En Route to Lyon we stopped at one of France’s Les Plus Beaux Villages. France The site is dropped from the list if it doesn’t comply w/ strict rules. La Garde-Adhemar is a restored medieval hill town overlooking the Rhone Valley. Wonderful restoration of the homes with great views of the valley and nuclear power plant that provided the jobs to attract the inhabitants.

– charming herb garden.

Liked Lyon more than we expected to enjoy an industrial city. It’s on the confluence of 2 rivers.

Lyon’s successfully merged old and new, has 2 Roman amphitheaters, a medieval cathedral, wonderful renaissance quarters and a very contemporary downtown with a Pencil building and an Eraser building.

This huge flat wall in a sketchy area has been transformed by a mural that is totally convincingly “real”. We spent a long time looking at it, especially the balconies at the top…still can’t believe they’re flat nor that the vegetation’s only paint.

And a girl playing with a dog.

It’s a human scale city w/ great public transportation – we took a tram, a funicular and even a vaparetto brought from Venice.

A brioche studded with red crushed almonds is a specialty everywhere, and the story we heard is that early on the red dye was from crushed bugs…supposedly today they use more conventional food coloring.

And you can get it delivered…