Today was dedicated to travel. This was the change we made before our trip when we dropped Paris and decided to go to Lyon. There simply is no easy way to get to Lyon from Florence as was evident from our alternate train travel we had booked in case our flight was cancelled. Today we are flying on Air France to Paris and then taking a TGV train to Lyon, our flight is at 10 and we get to Lyon at 4. When we got to the airport Melanie texted that she was through security at the Barcelona airport and was waiting for her flight to board. The airport in Florence is not very big but it is busy, there are only 7 gates and they don't use jet bridges. Instead they bus passengers to the planes for boarding. The bus we got on was packed and we sat for a good 10 minutes while we waited for more passengers to squeeze on the bus. Then we drove about 50 yards and got off the bus we were that close, it would have been faster to have everyone walk to the plane. Oh well provides jobs for more people. Our flight to Paris left on time and arrived on time, we have now flown Air France on three trips to Europe and have not had an issue with any of our flights.
The TGV train from Charles de Gaulle airport was a much different experience. Due to the strike and running only a partial schedule the train was packed. We felt lucky to have booked in advance and to have first class seats. The train was running about 20 minutes late and when it arrived I felt like we had to fight through a sea of people to board the train. Somehow I found two spots to store our big bags and was able to bring the rest of the bags to our seats. As we were leaving the station Robyn noticed a mass of people standing between the cars, they stayed there for the whole two hour trip. I think SNCF just sold tickets without seat assignments and let people fend for themselves. When we got to Lyon it was just as big of a madhouse getting off the train. I told Robyn to get off while I got the two big bags, I also had my very heavy backpack on my shoulder, as I was getting off the train the backpack starts slipping and I begin falling off the train. A man on the platform actually grabbed my backpack to help steady me, if he hadn't it would have been worthy of a picture. Robyn asked me if had banged my head against the train, I wasn't certain but told her there would be more damage to the train then my head.
The hotel we are using was picked out by Melanie, it has been recently renovated and is a bit funky. We have a beautiful view of the Rhone river and the old town in Lyon. The highest point in Lyon is Notre Dame de Fourviere Basilica which is visible from our hotel room. We will be visiting that tomorrow before we go on our wine tour. As we were walking to dinner across the Pont Lafayette, a couple was walking their puppy of course Melanie has to get down and pet it. In the picture note the eye it is a deep blue, the puppy's other eye was brown.