France by Bicycle | PART 26: INTO LYON

In Condrieu we spend time in the street market before cycling back to the ViaRhôna toward Lyon. This amazing trail, also known as the Eurvelo 17, takes us straight into the city of Lyon, our largest city on this trip, but before taking us through more spectacular landscapes of vineyards and hillsides, with river views marked by the magnificent bridges of the Rhône. We reach Lyon in the afternoon, celebrating Roland’s birthday at the boisterous Brasserie Georges. The following morning finds us walking along the Saône River, exploring this vibrant and beautiful city. We spend the afternoon enjoying the collections of the Museum of fine Arts of Lyon, France’s second only to the Louvre.

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
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La Mer Pour Vous – Trabant 33
Epidemic Sound

Wake Up With Me – David Celeste
Epidemic Sound

Board It Now – Berny Shepard
Epidemic Sound

Sunshine In My Pocket – Trailer Worx
Epidemic Sound

The Village Idiot – Justnormal
Epidemic Sound

Passion Bait – Trio Leo
Epidemic Sound

Oh What a Beautiful morning’s birthday He’s a little local market here it was beautiful display local produce people think I’m crazy for filming this but they don’t realize this we don’t get this raisin juice apple juice it’s a big thing out here it’s a beautiful display people are laughing at me for filming this here

Oh my God all homegrown never seen the inside walls of the grocery store this is the good stuff that’s my food tea is so good out here morning baby good morning from chondro France conroyo France had a lovely little BNB last night a little overpriced but the bed was super comfortable and the

Breakfast was magical and the hostess was a super friendly even though we couldn’t speak any of the same language we got along extremely well so how you feeling this morning you know I feel great yeah I feel more rested than I have in a while oh that’s good

And uh even though we had a really crappy dinner last night yeah just made up for it for sure it makes it good yes so I feel real good yeah you know we get a nice little local market God what a gorgeous display of local vegetables fruits yes indeed they really know how

To Stage it all and make it look mouth-watering and they do it effortlessly they do it all the time right they do and it just makes you it’s so inspirational that makes you just want to buy and cook and buy and cook yeah yeah absolutely and we got to meet the

Parish priest yes who was very friendly and recommended uh certain vegetables certain fruits and also the wine yeah I don’t know if bearish priests drink white wine or you know I guess they drink wine it’s the blood of Christ for out loud look at that gorgeous Bridge so lucky to be here and

The things that we look at and Marvel at and think are so incredible it’s just everyday life for these people yeah that’s right it is true yeah yeah Oh What a Beautiful Morning oh yeah it is my birthday 63. yeah we’re good we’re just thinking about this one year

Ago today was when uh I was walking my bike up to what was the name of that Killington up to Killington just coming down with covid Juliana already had it she was resting up in the condo let’s hope this this day goes a little better oh yes but

We’re in a beautiful place just like we were last time we’re trying to figure out what we’re doing with the rest of our we’ve got about another week or so Leon so we’re heading for lyond today from there we’ll kind of figure it out we’ll probably head towards Switzerland

And at a certain point once the going gets too steep we’ll just take a train for the rest of the way to Zurich we were on road bikes the hills would be fun but that was this kind of weight that’s just suffering but we’ll figure it out Happy Trails happy trails

They’re so pretty so here’s what group put us on this morning real rough trail does follow the river and it is absolutely stunning here beautiful lovely couple informed us that there is a loop that skirts this but yeah we would like to not ride on these rocks

And Ride Along The Vineyard it’s a good idea That’s a little better let’s see The Vineyards up ahead scenery is reminiscent of like the Ryan Gorge or something or the Waka Valley it’s uh so surprising and it’s so gorgeous this is such a beautiful stretch through here it’s just got that sweet honey colored French vibe to it of

Course part of it too is that you know it’s the time of the year harvest season best time to come to Europe yeah and all the trees are getting colorful and beautiful temperatures I live for these days that’s why I had my birthday on this day because every year it’s

Fabulous every year it’s gorgeous so lucky it’s always good to have public bathrooms and we find them from time to time but one thing you kind of got to get used to when you’re in France is uh you know they really don’t have a problem with men urinating in public

Although more discretion is demanded of or from the women let’s show them so as soon as you open the door it’s going to scare you if you’re not ready for it as soon as you open the door of the toilet flushes oh now it’s locked crap oh it’s flushing now

So in Washington right yeah here we go here you go yeah it’s green okay there we go there you go and you see this thing and if you shut the door and you start going the light will turn off and you still haven’t located where the

Toilet paper is if there is any and you’re stuck there in the dark adventures in French bathrooms chapter 33. you gotta learn the hard way on how to work these bathrooms it’s the little things that challenge us isn’t it the river is getting smaller getting a little more maybe Untamed or you know

