Paris - Lyon

Woo hoo for free WIFI!

And it's fast.

The French countryside is absolutely beautiful, and dotted everywhere with gorgeous, old style villages and chateaux.  And it's so GREEN.  There were sunflower fields everywhere.  I'm glad I drove, rather than catching the train.   The drive wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be - in the cities, most roads seem to be one way, and the highway is separated anyway, so driving on the right hand side of the road hasn't been an issue so far. 

And people know how to DRIVE.  They follow the keep right unless overtaking rule religiously on the highways.  I didn't have road rage once.  And that was driving most of the day.  What an amazing thing

On the way out of Paris I stopped at Fontainebleau Chateau, which was stunning.  Then it was on to Lyon. 

Lyon is dirty, compared with Paris.  I'm happy now to only be spending a day (two nights) here.  I'll be spending the morning in the silk trade area, then head over to Vieux Lyon (the original medieval city) for most of the day, which is right across the river from my hotel. 

My hotel room is gorgeous, much nicer and bigger than in Paris.  The furniture is old style, and the ensuite is posh.  The only downside is no air conditioning - I have a fan on a stand - and no fridge, which is plain weird.  Otherwise, the room is fitted out well

European hotels - don't seem to have irons, or face washers.

I didn't realise Europe - well, when I've been in France at least - was so muggy.  The upside is your skin doesn't dry out, and I can wear my contact lenses every day without problems, whereas at home, one day would dry my eyes out badly.

The only glitch so far was losing my Travel Money MasterCard.  Of course, the person who found it was the type to use it, and they didn't leave much on it before I found out I'd lost it, and stopped it.  Anyway, there is an upside to having numerous credit cards, so I'm not destitute!  Especially given it can take weeks to get the money back.  Stupid bloody banks.

Anyway, I have a long day tomorrow, so that's it for today, and hopefully I'll put heaps of photos up tomorrow - must take advantage of the free WIFI!

Bon soir.