Last tango in Paris (if tango means day)

Our last full day in Paris was trying to fit in a few more sights on a down day (most touristy stuff is closed on Mondays).   We started at a Patisserie to buy some bread (croissant for Alisma and a ham and cheese bun for me) and coffee (two cafe au lait) to eat at our first stop, Pere La Chaise,  a huge cemetary in the middle of Paris.  You may know it as the place Jim Morrison is buried.  It is a crime that that is its main claim to fame, but so be it.  

We went in and found a bench by some memorial or other and ate our breakfast,  This got the attention of the crows who then followed us for quite a while until they figured out we weren't easy marks.

The entrance gate

Jim Morrison
I had to take this picture since we were 

Oscar Wilde's tomb, encased in plexiglass to keep out
the kissers

Then we had a quick return to our hotel so I could replace my dead camera battery and Alisma could change into long pants (it was still overcast).   Then we went to a busy market street in the Latin Quarter.  Alisma had stopped by there on Saturday while I was in the catacombs and she said I would love it.  Unfortunately, she had been there on a Saturday when they have a street market.  But we went back on Monday when many shops were closed.  Oh well.  We had lunch there.  A greek place where I had the menu de jour.  Cheese pie (little triangles of filo and feta) to start.  I could have stopped with those and been very happy.  Then chicken slovaki and tzatziki.  And then baklava.   Alisma had humous, which may have been the best I've ever tasted, vegetable soup and baklava.  No pictures.  And table wine.

(just a note, Alisma and I just finished eating so much cheese, I am having a hard time describing my previous delicious meals).

Then a quick visit to the Jardin de Luxembourg where we had a coffee and a sit down in those free green garden chairs.

 Then off to Mont Martre, the highest point in Paris.  We bought some macarons (Alisma got Pistaccio and Cassis Violet and I got Caramel and Passionfruit Terragon) to eat when we reached the top.  To get there we took the Funicular.  This sounds like a made up name to convince people to take the glassed-in cable car but that doesn't seem like something the French would do.  They are far to serious about language to add 'fun' to anything.  Alisma tells me we have funiculars in Canada too.  Let's google.  Here is way too much info:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular. 

At the top of Mont Martre is Sacre Coeur, a big white church.  We went in but I didn't take any pictures.  My Catholic genes will only let me push the sacrilege envelope so far,   But the view of the city from the outside was amazing.  As were the macarons.

These stairs or the Funicular, no contest

View of Paris

Me enjoying the view AND a macaron.

Sacre Coeur

Pidgeon

Macaron Selfie

After that we went home.  We keep eating huge lunches and then not eating dinner.  Saves money but we are missing out on so many French meals.

The next morning, we were up and out early.  Leaving Paris for Lyon via train.

Train station for trains leaving the city.

Beautiful countryside view from the train

We only had a few hours in Lyon.   We could sight see or eat.  Alisma had heard Lyon was a major food zone in France so we decided to go for the gastronomical experience.  We found a restaurant called Jullien's and sat on the patio because the inside looked way to fancy for us.  I ordered the menu de jour again (never a bad decision).  They were of the entre (starter) so they subbed in 'sardines'.  Ahh, the French, the land of understatement.  I got a sardine can filled with sardine salad and some toasted bagette.  It was huge and so good.

Entre

Then the main course.  I had lamb with Butternut squash.  Alisma had one of her very rare non-vegetarian meals, chicken with green beans.

Look how glossy that gravy looks.  

Then dessert.  They were out of the lemon pistachio tart that was supposed to come with the menu so I got cream chaux (? sounds like shoe).  Basically two mini eclairs.  One with vanilla whipped cream and the other stuffed with custard with burnt sugar on top.  And just to make it even more unreasonably too much after a full meal, they added a scoop of rich ice cream as 'garnish'.  And Alisma got rich chocolate mousse.

dessert

After lunch, it was time to pick up our first rental car.  I'm not sure how neither of us thought that rush hour might be a bad time to learn French road rules and re-learn how to drive a standard in the middle of a large French city, but neither of us did.  We got a cute little Volkswagen Polo.  It is pretty easy to drive (once I got used to the stick) and has a navigation system.  Alisma has named the main 'center console' map system Eugenie and I have named the steering wheel directional system Ettienne (is that even a name?).

First order to business, get out of the parking lot.  Done, but it did involve a full circumnavigation of the block to get in the correct lane.  Within minutes, we were coming up on a round-about.  Again, some expressions really have no meaning in our language until they do.  White-knuckle is an example.  There may have been some light screaming but we got spat out at the right spot.  Alisma was navigating (along with Eugenie and Ettienne, who were all giving their opinion at the same time) so we made it out of the city with only a few honks and one fist wave.  Go team!

We are all going to die

Eugenie

Passing a truck in a tunnel like a boss

Highways, country roads, round-abouts, tunnels, toll boths (entering and exiting), passing lanes, completely random and incomprehensible speed limits, we did them all and made it safely to our destination of Arcolod Hotel in Doussard of the Haute-Savoie region of France.  Whew.

I am now going to bed to try to digest some cheese.  I feel like one of those snakes who has just eaten a baby hippo.