France: Tours, Lyon and Aix, without a car. Part 1.

I’m glad you were able to go see Villandry! I was there a week before you, taking the A La Francoise half-day tour. I think we were there about 90 minutes. Our guide walked us through the rooms and then through the garden edges - amazing.

Sounds like your hotel location was very handy for the train. I stayed in the charming old center and just hopped the tram over to the train station.

Continued from Part 1.

It was still early, 10:30, so we dropped off our luggage at Hotel Bretagna, near the east side of the Saone on Rue Debois and took the metro to Parc de la Tete d' Or. Musee d' Art was closed for an instillation as was the tunnel to get to the Island War Memorial in the lake. Disappointing, but we still enjoyed the park and rented a little electric boat and tooled around the lake. Took a bus back to the hotel and unpacked. Hotel Bretagna is wonderfully located, and very inexpensive, however it is a * hotel. We had never stayed in a 1 star before, so the size of the room, slightly bigger than the bed and lack of an elevator took some adjustment on our part. Can't really complain, since we knew before hand it was a 1 star and it most importantly, did have a private shower and toilet. Spent the afternoon walking along the Saone, visited the Musee Miniature et Cinema. We just showed our LCC City. The card wasn't read or recorded as there was something wrong with their internet or reader. Had diner in Vieux-Lyon.

Thursday, Sept 12: Enjoyed the morning out door market along the Saone, crossed the river and took the Fourvieve Funicular to Notre Dame, then took the roof tour: This is a "must do" tour! The Guide determined we were the only English speakers in the group and he tried his absolute best to include us after his usual French narratives. After the roof tour we explored the church's interior. This is a relatively modern creation, but, and this is entirely a subjective opinion after seeing many of the Great Cathedrals in Italy, England and France, that this is the most complex, yet harmonic, polyglot of architectural and decorative motifs we have ever seen in one place: Somehow, it all works. Notre Dame de Fourviere was the highlight of the trip. Visited the Musee and Theatres Romans and then found and followed a traboule in the old city. Had diner in Vieux-Lyon

Friday, Sept 13: Took Metro to Bellicour then walked to Musee des Tissues et des Arts Decoratifs. "It's half the museum it use to be." This is a joke, and if you go there you will understand the joke and all the bitter signage about financial cut backs. Took the La Bateaux Lyon Boat cruise up the Soane and back and then the Lyon City Croix-Rousse tram tour through the old silk district. Good thing we did the tram first, cause at our ages, walking up to Croix Rousse would not be doable.

Saturday, Sept 14: Split up in the morning as each of us wanted to see very different things. Wife went back to Musee des Tissues, shopped at fabric stores and visited Les Halls at the Hotel Dieu. I went to the tiny Musee of Automation, which was not open till much later in the day. Then took the City Ferry to Confluence, walked the mall and took the tram to the Confluence Museum. This Museum could take all day, as it is endless. It is also out of this world. It feels like you are entering some sort of space ship from another planet. Then I walked the Rhone's eastern bank and found what should be a Mitchlen Star out door eatery called La Duvette du Pont Wilson: The food, the service, the view, just WOW!

Sunday, Sept 15: Went to Musse of Beaux Arts. Then we split up again. Both of us still needed to see individual things. Wife revisited the Croix-Rousse district and saw many of the smaller fabric museums. I spent most of the day getting to and back from, the Musee de l'automobile Henri Malartre. It is further out of Lyon than, and a longer up hill walk from the bus stop to the site than I expected. Met back at the hotel around 18:00. We walked to the Rhone and had excellent bar food- tapas, at the Wilson Bridge Restaurant, then walked and experienced the eastern Rhone river bank till late at night: It was pure magic. This river front along the Rhone, in my subjective and limited opinion, is the most beautiful urban, public space in Europe.

Continued from Part 2:

Monday, Sept 16: 10:15, we took the direct Flix Bus #799 from Perrache Station, Lyon, Bay D, to Krypon Parking in Aix. This is a 35 minute, slightly up hill walk, to Cours Marabeau. But there is a local bus, the new sci-fi like, A Line, that runs to Gare Aix Routiere every few minutes, and that is what we took. Ticket machines are at Krypon Parking. Then walked the length of Cours Mirabeau to our lodging at Hotel Suites Opera. Hotel Suites Opera is not a hotel, it is an apartment: More like an Air BnB. This confused us, as it did also, all the locals that didn't also know where it was. Eventually, had to call to the owners, so we could have some direction, and then everything worked out. Opera Suites is wonderfully located and a less expensive place to stay. It does, however, involve climbing up and down a great many of stairs. The owners were so sweet, and hard working as a beginning family, we didn't want them to do anything extra, knowing they had a full plate, yet they kept trying to be perfect hosts and offered to haul all our heavy rolly bags up the stairs. Apartment was great with kitchen, laundry, living room, bed room and a nice view. We settled in, then ventured out about 19:00 and immediately got lost. Even though I had walked most of it with Google Street View. Old Town Aix is small but it is a labyrinth. All we could figure out was that the old city was built on a hill side, so if you went up hill, all the streets divide and eventually dead end, cut off by Boulevards Jean-Jaures, Briand, Stait-Louis and Carnot. If you go down hill, you will run into a main part of old town. We walked the entire old city finding all the important places, yet, I don't think we ever knew exactly where we were, till it surprised us as we arrived at Cours Mirabeau, or some historic site, or public square on the map. It was all fun, we never felt completely lost: Just know that Old Aix is one big maze and there is some difficulty re-locating a place you may want to re-visit later.

