Day8 - Merci Isle'd Abeau, Lyon!!!

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The whole of last week has been an inexplicable twist. Too many changes, away from home and family for a long time. With all the tensions going on in the world, a human just doesn't feel safe anymore even though we are amongst our own kind. However, amidst all the quiet and calm of the bone chilling, windy town of Isle'd Abeau there lurks an eerie feeling when you step out for a walk or a ride on the bicycle as you you hardly find any. Very few cyclists in this part of France compared to the picture on my mind !!! The moment I the heard the news of the cap on the mileage on the use of the hotel's bicycle, I was truly dejected. My mind started to battle considering the possible options. Here were some I had on mind ::

1. Pre-pone the return to Bangalore so I could leave on Saturday morning. ( All my team members had left on Friday evening ;-) ).

2. A Ski resort in Grenoble. Fabulous!!! But it was 100 kms away and would easily take about 3 hours by bus due to terrain as told to me by the trainer who stays in Grenoble. About 6 hours of travel by bus would've been a new experience but not worth the time considering "prepaid" nature of the number of hours I have at my disposal...!! No suitable attire for skiing, unsure about the Ski resort's working hours and their terms and conditions, going solo for skiing for the first time and there would be hassles if something went wrong and no backup. So this option went out the window due to the factors which I just poured out. I'm sorry you had to hear the rant in my head but thats the way it happened... !!

3. Take a TGV to Paris and visit Eiffel Tower and travel back the same evening. However this was the expensive affair as the ticket one way costs about 5k INR and just under 3 hrs to cover about 500 kms. Again the travel factor and the precious hours counted. More so, I didn't want to keep my schedule tight to take the bus/train or any other mode in the nick of time when I don't know to complete a sentence in French. Rummaging for help is the last thing I want to do in the cold weather in the dark.

4. Visit Lyon by train (TER) and explore. Simple and short.

I'm happy in a way that the hotel denied permission to cycle beyond 10 kms because of many reasons. Firstly I got to travel in a train in Europe and experience how the reservation system works. Secondly I got to experience the whole new world of the underground Metro. Even the metro underground trains reach   good speeds of i think about 80kph though the stations are just a few kms apart. So here goes the account of today's voyage.

As per the time table provided to me by the trainer I was supposed to take any train between 7-8am and I missed all of them. What a great start !! I then went to the ticket machine and navigated my way but it simply wouldn't accept the world money card offered by my company. So I went to the ticketing counter and I could see a train (8:57am) pull in to the station and he asked me to take this train to go to Gare De Lyon Perrache. I tried to cross the over-bridge to reach the other side of the platform but the train left even before I could reach the top of the bridge. So I got back and took the ticket for the next train which was scheduled for 9:42am. An hour's wait and what was I to do with just a couple of other folks on this station? I walked about the platform for a few times and that killed about 20 mins and I soon heard the level crossing's familiar alarm ( all automated here) and I saw a train approaching and no sound only lights. My camera skills kicked in and VOILA it turned out to be a TGV. One of my dreams to travel on one. But I think I'm happy having just looked at one. There's a yellow line on platform and you should stay behind it if you don't want to get blown away off the platform. Thought this TGV wasn't on full speed it still was cruising a little over 150kph. A fashion parade of the trains and TGV would be one of the strong contenders :-). As a child I remember seeing this train in Childcraft (Similar to encyclopedia) and was just amazed by the very looks of it on paper.

