La Rochelle to Lyon

We went to a giite in the West of France for our second “helping” project. We were in an isolated hamlet, population: 4. There were many projects to work on but we focused most of our energy on tearing down an old outhouse that was half concrete and paving a path in its place, clearing a space of land and planting a vegetable garden, and general weeding/clearing land. Steve spent some time working on mechanical things too. Our hosts were kind and shared plenty of wine and cheese and good meals with us. We took a train to the west coast for a weekend, staying in a town called La Rochelle. It was a long weekend and there was a redbull cliff diving competition taking place so finding a room took some time and effort. We went to one hotel only to find that they too were full, Steve asked to use the washroom and the service lady was reluctant but gave in (must have been his charm) as he was in the washroom, the lady found a room that had been reserved but the party hadn’t shown up- so we got the room! I was relieved! Good Karma strikes again. Steve discovered a new sandwich in La Rochelle- the “Super American” and from french we translated it to be a steak sandwich with sauce and fries. We were right, but the set up was unexpected as the fries were literally stuffed into the sandwich! Steve loved it. We finished up at the giite and caught a train to Lyon. We arrived at Lyon at 8pm, every hotel we went to in a two and a half hour time frame was ‘complet’- FULL!! It wasn’t a long weekend, but a week of spring break! Agh! I was secretly scoping out places to take cover for the night (under trees, stairwells, parking lots) and later Steve told me he was doing the same thing. Luckily, we struck gold! We got a room that was a bit pricey, but it came with a little kitchenette, so we were able to save money by not eating out much. We didn’t find a whole lot of things to see or do in Lyon (although just wandering the streets was interesting) so we followed the guide book and it recommended we see a famous antique coo coo clock in a local cathedral. We walked across the city to find the cathedral and found a small gathering of eager tourists around the clock in one of the chapels. The clock was massive and intricately designed with astrological signs and pagan symbols on the sides and front. At the top were figurines like Mary, Angels and probably Saints. We took a seat and waited. Four o’clock finally struck and the chapel went quiet as the clock started to coo coo. I wasn’t expecting fireworks or anything but it turned out to be a twenty second event with noisy untuned bells and barely any movement. At the end everyone sort of sat there as if that was just the warm up and the real show was about to begin. But nothing happened. Someone started clapping, so we all joined in with clapping and laughter.

Next stop: Chamonix!