Lyon, Avignon and Monaco.

We woke up early on the morning of day 3 and left Paris, heading south to Lyon. Lyon is a really pleasant, much calmer town. We wandered round in the last evening. There is a beautiful old Medieval Quarter and the city center is nestled between the Rhone River and another river.

I am standing in front of community bikes, you pay a subscription then get a special key to ulock the bikes. You can get one on one side of the town then ride it to the other side and leave it there. Lots of European towns have a similar system.

Our hotel was really nice, it even had AC. The whole time we were in Europe there was a massive heat wave, temperatures often in the high 30s. Now you might think it sounds funny but we were melting. In Dubai it is a good deal hotter but everywhere has AC, so you are never in the heat for that long. So it was a great relief to have some AC especially in the hotel room.

We watched the Italy v. Portugal game here with our Italian bus driver, Luciano. He doesn’t speak English, but we could tell how he was feeling!

Day 4 we woke with Nice on the French Riviera in mind as our destination. The south of France is absolutely beautiful; no wonder it is such a famous holiday destination. The Province region is full of neat little vineyards and fields of sunflowers, all of which were in bloom. We stopped in Avignon, a fortified city famous for its Palais des Papes, Palace of the popes. 7 different French born Popes lived here in medieval times to protect themselves from those who thought the Pope should have come from Rome.

The lady in this pic is Simone, our tour director. she is Dutch but speaks 6 languages fluently. She knows at least 6squillion things about Europe... Simone has been touring for 20 years, I think we were very lucky to have her!

We then headed for Monaco, playground of the rich and famous. I didn’t see anyone famous but we certainly saw the rich! The coastline here is stunning, and just as amzing are the houses and apartments built on the cliff… Monaco is only 1.95 square km! The population is said to be 30,000 but with people all coming and going for tax reasons I don’t know if that is accurate.

We walked through Grace Kelly’s Church and spent about an hour in the casino and wandering round the old streets.

We then headed along the beautiful coast to Nice…. But that’s another story!