Where in the world is Val?

12 August, 2010 I only spent two nights in Lyon, which was definitely not enough time.  Lyon is the third largest city in France, and there was a lot more I would have liked to see!  It's definitely on my list of places to visit again the next time I'm in France. There are a number of must-see sights on Fourvière hill, but I decided to save them for my last day so that I could spend the morning sightseeing without having to subsequently climb all the way back up the huge hill to my hostel.  After a light (and free!) breakfast of tartines (bread, butter, and jams) and café from the hostel, and after finishing packing up my new duffel and bidding the old one adieu, I set out to enjoy my last few hours in the city. The tourist maps handed out in Lyon had a unique feature I didn't see anywhere else: they marked the spots where you could find the best views overlooking the city.  With the two enormous hills to the West and North of the city, there were many incred...

11 August 2010 My second day in Lyon couldn't have started any better than breakfast at the hostel on the terrace overlooking the city: It was cool and breezy, and the sun was just beginning to come over the horizon - what a stunning morning. Unfortunately, after my six-course incredible meal the night before, I was feeling a little sick to my stomach.  I set out to explore a little more of the city and find a market on Boulevard de la Croix Rousse to pick up some fresh fruit.  When I began walking towards the market, I hadn't realized there was another huge hill to climb going in this direction as well.  But Lyon is a beautiful city, and there was plenty to see on my way up: Fontaine Bartholdi, Place des Terreaux In addition to being home to a market, the Croix Rousse district is also home to some of Lyon's most famous hidden landmarks, the traboules: Traboules are passageways that cut through buildings.  However, unlike the galeries in Paris that ar...

10 August, 2010 The morning and early afternoon of August 10 weren't my most exciting - I finished packing, checked out of my hostel in Aix, then took a city bus to the bus station, and then a navette, or shuttle, essentially, to the Aix TGV train station.  I wasn't sure how long the trips would take, especially with my shoddy luggage repair job, so I left plenty of time and ended up getting to the train station a few hours before my train to Lyon departed, but I would definitely prefer to be way early than to worry if I would arrive on time.  The train ride itself was a couple of hours long and pretty uneventful. When I was planning this trip, Lyon was another must-see city.  It is considered by many to be the "gastronomic capitol of France;" however, I think that is in large part due to being home to restaurants of such renowned chefs as Paul Bocuse .  And while I'm sure his restaurant is outstanding, with prix-fixe menus between 135-220€, per person... tha...

I arrived in Aix-en-Provence the evening of August 7.  Justine and I had taken the train together from Avignon with a stopover in Marseille; however, our first train was delayed about an hour and a half, so we didn't get in to Aix until pretty late.  We then had a mile-long hike to the hostel.  On our way there, just before the last hill, the wheel on my duffel broke - it basically ripped in half from overuse.  So lame!  I was able to drag it along the rest of the way to the hostel, but this was a serious issue as I had over a month left to go of moving every 2-3 days to a new location.  If you are planning a trip with luggage that will spend a lot of time rolling over cobblestones... Make sure you've got extra wheels. Note the wheel on the left! Though the hostel was in a rather inconvenient location pretty far out of town, it did offer a view of the quintessential landmark of the Aix countryside: Mont Sainte-Victoire I got super excited when I ...