Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

The main entrance.

Some of the best "flats", you could rent are that ships. Some even have gardens on board.

A pakeha cleaning the sidewalk in front of the Maori Cafe.

Lyon´s "old town" can get pretty crowded over the day. But in early morning... and of course, it offers an "Irish Pub", which is still closed at this time.

They are really loud! And it´s not only for the tourists. It´s for the fun as well.

Comfortable benches on the banks of the Rhone.

View from my room at nighttime. A strange name for a parking garage. But actually the whole name was TITANIC. What still is a strange name. Next day I took another look..

The complexity of the old structure is visible. Every century did its own addon.

View from my room in Lyon. A very strange name for a parking garage. The whole name is TITANIC. Only the first three letters were visible from the window. Still is a strange name. In front of the building parked the most famous french car ever. In exactly the right colour. Light blue.

The Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m / 12,605 ft) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif. It can can be directly accessed by cable car from Chamonix. It receives half a million visits a year.

... Rhone on the right - and the "feared" Mt. Tournier on the horizon. The first "real" mountain. Only 900m high! The trail, descending to the valley floor was steep and very slippery... Stayed in "Le Clos des Capucins" that night.

...pleasant walking conditions that day...

....the rain continued. The track was muddy....(.....) was from Switzerland, born in Rome, suffering from rain, mud and the rest of it. He had walked since hours and we were both heading to Chaumont. At least another 6 hours away... We met again that evening... and some weeks later near Espalion. We had dinner together in Conques. He reached Santiago - and sent me a postcard.

..met an arguing german couple, when I entered. Strange vibrations. Walked upstairs. 12 matrasses in that room. More matrasses could be reached via a wooden ladder...

When Guillaume Adhemar, bishop of Tricastin residing in nearby Saint Paul Trois Châteaux, returned home from two-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he commissioned this hexagonal chapel. It was erected, following the blueprint of the "Holy Sepulchre" in Jerusalem, in 1508. A nice souvenir.

When Guillaume Adhemar, bishop of Tricastin residing in nearby Saint Paul Trois Châteaux, returned home from two-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he commissioned this hexagonal chapel. It was erected, following the blueprint of the "Holy Sepulchre" in Jerusalem, in 1508. A nice souvenir.

When Guillaume Adhemar, bishop of Tricastin residing in nearby Saint Paul Trois Châteaux, returned home from two-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he commissioned this hexagonal chapel. It was erected, following the blueprint of the "Holy Sepulchre" in Jerusalem, in 1508. A nice souvenir! Unfortunately the blue door was locked.

The oldest part of the parish church is a funerary tower (Tour Funéraire), seen left. It is difficult to date the tower, as the tower got obviously renovated and reconstructed before the Romanesque church was added within the 12th century. Most scholars date the tower to the early 11th century, but archaeologists talk about a building here existing already within the 4th/5th century. Anyway - here was the tomb of Saint Restitut, patron saint for people having poor eyesight and even Louis XI (aka "Louis the Prudent", "Universal Spider") once came on pilgrimage Saint-Restitut. The legend tells, that in his younger days Saint Restitut´s name was Sidonius. He was blind... John 9:1-7 "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”. So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." The name was changed to Restitutus and became a disciple of Jesus. He left the Holy Land together with the Thee Marys, Lazaraus et al. on the boat with "neither sail nor rudder." They reached Saintes Maries de la Mer, where the group split. Restitutus walked up the valley of the Rhone to become the first bishop of Tricastin. He resided in St-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - and got buried here. A frieze runs all around the tower.