December 8, 2023
I’m now leaving France, so here’s the rest of my time in France.
December 4 – Avignon, France
After checking into our hotel/hostel the previous night, we crashed a bit from the travel and ate the dinner we had brought with us from Juan les Pins. Then we spent a lot of time trying to make plans for the rest of our trip and headed to bed.
The next morning, we checkout out the hotel at 10am, had some leftovers for breakfast, left our bags at the hotel, and headed out into Avignon. It was pretty cold, windy, and a bit rainy, but we couldn’t figure out how to pay for the bus, so we walked into old Avignon along the Rhône River. The first part of the walk was very industrial and business park like, with no sidewalks and limited shoulder to walk on. But eventually we made it to a path along the river and it got a bit more pleasant.
We arrived at the old city and spent the day wandering around. We walked along the inside of the city wall, wondering if there was an easy way to climb up them – we didn’t find one. We wandered our way behind a cool looking church and found some Roman ruins there. It’s wild to me to be able to just stumble upon some Roman ruins, but I guess that’s how these things go in Europe.
We had some food and then strolled our way over the the Palias de Papes to admire the outside of the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century. We walked up to the associated church, Notre Dame des Doms d’Avignon, but it was closed, so we decided to walk through the Jardins des Doms to the Pont Saint-Benezet, also known as Le Pont d’Avignon. We got the audio guide for the bridge, but really, of course, our goal was to dance on the bridge. So, after reading some of the information in the gatehouse and listening to some of the audio guide, we setup a camera and speaker system and danced on Le Pont d’Avignon. It was really windy and cold, but we had a lot of fun!
After that, we headed to the Musée du Petit Palais to look at early Renaissance paintings. We saw works by Botticelli and others with lots of gold and colors. It was almost entirely religious art and the descriptions were mostly all in French, so Fiona graciously helped translate when I got confused about what was going on. Unfortunately, they closed earlier than we had expected, so we didn’t quite finish the museum before we were kicked out. But, we did get a bit lucky to be kicked out when we were because we left just in time to see the sunset over the city.
Then in the evening we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags, incurring the annoyance of the bus driver because we still couldn’t figure out how to get the transit app to allow us to buy tickets, even after we were on the bus already, and then headed to the train station to head to Lyon.
After 2 different trains and a bus, we arrived at my friend’s place in Bron, France, just outside Lyon and had some tea while we caught up with him before heading to bed.
December 5 – Lyon, France
We took most of the day to try to organize ourselves by replying to emails, talking to family, and just generally doing the sorts of personal housekeeping chores neither of us had done in a while. It was nice to be in a place where we could relax, spread out.
That evening, we went out to dinner with my friend and had what we were told was a fairly authentic Lyonnaise eating experience. The food was very yummy, albeit a bit pricier than most of the place I have been eating recently. Overall though, it was a very lovely evening in Lyon.
December 6 – Lyon, France
We went to the Musée de Confluences at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône Rivers. On the way, we wandered around an old cemetery. The museum has interesting, very modern architecture and great views of the city and the the rivers. In addition to being a cool building, it’s also an interesting museum itself. We experienced an immersive exhibit about Antarctica with soundscapes and projects. We spent a long time in an exhibit called Species: The Way of Life which was all about animals and the natural world. It contained a huge exhibit about beetles and butterflies that was really beautiful and interesting. There was also a lot of birds, mammals, and other creatures. It was a really interesting and informative exhibit even if I had to rely on Fiona for some translations.
We stayed at the museum until the bitter end and were shooed out at closing time. We then headed back to Bron and had a really yummy Raclette dinner. It’s hard to go wrong with melted cheese on potatoes with charcuterie meats. We also had a lovely tour of our host’s liquor cabinet and enjoyed some aperitif. It was all very fancy and festive for the holiday season!
December 7 – Lyon, France
We went into the old town of Lyon and wandered around a cathedral, some Roman ruins, and a basilica. The Lyon Cathedral was beautiful, with lots of stained glass. From there we walked up many flights of stairs to get to the Roman ruins and Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviére. On the way however, we wandered into a museum about Pauline Jaricot and the First Christians who were martyred by Romans in Lyon. It was a bit heavy on religious information in a way that I don’t think we quite expected, but it was still interesting to see and it was free.
From there we made our way to the remains of a Roman theater and Odéon. The views of the City and the French Alps was incredible. While the photos of the views didn’t come out very well, I think the photos of the ruins really do speak for themselves.
From there we went to the Basilica and marveled at the mosaics on the walls, the paintings on the columns and how decorated the entire place was. It was also nice to be inside, out of the wind and cold.
Just before mass was about to start, we realized we had run out of time to go to the Roman museum, but we also needed to grab some food before making our way to the place where we would meet our host to go see the lights festival.
So, after grabbing some quick food, we met up with our host and his friend to go explore the Féte des Lumiéres. What followed was many hours of walking around in the cold, pushing through crowds to gawk at magnificent temporary light installations all over the old town of Lyon. It was incredible. As someone who is an absolute sucker for light shows, I was a bit like a kid in a candy shop. So, here are some photos that don’t do justice to the event at all, but can give an idea of the scale and scope of the festival.
December 8 – In transit then Marrakech, Morocco
This morning we packed up and headed to the airport for the all day travel event of a less than 3 hour flight to Marrakech, Morocco. As a nervous flier, I pressured us to get there probably a lot earlier than we needed to. However, it worked out well for us because a nice gentleman walked past and offered me a voucher for 10€ worth of free food at any of the establishments. While I sat with the bags, Fiona went out and got us a whole feast for 11€ and only had to pay 1€. It was a really lovely to receive such kindness from a stranger and the person at the shop who also threw in a pastry for free.
Once we got our Moroccan stamp in our passports, we got on the flight and had lovely views of clouds and right as we got over the Strait of Gibraltar, the clouds cleared and we got a magnificent view of the Strait as we headed over Morocco.
So, here we are in MOROCCO! It took a lot of effort to get our phones setup and to get from the airport to our hostel, but we eventually did and so far, it has been beautiful and amazing. Yummy street food, lots of people yelling at us to buy things, the whole thing. More to follow in another post.