Sunday, Nov. 23

As I mentioned previously, the next portion of adventure is catching the train to Lyon. We found the train station at the Paris airport. Sunday morning seems to be a popular time to travel--the station was very crowded. Since we had plenty of time before our train arrived we were able to do a lot of people-watching.

If you think Paris is full of beautiful people--think again. This particular Sunday morning, everyone looked like they had hopped out of bed, neglected to comb their hair, and hoofed it off to the train station.

We arrived in Lyon on time, and we were met by Bernard, Lloyd's "cousin" (more about the family connection later) and his wife Dominique. Much to our delight, they greeted us effusively and seemed genuinely pleased to meet us--quite a relief--you never know. They took us to our hotel to drop our bags and much to our surprise, they invited us to join them for lunch. (We thought we'd drop our bags as well as ourselves, have an afternoon rest and recover from our jet lag.) They took us to a wonderful restaurant in Lyon named Brasserie Georges, a typical venerable, old Lyonnais restaurant that was crowded with families having Sunday dinners and special celebrations. The place was huge and packed.

Each celebration was accompanied by a special dessert called Omelet Norvegian (looked suspiciously like a Baked Alaska).  Of course, the meeting of the "cousins" also called for a special Omelet topped with the obligatory sparkler.

Welcome to Lyon!!

Following a sumptuous lunch, we were off for a short drive around a bit and a visit to a nearby preserved, medieval village called Perouges dating back to the 15th century. Bernard and Dominique thought it would be interesting (?) to see a village that Bill and Hilary Clinton had visited almost 20 years ago. The village was quaint; it had been built of round, river stones that made walking around quite difficult, but we persevered.

Above is a photo of Bernard and Dominque Denuziere and moi, our hosts for the next two days. And following this, we went back to the hotel to rest for the next chapter of our Adventure!