The Road From Paris To Lyon

Paris takes on a more romantic air by night.

The business of the day is complete and the streets fill with diners and those who wish nothing more than to enjoy its charm. The sadness of the memorial service held at Notre Dame for the crash victims aboard an Air France flight gives way to the peace and comfort of dark. Those that filled the vast Luxembourg Gardens
have gone home and the streets are bathed in golden lamplight. The glass domed boats that cut through the Seine are moored.

Even the landmark monuments that glow white in the sun now whisper by night.

The famous and everyday lie side by side in Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

Final resting place of the Doors, Jim Morrison,


dancer Maria Callas, literary genius Oscar Wilde and a host of affluent Parisian families entombed in mausoleums of chiseled stone). Structural lines fall into shadow casting each nuance of architecture in dramatic relief .

Gargoyles overlook passersby and the rotating searchlight of the Tour de Eiffel marks the rhythm of the city as it moves toward slumber.

Urban life slips away as my French friend and I listen to the metal on metal song of the high speed train that whisks us through the fertile centre of France to the city considered the culinary Mecca of Europe---Lyon. His parents spoil us with fine beef, pungent local cheeses and fruit so sweet there need be no other dessert. Always there is the bread---that quintessential icon of French life---the baguette.

Crust crispy perfection protecting its light open-textured heart, this is the definition of the staff of life at its pinnacle.

Touring the Burgundy region to the north, we dodge showers, enjoying the Saturday market,

lunch served in underground wine cellar of old and wine tasting at the premiere Chateau de Meursault.

The cedar of Lebanon has stood watch over the estate for two hundred fifty years, it the youth of a realm whose cellars and house date back to the eleventh century.

A Sunday walk along the Soane River reveals a city less congested than its capital sister to the north, but retaining much of the same feeling. Bicycles (Vivlib) are hirable for one Euro per twenty-four hour period allowing anyone with the desire to experience the streets, wind in hair atop cheap transportation. I used the Parisian version affording a vantage of the Seine and the many landmarks of Paris few foreigners experience.

Lyon is at the confluence of the Rhone and Soane bisecting the city providing miles of riverside walks. Elegant swans share the river with sleek barges


and the flags of country, city and European Union fly proudly. Seldom have I been treated with such genuine warmth, nor spoiled so regally. Can the caricature of the rude Frenchman be a myth? Perhaps the secret is to arrive quietly, absorb the atmosphere gratefully and savor the sights, sounds and flavours that are uniquely French. Oh…and having a native friend as guide and host is best of all.