April 30
Dear Liza,
After an early flight from Portland to Seattle, a delayed flight from Seattle to Paris and a beautiful train ride south, we arrived in Sunny Lyon.
We spent our first night at the Hotel Edmund W., since our apartment wasn’t ready for us yet. This is a wonderfully old fashioned place, with an elevator just big enough for the three suitcases and Grandpa Nelson. Bridgett and I took the stairs. Good exercise!
After we settled in, Bridgett and I walked to the Rhône River, just about a mile away. We found a lovely garden with an old, classic fountain, celebrating the “people of Lyon“. Hard to argue with that. Cherubs and lions spitting spigots of water were all the rage a few hundred years ago.
We sat in the shade and enjoyed watching old guys playing pétanque, (a sort of bowling game) and folks walking by with kids, dogs, and bags of groceries. The People Show!
As so often happens, we managed to walk too far, always wanting to see ‘just one more thing”, and the heat almost got the better of us. A bottle of lemonade, then a cool bistro called “Les Bons Copains” for dinner, saved us. Delicious, life preserving cassoulet and croque monsieur !
That night, none of us slept well. Jet lag wanted us to awake at two in the morning, but exhaustion wanted us to sleep. Oy.
The next morning, once we all agreed we weren’t going to sleep anymore, we walked back toward the train station to Café Millet for pastries, coffee, and Fromage Blanche. This creamy stuff is a cross between yogurt and crémé fraîche. Incredibly yummy!
Once we were fed and caffeinated, we were ready for our adventure of the day; a visit to a garden with a strange name. I’ll you about that tomorrow
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 