Geneva to Lyon & the Rhone Valley

After a rather late breakfast & a chat we were finally on our way by 10.30am, we said our goodbyes to Bob & Anthea & thanked them for their hospitality & hoped that we could return the favour back in OZ one day.

It took longer than expected to traverse across Geneva but eventually we found the road south & back into France & down to Annecy. We didn't stop at Annecy ( 50000 ) because we had struck the Saturday morning market so we pushed on through to Chambery ( 58000 ) with the same result & even though they were both charming towns we decided to push on towards Lyon.

By late afternoon we decided that it might be better to tackle Lyon in the morning so we stayed just south in Bron at a "Campanile Hotel" which is one of the larger motel type establishments in France. The room was quite comfortable but the meal was not up to the standard of what we had previously enjoyed-c'est la vie.

We were still some 1o kms from Lyon but being a Sunday we had a great run in & were soon on the outskirts of this very large city ( 420000 ) certainly the largest that we had encountered so far. Unfortunately during the approach to Lyon the local gendarmes were diverting traffic away from the centre of town as they were conducting the annual Lyon Marathon so we had to find another way into town. We stuck to our standard approach for all villages & towns by looking for the " centre ville" signs & it didn't let us down as we negociated the drive in & were soon mingling with the traffic on the main boulevard that runs beside the mighty Rhone river.

The layout of Lyon reminded us so much of Paris with the 2 main roads lining the river just like the Seine & a collection of grand buildings adorning both sides it is a very formidable city but a little daunting for a 1st time visitor. Our problems didn't end there however as it was also market day in Lyon, so with that as well & the blockades for the marathon there were no visible carparking spots around so unfortunately we decided to move on south as the whole scene was a getting a little stressful. See the 2 pics on the L-H side above.

On the motorway we had soon put Lyon behind us & were heading to the Rhone Valley. We turned off at Vienne onto a minor road which lead us to the top of the valley at the famous wine village of Ampuis ( see pic ) & then to Condreiu where we stopped for a look around & had some lunch.Once again being a Sunday nothing was open just a little local market but none of the vineyards which was a bit of a pity as it would have been nice to at least try some of these very popular French wines. We continued south onto Tain l'Hermitage where the area's most respected appellations St.Joseph & Hermitage are grown. At the end of our drive through this area we both remarked that it was probably the most uninteresting part of France that we have encountered so far - we turned off before Valence to Romans-sur-Isere & then onto Grenoble.

What an eye-opener this turned out to be we had never seen so many apartment blocks just everywhere you looked. We must have been coming in through a newer part of town as all the roads appeared to be recently surfaced & all the trees lining these streets were still quite small.
Trying to find an exit out was a nightmare but after several attempts we headed to Vizille.

Once in Vizille we managed to find a room in a cute little hotel ( see pic ) in the centre of the village & it was comfy & something a little different. The rain had set in now so it was quite wet & gloomy but we had a lovely meal in a cute restaurant just around the corner from the hotel.
We start our drive through the French Alps tomorrow.