Lyon - Wednesday 23 August

This morning we awoke to what was to become a 33C day in the beautiful city of Lyon, France's third largest city on the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. The city is known for its gastronomic delights, as well as its history - including being the birthplace of cinema thanks to the Lumiére brothers.

David and I both chose the morning bus and walking tour of Lyon, firstly visiting the painted walls (trompe l'oeil) or mural frescoes on frontages of buildings and telling the history of Lyon.



We drove past the Place Bellecour with its equestrian statue of Louis XIV and saw a number of other key buildings and sites (City Hall, Palais de Justice, and more) before stopping to walk through some of the cobbled streets of Vieux Lyon (old town) and a couple of interesting Traboules (shortcut passageways leading to courtyards of old apartment homes). With some free time, David and I then enjoyed a brief visit to the gothic St Jean Cathedral and its beautiful 13th and 14h century stained glass and its medieval astronomical clock (1383).



Next stop was the interesting Les Halles food market, with a tour past some amazing food stores, and then a sampling of classic Lyon delicacies. Most of these did not appeal to David or me (very fatty and sometimes unappealing parts of pigs, and mostly not gluten-free).



A special Lyonnais lunch was held back at the boat (including escargots and frogs' legs for those who wished to endulge, and I was treated to specially made GF crepes)! We had a quiet afternoon before getting ready for the Farewell Cocktails and then Captain's Farewell Gala Dinner (tonight is the last night for what is a seven night cruise for 37 of the 136 passengers on board).

Dinner had a very special and rather fancy menu. Then we headed to our cabin to pack for our early departure in the morning - by TGV fast train for a Paris, where we will join a different APT boat (the Amalyra) for our seven day Seine River cruise.