Bye Bye Viking

Sunday saw the end of our cruise. The last two evening meals honoured the staff. First the Captains dinner and the last night the Chef's dinner. Both were, of course superb. We were sorry to leave some of the people we befriended on the cruise including Frank and Laura (pictured below). We broke bread with them almost every night and will miss sharing time with them but do wish them Bon voyage as they board the next leg of the France voyage on Viking.
We departed the boat in Chalon sur Saône. It was cold (maybe up to 4 celcius), overcast, raining,grey. Very dismal weather and we stayed in a very dismal hotel and ate very dismal meals in comparison to the ships meals but one bright spot was being seated in a restaurant for lunch right beside one of our Viking passengers, the man from Cuba and his wife from Thailand (sorry, am a bit embarrassed I don't know their names) but we had a great chat over lunch.
The next morning we picked up our car (we had to order the taxi to the rental office the day before-no hailing cabs in Chalon sur Saône ) and headed north to Champagne. We visited the Huge outlet mall here and believe it or not bought nothing but kir cassis, a refreshment we discovered on the cruise. So tonight we are exploring routes to take tomorrow which will wind us through champagne country and will tour some local wineries and pick up a bottle or two of bubbly to sip in the evening. Oh yeah, the weather has greatly improved as has our spirits!

From Viking Daily

'The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page'
John Feltham (1799)
English Enchiridion

For Merv

No words necessary

Lyon

The second largest city in France. Was pleased to see a rooster on the Pont l'Universite ... I assume it means good luck here as it does in Portugal. Visited the basilica on the hill erected to honour the Virgin Mary who stands high on top. It is recently refurbished and is stunningly beautiful. While up that high one gets an excellent view of the city below. Lyon is where the Rhône River and Saône River 'marry'. The Rhône is known as the man, strong, big and wild while the Saône is the woman, smaller, graceful and gentle. The buildings bordering the Rhône are mostly white while those bordering the Saône are pastel coloured. A wonderful city with much to offer. I didn't even skim the surface here.

Vienne

The oldest town in France is Vienne. Legend says that the founder was a descendent of Hercules. Years later it was ruled by Pontius Pilate. Now there's a few names you may recognize but don't hear every day. We opted to stroll around the town ourselves this day, visited the church, the Roman theatre and temple of Augustus and Livia, then stopped for an espresso at a local café. As you can see, it was yet another glorious day weather-wise

Wednesday

Awoke to another sunny warm day - 25 today. . We docked in Tournon. Across the river, is the wealthy catholic side - the town of Tain l'Hermitage, named after a hermit that lived on the mountain. This is a wine producing area of France, strictly controlled. Vineyards are not watered. Their roots grow deep eliminating the need for watering. And, as can be seen in the photo below, each vineyard proudly displays its name on the side of the mountain. As well the colours of lavender blue and yellow, which by the way are the colours of Provence (and we are no longer in Provence) are colours that keep away the mosquitoes, so I thought it wise to record this information and take it back to the Yukon.
After a visit to the Valrhona chocolate store (chocoholics will surely k ow that name),a small family art gallery and the Domain du Murinais winery, we returned to the boat for our afternoon cocktails and yet another exceptionally excellent dinner.

Photos

Found my photos. We pass through a number of locks on this river. This one, the Caderousse Lock, built between 1972 and 1975 has a height of about 30 feet.
It is so relaxing just watching the countryside pass by as we float along the river. Today at Tournon we will visit a winery, a chocolate boutique and an art gallery. Should be fun as we head into another warm sunny day.

Our Viking Cruise

Just pulling into Viviers. Had scallops with a saffron sauce, duck with garlic potatoes and chocolate mousse for dessert with as much local wine as we could drink. Most of the people on board are from the U S A and are about 10+  years older than us  ( or at least look that much older) but most are pretty mellow. There are no casinos, no nightly enyertainment. It is pretty laid back which is what we like and what most of the people are like. Tomorrow we are going on a winery tour. Am totally looking forward to that.  I'd show you a picture or two here but apparently blogger has changed and I cannot do it from my iPad. Hopefully it changes again soon so you can see what we are doing.  In the meantime just  know we are having fun!

Claire's Place

Claire, a lovely lady who runs this establishment and whom we met on our hopelessly lost introduction to Avignon and the island Bartalasse, always has a smile and lively conversation for us. We've dined here and on occasion sat for a cool one in early evening. This establishment has a great view of the city and bridge just across the river.

Les Halles

Market day today. We drove past the famous Les Halles yesterday on our way to the TGV station - don't even think of asking how we passed that on our way to TGV !! We wandered through aisles and aisles of fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, fish, spices ... Similar to St. Lawrence Market in Toronto but without the fresh peameal bacon sandwiches and with espresso bars. Unfortunately this is our last night before boarding the boat so purchasing food wasn't really on our agenda. Shopped a bit in the small shops that line the narrow twisted streets as we headed out of the walled city and dodged rain drops and battled the wind gusts to reach our auto.

While Whitehorse is in a snowstorm ...

Sorry Whitehorse, just had to add this photo. It is usually ME that is suffering through that weather!

