Three Ferries to Greece or Two Innocents Abroad In A Honda Accord

Sunday 12th November 2006

We left Troyes after breakfast in cloudy and rainy conditions.  Heading back onto the A26 motorwaty we headed towards Lyon with the intention of staying at the Villages Hotel outside Lyon near the airport.  The motorway was fairly clear with occasional road works bur the landscape was flat and uninteresting and the road surface was poor in many places.  we decided to stop off at Beaune for lunch and after stopping off for a coffee at an Aire we arrived around midday.  Beaune is famous for being both an excellent wine village but also for the Hospice de Beaune or the "Hôtel-Dieu" which was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, the Chancellor to Duke Philip the ruler of Burgundy.

We drove around the town and then found a small side street to park and walked into the medieval centre.  The centre of Beaune is lovely with old stone buildings but no wooden framed buildings as in Troyes.  There were loads of wine merchants in the centre selling all of the famous wines of the Burgundy region.  Sadly, even as young as they were the price per bottle was astronomic so we found a small wine merchants and bought a bottle of Haute Côtes de Beaune along with a lovely wine decanter and a waiters friend.  We found a small bistro called the "Le Parisseine" where we had Boeuf Bourgignon and a half bottle of Haute Côtes de Beaune for lunch.  After lunch we visited the Hospice and took some photographs in the drizzle.

We had a similar problem leaving Beaune as we did leaving Troyes in that they are both very well signposted going in, but the motorways are poorly signposted going out.  Eventually arriving back on the motorway we took the road to Lyons and when the outskirts of Lyon came into view we were taken aback by the sheer size and number of tower blocks and houses as we drove in.  The motorway goes into the ring road around Lyon as the A6 then appears to change into local roads with no clear signpost to Chamberey, where we would be heading towards next.  We went into a tunnel and when we came out on the other side we appeared to be on the A7 heading towards Marseille!!  Marseille may be a lovely place but heading there would not get us to Greece so we took a short time to have a panic attack and then turned on to the A7 to paris which was going back in the direction we had just come from, but on a different road!

Then as if by magic a sign appeared for the A43 to Chamberey and we were then heading out of Lyon on the right road in the direction of the Villages Hotel.  Unfortunately we didn't see a turn-off for the N346 to St. Bonnet de Mure where the hotel was located and the next thing we knew we had left Lyon behind and Chamberey was 77km ahead.  Decision time:  should we head for Chamberey and try to find a hotel there?  We decided yes and headed along the motorway.

A short distance further on we saw signs for an Aire with a bed sign so we pulled off the road at "Aire de L'isle d'Abeau" where we found an Accor Ibis 2** hotel for 55 euro per night for a double room and 14 euro for breakfast.  The car was stored safely in a caged compound with electronic sliding doors.  The room was much bigger than the Village Hotel with ensuite shower and toilet.  We ate in the motorway service station across the way but the food was not great as it was late in the day and was not as fresh as we would have liked.  We had a drink then went to bed anticipating the crossing into Italy tomorrow.