Scandinavian Traveller: Likki the Trimmed Beaver - Chapter Seven

Now that I've caught up on laundry, postcards, and sorting all the pictures I've took in my express-visit to France (about 140) I can write.

I'm getting to old for this. Really.  They say travels keep you young, but I think they also make you realize you're no longer young!

Getting there was long.  We (that is Likki and myself) went from Bodø to Oslo (Norway), then Oslo to Frankfurt (Germany).  We took off late from Frankfurt direction Lyon (France).

Between Bodø and Oslo

Landing in Frankfurt, Germany

When we arrived in Lyon, I was excited to meet this French lady, let's call her M, whom I've "met" online through a Postcrossing group on Bacefook. She was waiting for me with her son. We did the three kisses greet and drove off towards Lyon where we were to have a quick visit and dinner.

She had invited another member of the group to tag along.  It was nice to meet him as well.  We walked around the center of town.  It was warm in Lyon.  She had told me during the drive there, it was 33 degree.  Oh my, a far cry from the 8 degrees of Bodø when I left earlier that morning.

Place Bellecour, statut de Louis XIV

 
It was a very quick tour, saw a few milestones like Place Bellecour, the statue of St-Exupérie, the Notre-Dame de Fourvière Cathedrale, in the distance.  We ended up at Le Sud, brasserie of chef Bocuse (what they call a brasserie is really nothing like what we (as in QC) call brasserie).  We were seated by the terrace giving on a Place where there was a nice fountain and this beautiful tree of flowers.

For the first time in months, I had a dessert, and it was deeeeelicious.  It was simple, a gauffre, but man was it good!

As we left to head to her place, which was about 45-50 min out of town from Lyon, I was reminded what night looks like.  Everything was so green and we could even hear crickets!

Saturday morning, we got up early since we had about one hour drive to Grenoble where the Postcrossing meet was taking place.  The temperature was about 29 degrees.  I wore shorts for the first time this year, woohoo!!

View from M`s balcony

While we were getting ready, Likki went for a leap over the railing, from the second floor to roll in the grass (it's either that or she tried to commit suicide...). It was after all her first time seeing grass, green grass that is!  M had to go down and wake up her neighbor to get her back.

View of Likki from the balcony...

We were 18 people for this meet.  A nice bunch.  One girl was there from St-Petersburg, Russia and one from St-Pierre and Miquelon.  We walked around Grenoble a little, buying postcards, many postcards.   

Our stack of cards to be mailed

After our meet, we walked to a mail box for the traditional mail drop pictures.  Being the cute, trimmed beaver she is, Likki was supervising the whole thing.

Turns out that in France, the mailboxes don't have one slot but two.  One is for the department they're in and the other is for other departments and world.  I didn't see that nor did Likki as you can see.  Here she is about to drop cards in the wrong hole.

Mailing some of the cards

We were told the cards would (most likely) get to their destinations, eventually. Likki felt so bad she decided to go in and try to get them back... well, at least she gave it a try.

 

Once all five hundred cards were mailed, a few people left having to catch a train.  The rest of us kept walking around town.  Giving that it was a really nice, sunny day we ended up on a nice little terrace enjoying a cold drink and getting to know each others a little more.  By 5 o'clock it was time to call it a day as far as the meeting went.  We said our goodbyes and made our way back to M's place.

That evening M offered to take us to Ardèche for a nice dinner.  We made our way there, and had a delicious dinner on the Rhône's Shores.  It was truly beautiful with all those vineyards on the hills.

by the water in Ardèche facing Rhônes' vineyards

Not only was the location gorgeous, the salad I had was really yummy and then came dessert...

Profiterole, with Chantilly cream and Valrhona chocolate

It was really, really good...  On the way back to M's place we made a few stops along the way, for me to take a few pictures, like at the Valrhona factory; good thing it was late and it was close.

A fountain on a little place along the way...

Sunday morning M and I got up real early, and she drove me back to Lyon's airport.  This time we had to go through Munich and because we had to get our luggage and go through custom in Oslo.  My bag took so long to get to the carrousel that we missed our last flight to Bodø.  We had to wait an extra three hours in the airport before making a connecting flight to Bodø.  Oh the joys of traveling!

Overall, despite being super quick, it was a great time in France.  I would want to go back, and take more time to visit those old castles, vineyards and the new friends I've made...