’t leave until 4:45, so there was no need to rush.

My heart’s desire to visit the Pantheon, or Catacombs that were near our hotel, quickly became a pipe-dream.

Instead, the croissant fairy went to the boulangerie, to pick-up breakfast; what the croissant fairy found, was that the early touriste gets the croissants! So, instead he brought back some other type patisseries, which were good, but not AS good as our beloved croissants. But as luck would have it, he also brought back the chicken and sun-dried tomato sandwich on a baguette, to bring to the airport. SCORE!

Somehow, we made it out of the room by 1 o’clock, and ventured on to the Metro station; real touriste’s, lugging luggage through the terminal.lol Fortunately, we had found “up” escalators, so we only had to carry our bags up and down a few flights of stairs. Once on the metro, it was smooth sailing, for two stops; a hop, skip and a jump and we were on the train to the airport; no worse for the wear. My chilly pad was once again, a LIFESAVER, as it was quite warm. And yes, we were once again serenaded; this time by an older woman who sang “These Were the Days,” in French; I shall miss Paris, but what a great send off.

We got to the airport, and found our way through the terminal to Air France; we were very excited when, as soon as we walked in the door, we saw “Air France”! BUT, kidding…..keep walking to Number One; got there and they sent us to Number Two, and then Three and then Four, and then Five and then Six and then SEVEN! By then I was ready to drop! It was hot and we were still rolling luggage and carrying bags.

Since I had pre-ordered a wheelchair, by this time I, once again, wanted to cry; hot, tired and winded! We finally found the correct gate, and kiosk to print our luggage tags and boarding passes. We went through the process, got our luggage tags and we didn’t get boarding passes, so we went to the line, to drop off our big bags, and were turned around, to go BACK and get our luggage tags, from the kiosk monster.

We went through the process again, and it spit out MORE luggage tags, and finally one boarding pass; Joe’s. I got a a ticket that said Report to Desk! Argh! So, we got back in the line, and Joe was going to finally check the bags, and the lady said, No! Only one bag per boarding pass; she must have seen that she had just pushed me past my limit; she said, “Wait here, I will get for you.” I said, “Merci.”

When she came back, she said, “Madame, you are supposed to have a wheelchair!” HaHAHA, Really? Duh! I had been trying to tell her that, and she would not listen, so she said, “Madame, you need to pick that up, back at Gate Three.”  Ohhh, this is turning into the possibility of another,  really long day!

We were escorted back to three and told to sit and wait. We did.

Once my chariot arrived, we were quickly whisked through security and to our gate; the entire airport was very hot, so I was quite nauseous, and not feeling very well. Luckily, it wasn’t too long before we were able to board the plane, where it was much cooler. Just as I was beginning to recover a bit, two young men, who had probably not showered in, ohhhh, probably a month or two, sat down, right behind us! PEE-Yooooooo! I am talking gag-a-maggot! I literally thought I was going to vomit; thank goodness Joe remembered that I had masks, which I quickly got out and put on. To my delight, they did the trick, and I survived the flight.  Do people really thing that extreme body odor is not offensive? I do not even know how they can stand their own selves. Yuk; it was truly putrid.

As luck would have it, I was able to catch one more glimpse of the Eiffel Tower,  as we flew over Paris.

Au revoir...

A short hour later, and we were landing in Lyon. We had been told, by our hotel concierge that the only way to reach the hotel, was by cab, so we got in one. Joe thought that it was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, but I used it as a lesson in French; I tried to read all of the signs that I saw, and the cab driver corrected me, saying it until I got it right. By the end of the drive, I was getting purty dang good at my French! Lol

The one hundred dollar cab ride was crazy, but DID deposit us at a most fabulous hotel!! Cour de Loge; it is four old houses, the first being built in the 13th century, connected together, that has been fashioned into a hotel. It is truly lovely, and the view from our room is both spectacular, and quant; all at the same time.

There is a fabulous spa available until midnight, and it is smack dab in the middle of cobblestone heaven! There are restaurants, café’s, bistros, boulangerie’s, patisserie’s, chocolate’ shops, churches, chalets, the Roane and who knows  what else; only tomorrow will tell.

We “strolled” down the streets and finally settled on a little place, across the street from another little place with live music, and had fish and chips, a cob salad, and of course, some sort of yummy desert. We asked the waitress where there was a market and she said to wait a minute, she would send someone to tell us. It was a nice young man, from Yorkshire, his girlfriend is from Portland! Lol He not only told us where the market was, but how to get back to the airport, on the train as well; no more $100 cab rides for this girl!

Oddly enough, our waitress was from Mexico City. Apparently we must be near the University, as every single pub, bar and bistro was overflowing with young kids; they were literally everywhere and it was 10:30 pm. We figured that it must just be too hot during the day, so they started crawling out of the woodwork, when the sun went down; around 10 pm.

We continued to walk around for about an hour and discovered so many places that we hope to explore further, during the next few days.

It seems as though Lyon is going to be a wonderful place to hang our bags,  for the rest of the week!

Bonne nuit!

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about the coolest thing on the airplane: a freaking cup holder! One that isn't your tray, you know the one....that when your knees bump it it spills everywhere!

Gotta, admit; kinda' looks like a toilet seat here! Lol