After leaving Nice, our destination was Lyon. However, I read that the end of June/beginning of July was
the best time to see the lavender fields in Provence. How could we pass up this perfect timing??? So, I visited some websites and message boards to find the best route to see the best fields. I found someone who had written out detailed driving directions that would take us by a lot of fields, a few castles, some impressive private homes and vineyards, etc. It sounded perfect, and it only added about 2 hours to our total drive time to take this detour through the countryside of Provence.
We left Nice, and the weather (although hot) looked to be perfect for a drive through Provence and to take pictures of the lavender fields. About an hour and half outside of Nice, we stopped for lunch and then started following the directions for the "lavender field route." It started out great. The directions were fairly clear and we saw some beautiful landscapes dotted with lavender fields. The landscape was nothing like I imagined. From the postcards, I thought it would be rolling hills with lavender as far as the eye could see. Instead, we were driving through a very mountainous area, on very narrow, very curvy roads.
example of how narrow the roads were!
Every so often, we would turn a curve and there would be a magnificent view over the valley below and the mountains in the distance. Our goal for this detour was to see, as the writer of the route claimed, "The Perfect Lavender Field." She said the color started out lavender, changing to a deep purple, then became blue, and then further on in the field, the lavender blooms became an even deeper blue color. In her defense, she warned that the fields change from year to year, and occasionally are plowed and turned to wheat fields, or are replanted with baby lavender plants.
When we arrived at "The Perfect Lavender Field," it appeared that it too had been turned into a wheat field. There was a lavender field close by that was pretty, but didn't seem to be well cared for (lots of weeds). And by this point, Matthew had put Lyon into the GPS and realized that our timing was very off, so we had about 5 minutes to take pictures before we needed to be back in the car and heading to Lyon (in time to make our dinner reservation with Chris and Sophie). Margo and I practically ran to the lavender field to start taking pictures.
Taking time to stop and smell the lavender.
So, after taking this sweet picture of Steve and Margo...
I asked them to kiss for another picture, Steve instead tried to lick Margo, Margo shoved him, and it resulted in probably my favorite picture of the entire trip...
So, back in the car we go. The GPS showed us arriving in Lyon 30 minutes after our dinner reservation (and that was not including checking into the hotel, parking the car, and walking to the restaurant)! The timing was completely different from what I had seen when researching this little side trip on Google maps. We start driving, and I decided to see if I could re-route the GPS to hopefully take some time off. This only resulted in us driving in circles. We were in the middle of nowhere, and the closest highway was showing on the GPS at over an hour away. Once again, Steve and Margo were troopers- just marveling at how gorgeous the countryside was (even though Margo was starting to get a little carsick thanks to all the switchbacks). Matthew was being a very gracious chauffeur, but it was obvious this would be my one and only drive through Provence.
Although at times I didn't think it would ever happen, eventually we did make it back to the highway. And I have never been so happy to see a highway in my life! And of course, as soon as we got onto the highway we started passing completely gorgeous lavender fields... bordered by beautiful fields of sunflowers. We could have saved all that time, and literally taken a 5 minute detour off any number of the highway exits and seen incredible lavender and sunflower fields! Oh well, it was an adventure.
Now, on to Lyon! Once we got on the highway, the GPS immediately took off 30 minutes of the ETA. We called Sophie and she was able to move back our reservation 30 minutes. We still had less than 10 minutes at the hotel to freshen up and head out to dinner. We met my cousins- Chris and Sophie, Sophie's husband- Yan, and a friend of Sophie's for dinner. The restaurant had an amazing view over the city of Lyon.
The food was delicious, and Steve, Matthew,
and Margo all tried Chris' steak tartare (think hamburger patty,
before you put it on the grill... and sometimes they even throw a raw egg on top).
We tried to take a group photo.
Attempt #1
Attempt #2 (another waiter thought it would be hilarious to stick his head in the shot)
After dinner, we continued up La Croix-Rousse hill to one of Yan's favorite places to sit outside and have a drink, only to find it closed. So, back down the hill we went. Yan is a great tour guide and was giving us a Lyon history lesson and took us down the hill by way of some
traboules (covered passageways that were used by the silk workers to get the silk from the factories on the hill to the river without it getting wet).
traboule staircase
We ended up at the Irish pub where Elodie had thrown Chris' surprise birthday party in May. After one round, I decided that my, once again, ridiculously swollen ankles needed to be elevated and iced. Yan and Matthew walked me back to the hotel, and then re-joined Chris, Sophie, Steve, and Margo.
Saturday morning, we decided to take advantage of the 'Soldes' and did a little shopping. I found a few maternity stores, and had some luck at one in particular. This was one of the first times I had dared go into one of the smaller clothing stores in France. I had heard that the sales clerks will be very involved in your shopping experience, will want to see everything you are trying on, and will be brutally honest with how you look. I never thought my self-esteem could handle this, and had avoided stores like these for that reason. Clermont doesn't have a lot of maternity clothing stores, so I sucked it up, left the others shopping at a different store and went in. There was only one woman working, and at first was busy with other shoppers (which was fine by me!). When I was ready to try on, things changed. She came over to me, started speaking very fast in French, and before I knew it, she was pulling down my shirt and asking me about my bra (I am assuming she was asking if I had a good, supportive maternity bra...and not just coming on to me...). She shook her head, put me in a dressing room, only to return a few minutes later, open the curtain (as I am starting to change), unhooked my bra, proceed to take my bra off and put me in another one! I can't even imagine what my faced looked like. She would then return every 5 or so minutes and pull open the curtain again to see what I was trying on. She might have been giving me her opinion, but I couldn't understand her, and I was so stressed out (and sweating) at having gone to 2nd base with a French clothing sales clerk, and trying to make sure that I was changing fast enough that I was decently covered before the next time she yanked open the curtain... that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I actually found some cute shirts, a pair of pants, and thank goodness I liked the bra she put me in (because as soon as I was in it, she seemed to be happy with her choice and had taken my bra, and said something that I was assuming meant she would keep it at the register for me so I could wear the new one home). I was relieved to leave the store and rejoin the others!
The only group photo we had taken throughout the entire trip!
Much too quickly, it was time to take Steve and Margo to the train station so they could spend their last day and half in Paris. It was a perfect trip, but it was very sad to say goodbye.
Thank you Steve and Margo for coming to visit us! We love you guys!!!
