Maison Boussingaul B&B, Avignon: 43°56’45.4″N 4°48’12.3″E
(39 Rue Boussingault, 84000 Avignon, France)
L’isle-sur-la-Sorgue: 43°55’12.8″N 5°03’19.2″E
Gordes: 43°54’28.6″N 5°11’52.2″E
Le Jardins de Beauvoir, Lyon: 45°45’22.1″N 4°49’07.2″E
(8 Rue de Trion, 69005 Lyon, France)
We had an early breakfast with Bruce and Barb at our B&B and then prepared to get on the road to Lyon which was about a 3 hour drive from where we were staying. It was hard to say goodbye to Bruce and Barb after having so many wonderful adventures with them over the past couple of weeks but it was time for them to head home & time for us to move on. We really enjoyed our stay at this place. John Paul was an excellent host and really helped our visit to Avignon be special.
PHOTO ABOVE – OUR HOST JOHN PAUL JOINS US FOR A GROUP PHOTO
Before we headed to Lyon, we made a couple of stops to see some more sites in this area. Our first stop on the advice of John Paul was to visit L’isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a very picturesque place that is supposed to be one of the prettiest towns in France. It is unique because the river La Sorgue passing through the town actually splits into five different smaller rivers in the town center.
This is a very busy tourist place with lots of cafés and bistro’s lining the river banks. We stopped at noon for a drink and a small snack at a café beside the cathedral that we intended to visit right after but we should have remembered that everything closes from 12 noon until 2 PM for lunch, including this cathedral – so no cathedral visit for us today. We continued our walking tour of the town and then got back in the car and headed towards Gordes, a hill village typical of this region.
Gordes was an amazing place to see from a distance. It is not that big of a village but it is perched high on a steep hillside overlooking the valley below with mountains far off in the distance.
This place was very busy with all kinds of traffic and it was difficult to find a parking spot so we just stayed on the opposite side of the narrow valley and enjoyed the views of the village. Then we hopped back in the car and resumed our journey to Lyon.
The GPS calculated that we had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Lyon on the freeway/tollway. We had only been on the road for about 30 minutes when it started to rain. The traffic was pretty heavy and the rain got harder and harder. It was an interesting drive in this tiny Fiat car, bombing down the road and about 120 to 130 km/h and being passed by other cars and trucks like we were standing still. Fortunately the rain only lasted about 45 minutes and the further north we drove the better the weather got.
We arrived in Lyon around 6:30 PM. There was some road repairs being done in the neighborhood where our B&B was located so we couldn’t get the GPS to drive to the address we were given. I finally found a safe place to pull over that was close to where we were supposed to be & Catherine went on foot to find our B&B. She finally found the front entrance of our B&B and rang the bell for assistance. This is a very big “front” door!
Our hosts Mimi & Nicolas came out to greet us. Mimi helped Catherine carry our luggage up to the house while Nicholas helped me take the car to a nearby parking garage. We were certainly happy to be off the road and into our room.
We rested for a few hours & then went looking for a place to have a bite to eat. We found a nice little bar/pub only a few steps away from our B&B and enjoyed a glass of wine for Catherine, a big draft beer for me and a shared tapas plate.
There was even a bonus for both of us because a European Champions League football game was on the bar telly for me and the bar owner’s dog (named Loco) came and made friends with Catherine.
Tomorrow we explore Lyon.
Cheers!