Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Hotel de Ville, Lyon

Part 3 of our vacation was in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. We drove 5 hours from Sarlat-la-Canéda to Lyon, the capital of the region and the second largest city in France. This was going to be our base for the next 2 days, and where we catch out flight back to Paris and onward to Singapore. I don't enjoy driving in big cities, so we booked a place just slightly outside of the city centre. I made a reservation for dinner and we took the bus into the city. For some reason, I though that it was going to be a short walk from the bus interchange to where the restaurant was - possible because it looked like a straightforward straight ahead direction. It turned out to be a couple of metro stations away! But it was a blessing in disguise because we came across a marché de Nöel and also got to see the Fête de Lumieres. Mistakes don't have to be bad. At the

Fête de Lumieres, Lyon

marché the kids had their candy floss, a chocolate coated mashmallow and a ride on the carousel. We bought a mini Gâteau à la broche, and would have sampled a lot of the food had we not made the dinner reservation.

Monsieur P, rue de Royale

After the long walk, we were all ready for our dinner at Monsieur P. The P is not for Detective Poirot but for its owner and chef Florent Poulard. The place came highly recommended on Tripadvisor. For starters, I had this amazing  beetroot salad, so good that even my son enjoyed it. I had Pollack for the mains and a fantastic Chestnut mousse and Clementine sorbet for dessert. Great food and friendly service. I was looking for the French gastronomique experience in a child friendly restaurant and that was exactly what we got. Completely satisfied.

When we got back to the apartment, we realised that there was no hot water for our shower. We had suspected this before we left for dinner but thought perhaps the water would get warmer if we let it run a little longer. The heating in the apartment also wasn't great. I messaged the owner and told him that we will move to another place tomorrow and asked him for a refund for that 2nd night. I am still waiting for the refund. The entire family ran in and out of the shower very quickly that night.

Palaise l'Isle, Annecy

All packed, we drove out to Annecy the next morning. Perfect weather, the sun was out. We walked to the lake and took a quick stroll around the Vieille Ville. We had a delicious brunch at a creperie called Quai No. 10, situated along the Thiou Canal and a stones throw away from the iconic Palaise l'Isle. The owner of the creperie told us that he just got back from a trip to Bali and Singapore. A vacation swap. Annecy was gorgeous even in winter.

Chamonix

We drove on to Chamonix, but not before we accidentally drove through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and into Italy! We should have driven on for another 50 minutes to reach Aiguille du Midi. Instead we turned back to Chamonix, and discovered that the cable cars from Chamonix  up to Aiguille du Midi were closed for a few weeks. With no mountains to climb, we went to a forest for a stroll along a river. Later we had Italian for dinner (that would be the second Italian encounter of the day) and a walkabout the town centre. The weather forecast indicated a 100% change of snowing at 7pm and they kids kept a lookout for it, but it did not come. The snow finally came about 7am the next morning. So we got to experience light snowfall for about an hour before we drove back to Lyon to catch our flight.

7 days seemed short but it felt like we did a lot during that short period of time. And we felt God's presence with us throughout the trip giving us special glimpses of the wonderful world that He created.  

Until the next time France, au revoir et a bientôt.