Aix en Provence

Our first real foray outside if Avignon ... To Aix en Provence to visit our Yukon friend Brenda, who has been living there since mid December. Just take the toll road from home to there and park in the train station. Right!!! Easier said than done. But we persevered and hours later made it into the city. I thought it was a small town but there are over 100,000 people living there. Dear Brenda was waiting for us at our prearranged spot even though we were hours late. Our first stop was to use her facilities in her apartment ( apparently there are NO public facilities) and a cute apt it was, in old town. We shopped in the market, ate a wonderful lunch, toured around a bit then headed 'home'. Again, trying to find our way out of the maze taxed our sense of direction but once again, we made it back home. Other than the Aix en Provence busy busy and completely confusing road system we had a great visit with an old friend.

Avignon

Planned on driving south of Nimes today but, as we had no map and no destination in mind we decided we had better get our sh*¥# together before venturing out on to the auto-routes. So we parked our car under the Pont Edourd Daladier bridge and hoofed it into old town. We ended up spending the better part of the day in town. We are now proud owners of a Michelin map of Provence and are planning on meeting Brenda in Aix-en-Provence tomorrow.
In the mean time we walked on top of part of the wall that surrounds the city. It was built in the 14th century, when Avignon belonged to the papacy, not the French crown. It was built not only to keep out invaders, but the plague as well.
And finally I have to mention the famous Pont d'Avignon. Most school children know the song, "Sur le Pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse, l'on y danse ..." I had no idea of this particular little song, but almost know too much about it now. Avignon is famous for this partial bridge.
Hate to rub it in but had hot (30 degree) sunny weather again today. A d for dinner we ate at Claire's restaurant. Claire helped us find our gîtes the other day and we ate a good home cooked meal and had a fine chat with our new Avignon friend.

Avignon

After three days of travel (thank you aeroplan!) we are sitting on the terrace adjacent to our apartment in Avignon sipping cool ones in the 30 degree sunny weather. We did get lost travelling here - it is located on the island in the Rhône River rather than downtown and of course we ended up downtown with all the traffic and streets that do not go straight. But alas, that is all part of renting a car and getting to know an area. The two bedroom apartment (gite) is spacious with a living room, dining area, kitchen and bath including a clothes washer which will prove to come in handy before our cruise. The leaves are sprouting from the branches, the vineyards are in bloom, the birds are singing. What more can you ask for?

Web Cams

Some web cams to keep an eye on:

The Beaver Cam:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2013/04/10/live-castorcam-beavers-pollux.html?autoplay=true  (this one is actually from Quebec)

The Eagle Cam:  Still in the testing stage but will soon be up and running - the Yukon Electric site will give you the link:  http://www.yukonelectrical.com

The Swan Cam:  As return of the swans is always a sign of spring, Yukon Electric also has a swan cam set up.  The swans are merely dots on the camera but you can see how many there are:
http://www.yukonenergy.ca/community/multimedia/swancam/
Here is a link to Swan Haven located on Marsh Lake.  They even have a sound bite of swans honking (love to hear that as they fly overhead on their way north):  http://www.env.gov.yk.ca/animals-habitat/swanhaven.php and just a little more on swans :  http://www.env.gov.yk.ca/animals-habitat/CelebrationofSwans.php  (We really like our Swans in the Yukon!)

Book Club

Thank you to Elaine for hosting another successful book club meeting.  The above napkin sort of defines our club.

Some of the members gather (above) to begin to enjoy our usual type of feast for this occasion.  If nothing else it is a very good reason for all of us to get together to catch up on the latest in our lives (and community) and share good conversation and good laughs.

And, you can't beat our appies, always a highlight of Book Club.  

The Number 14

Thanks to Brooke, a group of us attended the Axis Theatre's The Number 14 at the Yukon Arts Centre last night.  It is only playing for a limited number of days, so we were lucky to attend.  Nancy's description of "clever" was a perfect way to depict the comings and goings of passengers on Bus Number 14.  What looked to be a multitude of actors was in reality played by only six in total.  They portrayed passengers from age six to 86; they sang; they danced; they talked; they did acrobatic manoeuvres; and best of all they made the audience laugh and laugh.  A thoroughly enjoyable evening at the theatre!

Life is Interesting

Have an APP called Flipboard that gives the news in various forms - it's like a weekend newspaper.  One of my favourite places to browse is the Photos section, from which I am sharing a few of the many  I thought interesting.

 House in Serbia

 Atlantis:  Dubai's underwater hotel

 Flamingos

Hands

Easter Sunday

Spent the afternoon at the cabin.  The cabin had, for the past 20 years been either rented out or abandoned.  Then SR and Brooke took over.  Above is an oil painting that was left behind by one of the renters.  I love it!!!  It screams Harlequin Paperback.  I haven't been here for quite some time and was pleased to see all of the upgrades that have been done.  The updated look is what this place needed and the two of them have made excellent choices and have a bunch of plans for the future.

Princess Lil spent the weekend at the lake - yesterday with her friends so she was quite pooped while I was there.  She did run around a bit outside but did truly enjoy having a snooze/snuggles on the couch as well.

New cupboards, new wood cook stove, new flooring ... I was impressed by it all.

The road was good driving in and out.  Apparently most of the road is now ploughed throughout the winter.  This makes the melt bearable and one no longer has to wait to drive in either late at night when the road has re-frozen or early in the morning before the road re-thaws.  That make access a  lot more convenient.  I guess like they say, "it's getting better all the time".