Lyon, France

The overnight bus from Barcelona to Lyon was one of the more uncomfortable and annoying trips thus far. A packed out bus, crying kids, and someone in front of us that found it necessary to put his seat as far back as possible, in addition to our general inability to sleep on any form of car/bus/plane/train, meant we arrived at 7am extremely dreary eyed. Thankfully, we were able to get a few hours sleep not soon after, as we arrived at the home of Laurence and Lucas, a young couple who'd graciously agreed to host us for a few days.

It was quite clear that we were well and truly into Autumn as we set out in Lyon. The skies were more grey than blue, but the absence of colour above was more than made up for by the plentiful and wonderful shades of greens, browns and reds in all the trees and and plantlife that were spread across the city. This was no more evident than in Parc De La Tete D'Or, a comparatively small park towards the northern end of town. With a pristine lake its centerpiece, the park was almost empty given the cloudy weather overhead; perfect conditions to test out a plentiful amount of stupid poses in front of signs.

Whilst far from being the visually stunning city like it's big brother, Lyon was not without its charm; Vieux Lyon abounded with quaint cobbled narrow streets, full of book shops and cafes, while the Rhone and Soane Rivers winded through the city and were especially pretty when the many bridges that join their banks were lit up at night.

Fourviere could be called Lyon's Montmarte, Notre Dame De Fourviere its Sacre Couer, and whilst not as impressive as the their Parisian counterparts, the views were great, as were those from Pentes de la Croix Rousses, though my appreciation of them was probably dimmed by the hard-to-avoid comparisons, and memories of Montjuic only days earlier.

Much like our last night in Barcelona, we spent our last night in Lyon indulging in some regional Lyonnaise cuisine - saute de boeuf sausage  with St Marcellin cheese (similar to a stroganoff if I could like it to anything) in addition to the best crème brulee I've had in my life perfectly finished my French culinary extravaganza.

Exploring Southern France

We left Paris quite early in the morning, heading south to Perigueux in the Dordogne region of France, to stay with the family of Alexis, a French friend of mine from America. After Alexis' father Armand picked us up from the train station, and upon our introductory drive throughout Perigueux, and the following welcome into his home, it was already clear that the next few days would be quite enjoyable as we shared a few jokes and listened to many of Armand's amusing anecdotes, including those from his time as a backpacker in Australia 20 years ago.

The hospitality, helpfulness, kindness from Armand, Joelle and their young daughter Hannah continued throughout our time in Perigueux, as we were well and truly spoilt, experiencing French cuisine both new; salade de gesiers (chicken gizzards with salad) confit de canard (duck confit) and some old (croissants, pain au chocolat, copious amounts of cheese) but all amazing. I'm positive we would have had an amazing time in Perigueux just eating and drinking every night (which we did), but there was much more to enjoy.

Perigueux Backyard View

Our journey throughout the part of France that many celebrities enjoy visiting for a casual getaway started the next morning as we visited the middle aged and small villages of Bourdeille and Brantome. Narrow cobbled streets, quaint little bridges and cafes contrasted against the grandiose churches and castles that would often tower over the rest of the town.

Brantome

Brantome

Bourdeille

The wonderfully tranquil landscapes continued the following day as we drove up, down and through winding valleys (slightly nauseating, I will admit), before walking through the surrounding villages of two major castles in the area – the French Château Beynac and the English Château de Castelnaud  The villages were as charming and a sight to behold as much as the castles themselves, and were very much reminiscent of those from Monty Python, Robin Hood, or even Game of Thrones. In fact, the region as a whole was hard to look at without imagining horses, knights and catapults abound.

View towards Château de Castelnaud

Our final night in Perigueux finished as our time in Perigueux begun, with more amazing French food and wine, reflecting upon our time in France, our time ahead, and with more amusing ancedotes from Armand's Australian adventures.

Paris

Given a relaxed attitude about the pace of our travel, we opted to take a low cost, albeit much longer (7 hours) bus to Paris, as opposed to the 2 or 3 hour train. The ride was a lengthy one, through rolling green pastures and the like, and the scenery made it a tad more bearable, as did the surprisingly comfortable seats which much to my annoyance, were sans drink holders.

We arrived at a bus terminus fairly central in Paris, and made our way to St Denis, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris where we'd be staying with a Couchsurfing host for the next few days. With some local information on lesser known sights, local cuisine and other Parisian tidbits, we were set for a busy couple of days.

Thankfully a lot of the 'main' tourist attractions are within a (long) walk of each other. After a long first day, we worked out we had clocked up over 20 kilometres seeing the usual Parisian monuments, from the Eiffel Tower, to the Louvre, to Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysee, and so on. We ended up the Eiffel Tower in the late afternoon/early evening, and spent a little while braving the chilly winds as the sun set over the city.

Louvre

Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

Pont de l’Archevêché

A house warming party in outer Paris was a pleasant but unexpected way to spend our night, as we joined our hosts Pierre and Connie in a party in their friends new apartment. I really don't know what I expected, but for some reason it was a little surprising to find EVERYTHING exactly the same, from the music (which I've seen noticed, no matter where we go, American music dominates, even though no-one has any idea what they're singing), party customs, it's hard to describe, other than there was nothing really different at all... although, this was a new take on a familiar house party experience, perhaps the most notable being the views of the Eiffel Tower out of the windows, inclusive of a light show on the hour, every hour.

The following day we had a bit more time in Paris, and got to enjoy everything at a much more relaxed pace, which was necessary given the 5am wake up to stream the AFL Grand Final over the internet. Our morning started in Montmartre, on the steps below the Sacre Coeur, overlooking the city of Paris with wonderful panorama views. Buskers and performers kept us entertained as we took in the scenery, before heading down to Abbesses to grab some lunch from the nearest boulangerie/patisserie. Needless to say, our diet consisted heavily of a variety of baguettes, pastries and coffees throughout most of our time in Paris and throughout France in the coming couple of weeks.

Montmartre

Montmartre

Canal Saint Martin near Stalingrad Station provided us with a view of a dfferent side of Paris, and was a recommendation from Pierre. Besides the Canal itself, the area was a lot less polished than what we had seen the previous day, and much less of a tourist attraction (if it could even be called that), which resulted in an ability to explore an interesting without hordes of other tourists around.

Canal St Martin

Canal St Martin

Canal St Martin

The same could not be said for Pere Lachaise cemetery, with an solid supply of tourists (not withstanding ourselves, of course) wandering around and through many of the the large and for most the part extremely extravagant burial sites, including those of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde, the latter two of which were covered in a ridiculous amount of tributes, or graffiti, depending on how you want to look at it.

Pere Lachaise 

Pere Lachaise 

A final walk along the Seine in the evening, admiring the sights of the city once more topped off an amazing couple of days for us. I was a big fan of Paris after coming here a few years back, and whilst many people seem to find issues with the city, I couldn't be anything other than impressed with how wonderful it was. Maybe it was the picture perfect weather and a hassle free couple of days, but for meI still think Paris is right up there.