Less damned less industrial lots of Vineyards in all directions it’s just very hilly I love this vierona hillsides River views Vineyards Orchards pastoral scenery great wine great food great people everything that we were looking for in a bicycle tour through France we found an abundance along the Via Rona

So what if you didn’t see this and didn’t duck interesting little barriers they’ve set up they’re invisible in this dark woods that thing would take your head right off but all the great things about the vierona that is probably super dangerous these little gates are always kind of a

Pain aren’t they it’s a better way to keep ours out or something oh yeah here we are Finer binary binaries Vineyards you got sunshine for days says the weather app Sunshine for days we’ll take the land is so fertile here everything grows it seems there’s just every bit of it is being used somehow for Gardens there’s like dill and there’s spinach I think and peppers Orchards and of course

Vineyards there’s some onions and I think it’s just like people’s plots and they all kind of share these plots it’s not like mass production at all you know you have spinach leaves the size of a man’s hand yeah right and they’re still young and tender what a healthy

Life yeah yeah it is and you know you really see it in these markets you know you come into the markets every Saturday morning and Saturday today that’s why we had the market this morning and you know you just see tons of vegetables We were in Kondra we found a little Bike Shop it was actually a motorcycle and Velo repair shop and they checked their tires got some air into our tires which feels good adjusted my brakes which uh I felt like I needed but you know I’ve been getting this clicking in my crank

They couldn’t fix it and I’m just hoping that we can make it for the rest of the time because it feels like a bearing’s going out or something and uh we’ve only got like what three or four days of writing left at the most we’d be Roland

Will be getting a new bike but this has been performing really well on this trip really really well I I feel like I’d be really unfaithful to exchange it at this point because it just does everything I ask it to I Love This Old Crow lovely bike Yeah I do too that was a fabulous bed it really was that was the best bed amazing what a good mattress As we drew ever closer to the Behemoth of Leon the surroundings grew ever more populous the towns closer together the green spaces briefer and less remote but with population often comes better infrastructure and the path along the Rhone was amazing with fabulous views and of course stunning architecture the

Castle up on the hill there We found a quiet little Park just outside of some town or another we enjoyed a bit of lunch and a perfect autumn day impression sheep cheese not cheap cheese no sheep geez I like the dark ones yes this thick slice and a beautiful spot for a picnic yes right on the lake around the river what a gorgeous spot this is wow just ran into a cycle tourist from Frankfurt Germany of course he’d been gone also for about two months

But he followed the whole uh Atlantic Coast all the way around France uh Spain Portugal back up around Spain and now it’s going up their own it’s going to be in Frankfurt in six days he is averaging like 100 to 120 kilometers a day that’s something like 60 to 80 a day miles

Incredible some people just really really crush it coming into Leon commutes put us onto this uh road with no shoulder but not too much traffic a lot of Hills now we get our downhill after climbing above the valley we’re on a touristed road we are treated to a speedy descent

Before we realized it we were in the Metropolis of Leon you’re into the city here we go The route led us steadily to the Confluence of the soon and their own rivers with the dramatic music de Confluence taking Center Stage and then we made our way to a cycle shop that was located on our way to our hotel we’re here Actually having a beer they serve beer here too and uh yeah we’re just trying to get my bike trying to get that little click result and hopefully we can figure that out even though we’ve only got like a couple more days we happen to find this bike shop

Hopefully they can fix it so we’ll see in the meantime cheers it was Saturday and although they tried to fix my crank set we were told that the good mechanic wouldn’t be in until Monday since we were here for a couple of days we set up an appointment for Monday morning and

Continue through the bustling streets eager to park our bikes and start celebrating the birthday of you know who just waiting for a table here at brazzary Georges and Roland’s birthday that’s right on my birthday all right happy birthday Auntie I love you Happy Birthday baby Roland’s birthday now this is what you’re gonna shoot yeah the first day my love thank you Sunday morning in Lyon Leon was our biggest city of the trip the second largest Metropolis in France and we were eager to go out and see what we could see we wandered through the streets until we reached the soon River and then we followed its lovely Riverside path swans beautiful

Then you have the younger ones see they’re dark when they’re young then they’d lighten up as they get older so these are juveniles juvenile delinquents feisty little troublemakers beautiful What a way to live these barges it’s got all kinds of plants it’s got trees with fruit apricots that’s a cool way to live Foreign Both sides of the river taking in the sights and then over to the plastic elbow and elegant architecture and dramatic sculpture Although the day was bright and warm the wind was fierce and after some exploring we decided to dock into the music de Bozo de Leon one of the more important art museums in Europe again We wandered aimlessly through the centuries spending more time as we tend to do with the Impressionists we are fortunate to come upon a live concert in a museum always a pleasant surprise Foreign dinner inviting a young woman and her friends to our table for some conversation and our new friends enjoying your terrible soup what was your name it had only been a day but we could honestly say now we’ve seen Leon onward and upward Thank you bonjour foreign foreign