PICTURES CAN BE DECEIVING

Lunch in France at les lyonnais Bouchon Saint-Antoine
Notre-Dame de Fourviere basilica-Lyon France
on Fourviere Hill overlooks the city built 1872

Views from our hotel balcony-Lyon France
John and new waiter at restaurant in Lyon, France

He was so nervous, he dropped the adding machine tape from his

machine and it unrolled all over the place. I held it in place so he could roll

it back up into the machine.He was very embarrassed He was very sweet.

Our hotel in Lyon France, according to the internet, looked fantastic. The reviews were good and It showed big spacious nice rooms and had choice of bathroom with tub or shower. I checked the reviews and they were all good. Picture shows a big white hotel that stands alone with a big sign on top with the name on it . mmmmmmmmm! It took us 2 hours to finally find it. "Miss Gips" kept telling us "you have reached your destination" but we could not find it anywhere. We were tired and frustrated. It was 7 pm and all the shops had closed but still lots of people walking around. France is all about nightlife. We finally found a parking place and got out to walk and try to find it. I saw a very nice looking lady locking her shop and went over and asked if she spoke english. I was afraid to walk very far from the car because we might never find it again. The lady was very nice and helpful and walked us down the street to show us where it should be. It was on a pedestrian street 2 blocks away on those narrow little streets (like the one daddy tried to drive on in another town). The hotel was just one of many tall old buildings that seemed to all look alike. The name was just above the door. We went in and the girl at front desk was very nice and told us we could park 2 blocks away at a parking garage that was also an oil station. He would give hotel guests a cut rate. We walked 2 blocks to park the car there and the guy told us it would be 10 euro. Problemo-once we put the car in there it stayed until the next day. He told us to leave car unlocked and key inside. NO WAY JOSEA! We didnt feel too good about that but oh well. We got our suitcase and treched back to the hotel. The elevator sounded awful like that was the last time it was going to move. Well, once I tried to go up on it and it was stuck on 3rd floor and the boy works there ran up 3 flights of stairs to get it unstuck. He came running back down and it was still stuck. He went in the storage room and turned it off then came back and said to try it. OK. It worked so I got on. It made a terrible noise again and I thought I was going to be stuck in that little 2 man elevator all night. It made it but I started using the stairs. When we got into the room it was about the size of my bedroom at mothers house. The little back bedroom. UH! We stood there and laughed. I opened the door to the balcony and was afraid to step outside because I was afraid it would crumble and fall. I did though, so I could smoke. It was a very clean room and smelled good. I had read review of some that smelled like pee. I have since learned that rooms in Europe are relatively small. The people were nice there at the desk and very helpful. They told us about a nice restaurant to eat at. Our view was not real good but it was ok. It was noisy down the streets all night till very early morning. Remember this is France and the nightlife is-------. We decided to stay and it was very nice. They served a very nice breakfast the next morning. And, there was quite a few people staying there. (Wonder if they saw the same picture on internet that I did).The guy at the parking garage , the next morning, told us it was 13 euro (not 10) . That happened to us a lot in France. Well, we tried to leave and there was a huge running marathon going on. The police had all the streets on that side of the river blocked. Great. "Miss Gips" was trying to navigate us out of there and could'nt because of the marathon. We ended up walking up and down the river and found out they have market day on the river on Sunday. It was fun. They were selling everything from flowers, meat, flowers, veggies and fruits. There were some amazing buildings to see, such as the Notre-Dame de Fourviere basilica on top of Fourviere hill, overlooking the city. We had a terrible time finding our way out of that town and was later leaving than we planned in order to get to Milano, Italy. Now that was another amazing experience. ITALY. The one country I have wanted to go to ALL MY LIFE.