Today we said good bye to lovely Lyon. It is a great city. We have only explored a small part, mainly in Vieux Lyon where we have been staying. It is ancient and you can feel the Roman heritage in the architecture. Once again the people have been friendly and helpful. And of course the food has been awesome!
We packed up and said goodbye to Christine . She advised us to drive out of the one way street the wrong way. Ken managed to get out of the wedged-in parking spot and turn around in the narrow street and we were off down the hill, getting a few dark looks from the pedestrians.
We had a long drive to Cannes, so we settled in and let Stella, the GPS handle the difficult decisions. There are a lot of stops on the tollways, well signed and with great facilities. When we decided we need coffee the next one was, I hate to say it, a Maccas! It was a massive store. We tried out the touch screen order, which took longer than just going to the counter. The coffee was actually pretty good on the whole French Coffee scale. There was a big mist sprayer outside the store to cool the customers as they walked from the car.
Back on the road and the scenery kept changing. Once out of the city we could see a more rural setting, with beautiful sunflowers and corn fields. There were lot of villages, chateaus on the top of hills and the ruin of a fortress or two. Mountain Mike was enjoying looking out over the ranges and got quite exited when we saw the Mont Ventoux . Apparently it's a great cycling route on the tour. Unfortunately we couldn't get a decent photo as the trees and tollway structures kept getting in the way. But he really did see it! The first part of the highway had a lot of trucks, heading down on the Marseille route.
Finally we were approaching the Cote d'Azure. Stella took us into Cannes and after one drive-by and recalculation we found the gate. Our Airbnb host had left quite a few instructions. First to call the concierge, who sent a lady down to open the gate and guide us into a narrow car park in the garage. She spoke little English, I speak little French, but she managed to take us up and show us through the apartment. We did have a little confusion over what numbers she was talking about but Jude guessed it was the gate code and we're all good.
The apartment is massive, (128m) and weird. It only really has one bedroom - a separate wing with pink bedding for children. There are bunks, a single and a double. There is also a large bathroom in this area. The main living area looks over the ocean and has a queen bed hidden in an array of furniture and a screen . There is another huge bathroom. The apartment is about 25 metres long, so getting to the kitchen from the balcony is a long trek! Ken and I got first choice and went for the open plan bedroom, Mike and Jude get the pink wing. This is the apartment we had to book in a hurry after the original luxurious one cancelled on us.
A bit of lazy time before going to explore the beach. We have views of the ocean and it is not too far away, but there is a busy road and a train line. We walked for a while and saw a private beach, some rocky beaches and then the public areas. There were a lot of people of all shapes and sizes, all ages, all tanned and all the women were in bikinis. Ken and Mike had a quick dip before we had some lunch. We kept walking and walking and eventually made our way back home, after stopping at a supermarket.
We sat on the balcony enjoying the evening, wondering what to do about dinner. We contemplated dialing a pizza and googled and found a restaurant 600 metres away. We could probably manage that! This is not a restaurant area, but they are not too far away. The restaurant we were going to was closed so we kept on walking and walking.....We came to an Italian place where they welcomed us and quickly cleaned a table. We had a delicious meal. I had a salmon pasta, everyone else had pizza. It was really good.
At the end of the night an old guy came in playing the guitar and singing Spanish songs, in an Italian restaurant, in France to a group of Australians and a couple of Americans.
Walking home we could hear fireworks going off in two places along the coast. We had pretty good glimpses of them and stopped to watch. They would stop, we would walk, they would start again. It took us a while to get home. We then saw a sign saying there was a firework festival on, this was it for the week.
It is hot in the apartment with no air conditioning and a warning to lock up tight because of crime. It was a hot night. Off to bed for a hot sleep.


tolls €24.50
Steps 8,837
Kms walked 6kms