We had our last night in Paris and we are headed home tomorrow!

Another gorgeous day, but extremely hot! 91degrees!
We rode the funicular up to the top of Lyon and saw the roman amphitheater where they hold concerts still!

Then we headed over to the basilica. Wow! That was extravagant. Very beautiful.

This is St Joseph’s church under the basilica it was impressive.

Then we headed upstairs, it was incredibly opulent. The floors ceilings and walls were all mosaics!

Next we explored some traboules. We didn’t get to explore enough of these, we only scratched the surface.
This network of tunnels allowed the silk merchants to get quickly from their workshops to the textile merchants at the foot of the hill. Thus the traboules of Lyon are located primarily in the ‘old city’ and are often credited with helping prevent the occupying Germans from taking complete control of these areas during World War II.

Tomorrow we head back to paris for our last night. Our adventure is coming to an end. It has been a trip of a lifetime!

Annecy was so beautiful, we hated to leave it! Before we left we took one last stroll and to our surprise there was a farmers market happening today. So we picked up some cheese, baguette, tomato, sausages & apricots for a picnic on our way to Lyon.

We also took a detour to the chateau de menthon Saint Bernard. It was really cool. Saint Bernard was born there. The actual Saint Bernard patron saint of, mountaineers, hikers and skiers. He founded abbeys and helped many stranded hikers and pilgrims on their way to Rome. His monks started the breed of Saint Bernard dogs, named after him!
It was a really cool castle and we ended up having a private tour cause we were the only English speakers needing a tour!!

The story goes that Bernard’s father wanted him to marry this noble woman, but he wanted to become a priest, so he ran away by jumping out of his window, it’s said that angels helped him to the ground. This carving depicts that

The castle had a beautiful chapel. Included in the chapel was a a beautiful roman cross from the 11th or 12th century, vestments, and also Saint Bernards finger cased in a silver relic holder… Creepy. But none the less impressive!

the kitchen was too far away from the dining room so they built this tunnel with rails and a small cart to get the food to the dining room!

This fireplace was carved out of one solid piece of wood.

Largest book in the library.

We arrived in Lyon in time for the sunset at our rooftop apartment!

Today we took a day trip to Chamonix , Mont Blanc. The drive was gorgeous. The mountains are stunning! We took the cable car up Brevent for a spectacular view of Mont Blanc!
We took a brief trip to Switzerland, the drive there was gorgeous, but once we crossed there was no little touristy ski town like on the French side. A bit of a bummer, but we were rolling the dice without a map, since our TomTom map was just of France and my phone map was super slow! still had a great time!

Tomorrow we head to Lyon!

Glacial run off river right through the heart of Chamonix.

The glacier runs from the top of the mountain down to the middle

The drive to Switzerland

Terrace of vineyards

Today we decided to take it easy.
We had cappuccinos at one of the many Cafes here. Then shopped around a bit at the really cute shops. Had a picnic lunch at the lake. Took a boat tour and then hit the beach! Had a long lazy conversation filled dinner followed by a stroll down the canals. Fantastic day!

I would be lying if I said we weren’t a little nervous last night when mapping out our route to Annecy. We we wondering what we signed ourselves up for? Driving in Paris? We’ve been here 5 days and seen the driving! Nervous is an understatement.

None the less we were committed, our time in Paris had come to an end. George and I made a blanket apology ahead of time for whatever things we were going to say to each other on our drive out of the city and we were off!

Driving in Paris was surprisingly easy! Of coarse we had the TomTom app on the iPad guiding our every turn and reassuring us as to where to turn… in an Australian accent. We were going to use Darth Vader as the voice, but we thought better of it since he talks so slow. Once we got out of the city the French countryside was all we expected and more

We took the turnpike, which was beautiful, but we wanted to take a smaller road that we could easily get off to see things. So we got off at Auxerre and onto a small road for a while.

Navigating through Auxerre was a bit of a challenge. At one point I told George to turn, he said “down that small alley?” “yes! Turn! It’s the street!” It was comical.

Our next stop was the basilica of Saint Marie-Madeline in Vezelay. It was a very small town atop a hill surrounded by vineyards. It was stunning.

We wish we had more time in Vezelay, but Annecy was waiting!

The rest of the drive was stunning. Especially once we started heading up to the alps. The mountains and terrain are impressive.

We arrived in Annecy in the late afternoon, with plenty of time to take a walk through the town and have a lovely dinner along the canal. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…they probably don’t do it justice!

Last night we actually set the alarm! We needed to get up and out the door early to get in line for the Catacombs. They were worth the wait! It was like nothing I’ve seen before. Of course, how often do you come upon millions of bones that have been stacked neatly in an underground tunnel? Almost never.
So the catacombs came to be because Paris’s cemeteries we literally overflowing with corpses from centuries of use. One cemetery in particular had over 90,000 corpses buried in it. The buildings basement wall next to this cemetery literally collapsed due to the sheer weight of them all. So they started to move the bones to the old underground quarries on the outskirts of the city. They stacked the bones in a decorative fashion grouped by church. So all the parishioners of one church would be together with a marker defining their parish. That is the short version!
Here are the pictures

The black line on the ceiling was the path the tours in the early 1900’s took

A catacomb worker carved this. He carved several. They depict the many prisons he was in.

The strata layers exposed.

Ok next we went to the Arc de Triumph to watch the final stage of Le Tour de France. It was a carnival like atmosphere once the sponsor cars and floats stared coming in. It was spectacular seeing the peloton on the champs e’lyesee!

Tomorrow. The Louvre!

Just stop! i cant take it. It is insane how many awesome sights are in this one city! She must make other cities feel inadequate. Just when I think I’ve been blown away, there is yet another cool area of the city. We were walking along the seine tonight and we decided to head home. On our way to the metro, we walked through an unassuming archway which lead to a bit of a tunnel, which came out in the courtyard of the Louvre. The buildings were incredible. How can one city have so much?

Today we went to an antique flea market. Then back to saint Germaine area for a fantastic lunch at Chez Fernand.

The food was amazing.
Duck

Boeuf bourginion

I had the steak with au gratin potatoes.

Best meal hands down so far!
Then we walked to the Luxembourg gardens. And hung out in the shade people watching for about2 hours. It was awesome!

Then we ended up walking the seine.
Great day!

I almost forgot to post about the basilica! We went for a walk last night near our apt. Which happens to be walking distance to the Sacre Coeur. It was awesome. The adorable streets surrounding it were just as lovely. Bustling with Cafes and shops. The steps of the Sacre Coeur were packed with people drinking wine, musicians playing guitar and singing and street vendors selling there wares while keeping a weary eye out for the police. With a pull of a string the cloth their items were displayed on cinched up and they ran off as soon as the police drove up. It was pretty ingenious! It was a gorgeous night and a gorgeous view!

We got a late start to the day… Slept in till 10am! We must have needed it. Had some coffee on our balcony and lazily watched the Cafes and shops open. Oh and we had the most amazing croissants this morning. The bakery on our street is unbelievable!

We made our way to the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome!

The lines were horrendous to go up into the tower, so we admired it from the ground and went on a boat tour on the Seine instead.

We went to a great area called St. Germaine. Of coarse everywhere is awesome here. We came upon this fountain and old church. It’s just amazing what is down alleys and around corners here. We were saying that this fountain would be Pittsburgh’s claim to fame, but here, it’s one fountain and church of many! We are headed back to this area tomorrow night for dinner. The restraunts looked amazing!

Another gorgeous day in Paris!