Tuesday, Sept 17: Took the #23 LER Bus to Avignon. Avignon is much nicer than Google Street View presents. Walked up Cours j. Jaures and immediately found a wonderful free Museum called, Musee Lapidare, full of Roman and Egyptian articles. This had stuff I had not seen in any other major museums. Particularly the Cupid Warning Off The Locusts. In a pre-scientific world, that is all you had. Pray to some god that the locusts would not eat everything in the harvest. It also gave me some empathy for any one owning property in Gallus-Romana. You just can't dig anywhere with out hitting a prior civilisation that made every thing out of stone that is 1 meter down. And then you are REQUIRED to do something about it. I "get it," why people just re-bury the stuff they find and try to forget it. :) I say this an an amature archaeologist. It made me laugh a little thinking all this stuff has to be saved. You can't save an entire prior civilization if it is everything under you. It is too much to ask of the current people that live there, and have all this old stuff interfere with something in THEIR life. This is a bit of an epiphany. We did the Papal Palace, had a picnic at the view site park above the Palace, then walked the 3/4ths Bridge and then the ferry across the Rhone then, had some drinks at an RV, Swimming Park, La Palmeraie, and then walked across Pont Daladier and back to the Bus Station.

Continued from Part 2.

Wednesday, Sept 18: We did the morning street vendors the rest of the trip, and bought stuff like locals at the morning market; chicken roasted on a spit, local vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese and sausages. That was fun and interesting since my wife and I are not foodies and have no idea how to cook any thing, or an ideal of what to look for. Just getting stuff in the mornings was fun and we ate fresh vegetables, and fruit, and range feed chicken for once: Very tasty. This is the joy of an apartment over a hotel room, as you have a kitchen. More exploration of Aix using the Daibliner little electric buses. Buy one ticket and you are good for the day and all of the other 3 lines that the Daibliner runs: Which we did. Still had no ideal where we were at any point. These all meet at around Rue Doumer and Cours Mirabeau. So we just switched over, one to the other. Walked the evening in Aix and got lost again till we found a late night bar and had some wine. Somehow, walking back to the apartment was somewhat easier after that. :)

Thursday Sept 19: More Exploration of Aix, There isn't a whole lot to see in Aix -at least for me, Wife went to the Tissues Musee, and lots of other fabric places. I just got to street level with no plan what so ever, and walked aimlessly all over town and then I walked to Krypton Parking from Cours Mirabeau to test out the walking distance. It was good, only a forty minute walk down hill. Then I found an interesting athletic course, along the way, which if it wasn't public and closed? I apologize for using it, or, breaking into it if it was closed ... very fun, and made a 60 year old feel young again to walk and hang again between the trees. ..

Friday Sept 20: 6 AM Flix-bus to Nimes. We walked the morning to Krypton Parking. This was totally unnecessary, as the new A Line got there on time anyway. Still it was a good walk since its an original Roman Road. FLix-bus dropped us off slightly out of town, as we needed to use the Nimes A Line Tram to get into town. Nimes is beautiful. We got to The Square House, Le Masison Carree, just before it opened. I was surprised that we were the only two people, on the planet, on that day, at that opening time, to think the Masison Carree was interesting enough to visit. Really, the only free standing, almost complete Roman Temple in all the world, and we were the only two visitors, in the first morning show that day? What? We bought the Roman Cards any way and walked to the La Tour Magne, had a picnic on the hill, and then the Colosseum. It was a wonderful day.

Saturday Sept 21: Took the #40 bus from Gare Rouriere D'Aix Center
to Marseille's airport. Flew back arriving in Eugene around 12 AM

Thank you for a great trip report! I found it very helpful. I have a couple of questions:

I also noticed that Rick doesn't give Tours a lot of "love". Is it a pretty town?

You mentioned taking a train to Chenonveau -- was that from Tours or Blois?

Of all the towns you saw in Provence, which one was the prettiest and which one was the most lively (people eating and drinking in cafes, walking the streets?

Thank you!

We didn't get to see many of the other towns in the Loire Valley. So our opinion is somewhat limited. Tours is really two cities. One is mostly Medieval and the other is Modern. It is somewhat knit together but there are specific areas that are original and specific areas that are modern, depending on where bombing was concentrated. Tours was bombed by the Germans, selectively distroyed by the French, and also bombed by the Allies during WWII: It got a triple whammy. Rue Nationale is entirely, "french," modern, however, one block over to the west, is Centre-historique. Centre-historique has everything one would expect from a Medieval village; narrow, mostly pedestrian streets, half timbered buildings and lively Places, - open squares -, in the evenings. We found it to be very beautiful and it fulfilled all our expectations. It is somewhat strange though in the sense that the transitions betweet the very old and very modern are so close together. There isn't much left of anything in the middle time periods. Two of the exceptions being the Basilique Saint-Martine, which is just as grand and impessive as any other Roman style church found any where else, and so was also the Gothic Cathedral Saint-Gatien. We were the ONLY two people visiting the sites on both times we went there. Tours doesn't have many tourists. :) Other wise there is little left to suggest just how ancient, as in Gallo-Romain and the Middle Ages, Tours really is. Much of travel, the history of a place, to me, is in my head. Knowing the history, I found Tours to be facinating, even in the little bits that are left.
We took the regional train from Tours, Gare de Tours, to Chenonceau and back. Could not have been easier.
Of the cities we visited in Provence, Nimes stands out. Maybe it was just becuse it was so easy to get the flixbus from Aix, see the sites - all walkable- and get back in one full day. Also because Nimes is ... to over use a word, beautiful. We didn't expect all the water works and all the stone work and how much was still there, and in such good shape, from the Roman Era. We were so giddy, that we spent too much time at a cafe', that we missed our bus back. Not a problem though, cause we walked to the train station and got tickets back to Aix that night.