Caught Red Handed

Today is market day in Lyon.  There are several markets and they're all set up on either side of the Rhone River that runs through Lyon.

The first market we went to, which just so happened to be the closest to our hotel, was the jewelry market.  Here I found a fun grey necklace that is like a lariat but not.  My one souvenir for this trip.  The lady that was selling the necklaces was very nice.  And the necklaces were made by here daughter who is very sick.

At the book market, there were lots of old and new books.  Unexpectedly among the masses of books, I found one that was called "Ou Ben Laden?".  Basically a "Where's Wally?" book, but it was replaced with trying to find Bin Laden in different cities around the world.  He had 4 books available for purchase and we each ended up taking one each.  It was too funny not too.

The last market we looked at was the food market, which sold all sorts of fresh veggies.  Everything looked so fresh and colourful.  Randomly amongst all the veg stalls, there was also someone displaying a couple of baby pigs and baby goats; I guess I should really say piglets and kids.  They were so cute.  I thought they were up for sale to begin with, but in actual fact the owners were selling sweets to raise money for their vaccines.  Very random.

After indulging ourselves with Lyonnaise food, we then got back on the road to go to Saint-Laurent, which is near Avignon.  On the road we stopped halfway to visit a winery, Cave de Tain.  Here I got to broaden my wine knowledge by tasting those from the Rhone Valley and I actually found a few that I liked.  Either that or my wine taste buds are evolving over this trip.

At the end of the wine tasting, we decided to take a quick lunch of cheese and bread from the boot of our car; sustenance for me to soak up the wine from the tasting.  For Mer and Ruth. it was to fill up their rumbling tummies and to finish off the wine that we had in the car.  We are all so classy, I know.

Anyway, Mer was enjoying her continental lunch and was washing it down with a swig of wine from the bottle, when a herd of people came round the corner and caught her red handed.  To make things worse, one of the ladies that was in the group said to her in French - "I saw you, you know!"  I think Mer was wishing the ground would open up and swallow her right there and then.

To finish our visit, we decided to go up the hill to visit the chateau and to take some nice pictures of the surrounding vineyards, olive tree orchards and the beautiful scenery that is the Rhone Valley.  It was very pretty and beautiful, even during the  torrential rain that hit us for 5 mins whilst we were viewing the scenery.

We made it to Saint Laurent early evening.  We were shown around the hotel and then to our rooms.  The hotel was very pretty.  Our rooms too, although the layout was a little odd.  In particular, the main bedroom was in the same open space as the bathroom and there was also no shower curtain.  A sure thing that we were all about to get to know each other a lot better than what any of us had anticipated.

After checking in, we headed to Avignon for some much needed dinner.  A quaint place within the confines of the ramparts of the city and in front of the Palais du Pape.  A nice way to end our busy day.