A Visitor From Kirkland

As we mentioned in our first blog for this trip, we were hopeful of a visit from our Kirkland friend, David.  (He is one of the several Davids we know - a very popular name!  See the Dr Seuss story "Too Many Daves" for reference.)  David and his wife, Sarah, are our Bridge buddies.  We get together to eat good food, drink good wine, converse, and play some bridge.

We had enjoyed a visit from their elder daughter, Leighanna and her roommate, Gillian, last year and were pleased to hear that David could squeeze some time with us into a business trip.  He had instructions from Leighanna to be sure to see the "dead elephant"* and the Roman amphitheater.  We made sure he saw those sites and many more in the short time he was here.  We did a LOT of walking!  (He told us he slept well that night.)

The weather was nice enough to enjoy lunch on the banks of the

Rhône

It was great fun to act as tour guides in our "second home" - we look forward to showing it off to Sarah, too, next time.


*Anyone who has seen Fourvière Basilica from a distance will see that it does, indeed, look like a dead elephant will all four feet sticking up in the air.

 That's Fourvière on the hill, in the distance.

THE BICYCLE TRIP, continued

The saga continues...

"The Lads" rescheduled their adventure for the morning of Saturday, May 12th.   All four were more than ready to go.  (And, their wives had plans for the week, too.  For instance, Anna and Estelle, our French "daughter," were going to meet at 3 PM for coffee, shopping, or whatever.)  Anyway, we  all met at Place Carnot for the big send off, and they were, at last, on their way.


"The Lads" from the left: Tony, David, Pascal, and Roger.

The weather wasn't the best.  In fact, they had to take refuge from a torrential downpour under an autoroute bridge along with an older lady who turned out to be a great conversationalist.  A nice way to wait out a storm!
The weather cleared and they were off again.  They found a pleasant route and were quite enjoying the trip.  When, about 25 km (15-16 miles) south of Lyon, David's front tire somehow got wedged between a railroad track and the pavement.  The bike stopped, but he didn't.  (A body in motion tends to remain in motion - remember that from Physics?)  The next thing they knew, David was kneeling on the ground, holding his face, and, as Tony, says, "there was blood everywhere!"

As fortune would have it, a man in a near-by house was just on his porch, saying good-bye to his brother-in-law and saw the whole thing.  He called an aid car and hurried over to help.  (This gentleman and wife were wonderful to everyone!)  Soon David was off to the Emergency Room in an aid car accompanied by Pascal.

Even after being cleaned up at the hospital, David was a sight. Multiple scrapes and bruises on his face, along with bandages on his chin and upper lip and ten stitches above his left eye; scrapes and bandages on his arms and hands; torn pants and a scraped knee, and a lovely bruise on his thigh. Quite the visage! But, thankfully, it's nothing that can't heal.

Back on the homefront, Anna recieved a call from Dominique (Roger's wife) telling her that David was injured and Catherine, Tony's wife, would be happy to drive her down to join the riders and collect David to bring him home.  Soon they were off and arrived just as David was getting out of the hospital.

David is healing quite nicely and will get his stitches out at the end of this week.  Here's a picture Laurent, Estelle's husband, took of him a week after "the event."

Definitely on the mend!

So what about the bike ride?!  It's been rescheduled for June 3rd.  Stay tuned!

THE BICYCLE TRIP

It all began last year when we were in Lyon…David and Roger, our friend and landlord, decided it would be great to bicycle from Lyon to the Mediterranean.  (Actually, to avoid Lyon traffic, they were talking about taking the train a few miles south to Vienne and continuing south from there.) 

For those of you who may not know, France is a very bicycle-friendly place with lots of dedicated bike paths.  And, a bicycle club had published a packet of day-by-day routes from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, passing through Lyon, complete with detailed instructions, maps, mileage, cautions, etc.  And, David had purchased the packet.

The Happy Duo in a recent picture.

Anyway, rental bicycles were scoped out along with bags to hold belongings, appropriate clothing and other items.  They were pretty much ready to go.  Then Roger got sick, and we left France, and that was that.

In anticipation of our return to Lyon this April, the trip was resurrected.  In fact it had grown from the two riders to a possible six.  Two dropped out, and then there were four: Roger, David, Tony, and Pascal (“the lads”, as Roger calls them).  The route, equipment, clothing, etc., and departure date were set.  The plan was to leave the morning of Saturday, April 28^th.   Then the winds came.  We’re not talking about balmy breezes; we’re talking about gusts of 60 mph against the riders.  And, the rain didn’t help either.  All agreed to postpone the trip.

Muguets and May Day

May Day is a HUGE holiday in France.  It's their Labor Day, and pretty much everything is closed - including all public transportation.  (The cab drivers must love May Day!) 

We walked the mile and a half or so to Dominique and Roger's and spent most of the day with them.  Roger, David, and Dominique's brother, Gerard, went for a long bike ride around town while Dominique and Anna, accompanied by Gerard's little dog, took a long walk and wandered through a large market in a near-by square.  It was quite a large market with everything imaginable -  vegetables, cheeses, meats (cooked and raw), sausages, clothing and other textile items, and flowers and plants.  I'm sure I must be leaving out something.  Anna got a table cloth with a Provence design, and Dominique bought some Muguets at a flower stall.

Muguets are what we Americans call Lilly of the Valley.  They are traditionally purchased on May Day - either as cut flowers or as plants.  It is considered good luck both to give and to receive them.  And, they were available on street corners, at the market, in flower shops, in grocery stores, pretty much everywhere.  It's really a lovely tradition.  The plants Dominique got at the market are especially nice.  Here's a picture of the one she gave Anna.

After dinner and more conversation, it was time to walk back to our apartment.  Nothing like a nice, long walk to help one appreciate Lyon's great public transportation system!

AubrysInFrance 2012 - 1st posting

Since we are only going to be here for three months, we hadn't really planned to do a blog.  But, then people started asking if we would be doing one.  So....we will be doing a blog - just not as "religiously" as last trip's.

For those of you who don't know, we left Seattle on April 17th and are spending three months back in Lyon.  What's magic about three months?  Well, any more than that requires a visa, carte de sejour, special medical insurance, lots of paper work, a sizeable amount of euros, etc. etc.

We are back in the same neighborhood and apartment.  In many ways it feels like our second home.  We have enjoyed seeing many of our Lyon friends, and checking in at the boulangerie across the street and at AVF.  We both really love Lyon!

So what's on the agenda for this trip? 

• Well, David, Roger, and a few other gentlemen are embarking on a bicycle trip down the Rhone River valley on the 12th.  Their goal is to end up in the Med - we'll see.  David is calling it the "Geriatric Tour de France." 
• Anna, with David's help, has been researching her grandfather's WWI service and hopes to visit the area where he saw action in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and received his Purple Heart.
• Lots of "day trips" to some of the many interesting places around here.  And, a few longer jaunts to explore new places.

We've also enjoyed dinner with our Seatle friends, Bob and Sally, during their first trip to Lyon.  They came here because we kept talking about what a great place it is, and they assured us that they enjoyed their stay in spite of the less than superlative weather.

And, this weekend our friend and bridge buddy, David, will be here on business and is managing to carve out some time for us.  His daughter was a guest of ours last time we were here, and he's heard about the pastries at the boulangerie so that is definitely on the "to do" list.

So there you have it.  A long-winded introduction to the AubrysInFrance 2012 edition.  More to come.