Our journey started by taking a helicopter (Helijet) from Nanaimo to Vancouver. We were having a lot of rain and high winds for a few days and helicopters can manage weather better than ferries or small planes. Living on the island this is the one drawback, catching a flight from Vancouver and depending on ferries to get there on time. It was a pretty good deal too at $100 each and up to 50 lbs of luggage per passenger. Not that we needed that, we each just had carryon and a daypack .
After taking the sky train from downtown Vancouver we managed to kill a few hours in the YVR airport until our KLM flight left at 5:45 PM.
I was offered to pay a small fee to reserve the middle seat which I did and it turned out to be a great decision as the flight was packed. We had a couple of hours in Amsterdam and then connected to another flight to arrive in Lyon at 7PM.
I had purchased a eSIM at home but could not get it to work, so went to a shop to get a real SIM card and we were all set for data in France
We could have taken a train and a couple of busses to get to our VRBO, but we were so tired and it was getting dark so decided to splurge on a cab. Yikes! It was indeed a splurge 120 €. Or $180 CDN.
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Our host was waiting to show us around our little apartment that will be home for the next four nights.
This building used to be a monestary and now converted to apartments. We are on the Saone river, but just have a view of the courtyard.
Everything we need is here and we are quite happy. At 9 PM we went to bed and fell asleep immediately
Day one in Lyon
I was wide awake at 3:30 AM but lazed around till 9 before heading off to meet up with our pre arranged walking tour. There were 10 of us from various parts of the world and we had a wonderful tour and learned a great deal about the history of this area. Lyon is famous for its murals and graffiti art on buildings. There are also a few little monkeys and art works around on the walls.
Some very old and ornate buildings, narrow walkway and roads in the old town. A few Roman ruins as well. It was a cloudy day but only a bit of drizzle now and then. Around 18 degrees C.
After the tour we found an outdoor cafe for some lunch, poked around for a while looking in shop windows and then did some grocery shopping on the way back to our apartment
Two very tired travellers by the end of the day
Lyon day 2
I stayed up till 11 PM last night only to wake up once again at 3:30! Jet lag. Hate it. I was dragging my butt again today but after breakfast we walked across the pedestrian bridge again to Old Town. 
Once again we poked around the shops and people watched. I find cobblestones very hard to walk on and the roads slope to the middle for rain so it made me look like a drunk walking down the streets
Give your child some coloured markers and a white chair and voila you have a masterpiece for $500!
We wanted to go up to the hilltop for the view and to see the Basilica Norte Dame de Fourvière and considered ( for about a half a second) walking up the six hundred stairs, but instead took the funicular.
It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. The view from the top looked over all of Lyon which is huge about 1.8 million. We are just in the small touristy area with the old buildings and history.
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We stopped for a much needed coffee and I enjoyed a pear tart as well. I figure we are doing over 12,000 steps a day and the equivalent of 4 or 5 flights of stairs, so no guilt. It was delicious
Roman ruins are close by, an amphitheater, which we explored a bit.
We limped back to our apartment at around 4 PM and had a nap for two hours and then got ready to go to dinner at a place that was only a 10 minute walk through some narrow alleys
Les Mauvaises Herbes is a vegan resterants that had great reviews. I was on wait list for a reservation but got a message that we could get in when they opened at 7 PM. We joked that where we are from in Qualicum everything is closed by 7 where here things are just getting started.
It was a very cute two story restaurant in an old building and the menu changes daily and on a black board. Thankfully one side was English. The vichyssoise was delicious. My main course was a disappointment unfortunately but the raw chocolate salted caramel dessert made up for it. It was a great find and a bit of a splurge.
Day 3
This is our last full day in Lyon. I am so thankful I got a full 8 hours sleep finally. I feel human again. We decided to walk to the outdoor market which was only a 25 minute walk but up hundreds of stairs and steep roadways. It took us a bit longer than 25 minutes.
Lots of stairs like this everywhere. We got there just before they closed and wished we had come on the first day as there were so many delicious looking food items. We did buy some Albanian dates though
In 15 minutes we were at another painted mural on a building. They are so detailed about the people and lives here 
Now we are off to the art gallery. We decided to take the metro because walking down stairs is much tougher than walking up for us. We were there in 10 minutes, stopped for a quick bite at Pret, and then spent a few hours in the museum. It is known as one of the best in France and maybe Europe and it did not disappoint. I love the masters and most of them were represented here, Degas, Renoir, Matisse, Rembrandt to name but a few. They were very well presented as well with great lighting.
There was also a modern impressionist floor as well. Sorry, I just don’t get it.
I did like this one however.
Naturally we stopped at a bakery on our way home to pick up some more amazing bread for our dinner. We shall pack up and be on the way to the airport at noon tomorrow for the second part of our trip
We really enjoyed our three full days here in Lyon. The people were lovely and very kind with us trying to speak French.
This featured blog entry was written by debbep from the blog Wanderlust is an incurable disease!.
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