A TGV parked at Gare de Lyon Perrache

Soon I saw another ter train heading to grenoble and a few more followed which I managed to capture on my All-in-one box, ( Nokia X6). Great phone with which I've managed to use the front 3G camera as a webcam to talk to my family, capture the pics with stunning clarity/color definition, used GPS when I got lost once and being a music phone it does its task fantabulously. I boarded my train which arrived exactly on time and I was at Lyon De Perrache station in half hour. I soon found my way out through a maze of escalators and levels and soon the first thing on sight was the bicycle stand. I wanted to stroll for a while before I took one so I set out exploring Lyon on Foot. How do I know which way to go? If you look a the map of the Station where I got off the train it would resemble a tiny peninsula. So I headed out to the river and it was a beautiful sight. I kept walking for about 2 hours and soon was confused as to how to get to the only place I had on mind "Saint Basillica de Notre-Dame Fourvier. A gentleman who was out for the morning walk was kind enough to help me get my bearings right and also mentioned that I could use the Metro which would be faster..!! It turned out that I was at the other end of the peninsula and had to trace back. But this time I went underground where I met a couple who were laughing at the ticketing machine just because it rejected the coins when they tried to obtain a ticket. With their help I managed to get a daily pass and also learnt how to use it. At the gate into a metro station there is a machine where you'll have to insert the ticket on the front like a credit card and it pops out from the top of the block and the gate opens. Phew..!! I'm very glad that I was able to get the metro plan of Lyon using which I could find my way without hassles. The only trouble I had was when I had to switch to the last metro station at Fourviere to reach the summit of Notre-Dame. Another gentleman on the metro helped me get to the correct path. I reached the summit by noon and captured some pics and here are some ::

With the intent of taking the bicycle, I tried to pick one at a few stations but it simply would accept the debit card so I dropped the idea of using the bicycle as I couldn't ask anyone else to pay because ::

1. There is a 150Euro security deposit which will be credited back to the bank once the bicycle is returned (minus the usage charges). 

2. There is no way to pay by cash !! (Probably due to point 1). 

There are shopping avenues on either side of the river on roads that run parallel to the river. I ended up buying some assorted chocolates and took some more photographs before disappearing underground for the Metro station which is right behind the Giant Wheel, at Bellecour.  I'm happy that I didn't end up wasting any precious time by taking any Metro in the wrong direction :-). I find myself putting smileys at the end of every statement as I suffer with ESUS (Excessive smiley usage syndrome. I did certainly see a lot of lovebirds in Lyon (if you know what I mean ;-). 

I decided to head back by 3 as I had to walk about 2.5kms from the Railway station La Verpelliere to my hotel. I could take a cab but you "See" the world by either foot or a bicycle and you'd notice that this gets reciprocated most of the times. Took the return train at 15:49 and reached the Verpelliere station by 16:19 and soon walked back to my hotel. There weren't any winds but the temperature drop at some places due to trees and I could feel the sting on my nose and the top of my ears. So I pulled up the Buff that I had over my neck to cover my face. 

The routine followed, logon to facebook/gtalk/gmail/skype so anyone could 'like' and 'comment' on my adventure. Spoke to my brother who, like a Radio jockey played the song "Phir se ud chala" from the bollywood movie Rockstar(2011). It was so refreshing to hear that just as I opened the windows of my hotel room. Sublime..!!! MTR masala rice, a pack of Lays chips n Coke.. !!! Life of a food conscious, vegan, Indian tourist in Europe!!  There were a lot of ready to eat stuff in the supermarket that I had visited earlier this week but I would have lost my senses by the time I could figure out which one I could eat. FOOD :: This has to be the one topic where I could rant forever. But, I've been happy with the change in the cuisine and with just cheese, pancakes and boiled vegetables (Legumes) I feel lighter and the tummy does have to do overtime. Checked out of the Hotel at 3AM and had a quick chat with Rafeeq/Rafiq (receptionist) about the people and culture. Took the cab " A 2010 Honda Accord and the speeds on the expressway 140kph. 20 kms covered in 15 mins. He talked about how he felt good while staying at London for about 6 months and I spoke about my experience with this Euro tour  and how I felt exploring LyonGot to experience a lot of firsts on this trip. I update this blog at the St.Exupery airport - Lyon, as I await my flight Air France 7651 to Paris and a connecting flight to Bangalore on AF192 (an airbus 340). A travel to future and a total of  ~12hrs of flight travel. I didn't feel any jet lag going back in time but I think I might experience jet lag with this return journey. ~5000 miles of flight lay ahead and I listen to the song  "Phir se ud chala" over and over again. What a beautiful feeling !!!

As the sun sets on this tour, I bid adieu to Villefontaine, Isle'd Abeau. A wonderful, superb, fantabulous memorable one !!!