Beaune

It was time to go to Burgundy. When figuring out my France itinerary, I had to hit up some wine regions, and Burgundy, or Bourgogne, made the most sense geographically. So from Lyon to Beaune, I booked a Blabla car share. It was a little tricky to communicate in French, and it took a few tries to book something, but eventually I got something that was convenient to where I was, and where I was going. I had to meet the driver at the train station in Lyon, and he would then drop me off in Beaune. He was a bit late, which I actually expected since he was driving in a city. There were no other no hiccups, and it ended up being a nice way to travel. We had a full car, so I got to meet some new people. And I got to sing along to my favorite 90's boy bands. 

I booked an Airbnb in Beaune, and the couple was nice enough to let me in earlier than the check-in time. I had a room and my own bathroom on the top floor of their house, which was very close to the center of town. They were very sweet, even though they didn’t know much English. I got to work a little on my French, but less conversational, and more Frenglish. 

Airbnb welcome and decor.

I spent the rest of the day walking around town, and of course picked up some local wine in my wanderings. I was excited to try some Bourgogne, even though I wasn’t sure what was good, and I had no idea how to read the bottles. Yet. 

Nighttime carousel.

I decided to spend a few days in Beaune, so had one full day to explore town, and one full day to explore the region. I had to get a sneak peak of the vineyards though, and went for a run out of town the following morning. They were beautiful. The fall colors were definitely popping. I may have also tried a few grapes for energy.

Morning run in the vineyards.

For the afternoon, I packed a little lunch and explored the quiet streets throughout Beaune.

City walls.

Quiet streets.

Later in the afternoon I took a tour of Hospices de Beaune, an old hospital built for the poor. It is now a museum, but it was a working hospital from 1452 to 1970s. Pretty impressive. The architecture was also pretty impressive. 

Flemish influence.

Ancient medical tools.

After my self-guided tour, I walked across the street to visit the caves of Marché aux Vins to taste some local Bourgogne wines. This was also a self guided tour, which was kind of cool. I didn’t have someone telling me about the local wine, but I did get to pour my own tastes. I may or may not have been generous with them. The cellar was pretty cool and I learned about Burgundy wine. Mostly pinot noir is grown in this region, along with some chardonnay. Most of what I tried was red wine. All pretty good. 

Starting off with some rose.

The following day I intended to take a bike tour of the vineyards. However, everything was against me doing that. First I had googled bike rental places and only one kept coming up. Since it was off-season, I assumed I didn’t need to rent a bike ahead of time. Well since it was off-season, the bike shop was actually closed. I returned to my Airbnb to see about another bike rental place, but I couldn’t call them. Next up, was the tourist information office. I was in luck, there was another place to rent from. Of course I was worried they would be closed for lunch by the time I got there, and sure enough, they were. At this point, I almost gave up. But decided to wait until 2pm and return. In the meantime, I walked around and tasted a few more local wines.

Notre-Dame de Beaune.

Promptly at 2pm, I returned to the bike place and inquired about renting a bike. I don’t know whether the bikes were all actually rented, the guy lied to me, or if it was lost in translation, but I walked away with no bike. Even though I saw a ton in the back. My last ditch effort was the place my Airbnb recommended. It was outside of town though and I wasn’t optimistic. It was someone’s house, and even though it had the TripAdvisor sticker, no one was around to rent me a bike. I was really looking forward to biking through the vineyards of Côte de Beaune and it wasn’t going to happen. I was beyond frustrated.

So my plan to bike to the neighboring towns didn’t happen. It finally occurred to me to walk. So I did. I wouldn't get too far, but I could at least visit Pommard. Fortunately it wasn’t too far, and I had a nice walk through the vineyards. It was a really nice day, one of the reasons why I was bummed that my bike plan failed. I didn’t get to do too much, but did make it to the next village, and visited Château de Pommard, a beautiful estate from the 18th century.

Fall vines.

I walked around Pommard for a little bit before my own private tour. I got to visit the cellar, see an art exhibit, and taste a few wines from their vineyard.

Château de Pommard.

It was getting dark after my tour, so walked quickly back to Beaune. It was chilly and I was ready for a hot meal. 

The last thing I did before leaving, was get one last look at the vineyards. Even though it was freezing out, I pulled out my gloves and went for a run. 

Running.

My next stop was Colmar. 

Lyon

It was a longer bus ride from Bern, Switzerland to Lyon, France than I had wanted, but it was the cheapest form of travel. I caught the bus in the middle of nowhere Bern, and we were on our way. I'm glad it was in the middle of the day instead of at night. After a bunch of stops, and some bathroom humor, we made it to Lyon, the third largest city in the country. And I got to visit with a friend who I used to work with in New York. I had a nice few days exploring the city, hanging out with Tiphaine, Ari, and their dog Madame, and meeting new friends.

I arrived pretty late the first night, and just caught up with Ari, who is from the UK. I think both of us were happy to speak English extensively with someone. Of course, the upcoming election was a hot topic. A few days prior, I had received my absentee ballot via email. The next day I would print it out, fill it in, and send it back home. After triple checking everything, and securing the envelopes, Ari was nice enough to drop it off in the post for me. Absentee ballots do not need to be postmarked until the day before the election and I was about a week and half ahead of schedule. I hoped it would arrive, and be counted on Election Day. I was cautiously optimistic of the outcome.

The following morning I got my first glimpse of the city when I headed out for a run along the Rhône River. It was a little tricky getting there, but once I did, there was a nice path along the water to run along. 

The swans in formation.

It took me awhile to get going after my run and filling out my absentee ballot, but I eventually headed into the city to explore. My first stop were the churches. I took the metro to the Cathedral Saint-Jean and explored the Saint-Jean neighborhood very briefly. Before the sun went down, I walked up the hill to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Both churches were pretty impressive, especially the one on the hill with the view. I did have to look up later to see if any of the churches in Lyon were at the top of the list for the best churches in France. They were not. There were more out there that were way more impressive that I had yet to see.

Cathedral Saint-Jean.

Lyon buildings.

Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière.

Truth.

View of Lyon.

The following day, Tiphaine, Madame and I went for a walk around a different part of town. We walked along the river and made our way to Bellacour Place. I wanted to see the Antoine de St. Exupéry statue since he was born in Lyon. We read The Little Prince in high school, and this was a good reminder to read it again. I also decided I should have a copy of the French version, Le Petit Prince. 

Antoine de St. Exupéry.

Next up, was a short walk on the Saône River to see the colorful buildings on the other side. Eventually we ended up at Hôtel de Ville, a beautiful old historic building, one of the largest in Lyon, which serves as City Hall. 

Visiting with Tiphaine.

Hôtel de Ville.

After a couple of hours of walking around, we were pretty tired and ready to eat something, so we headed back, but not without some nice nighttime views. 

Passerelle du Collège.

The next stop on my tour of Lyon was the Croix-Rousse neighborhood. I first checked out a pretty cool mural that has been updated 3 times in it’s existence. It would be fun to come back to see it updated again in 10 years. 

Mur des Canuts.

Making friends.

I then walked through the Traboules, secret passageways that go through various apartment buildings. They were used back in the day for merchants to get down the hill quickly to the river. It was kind of fun to walk through, but I didn’t see any residents, only other tourists. 

Traboules.

Street graffiti.

Eventually I made it down the hill and ended my tour with another mural, La Fresque des Lyonnais, depicting many famous people from Lyon. 

La Fresque des Lyonnais.

On my last full day, I had a great run around the Parc de la Tête d’Or and the zoo. I had to stop many times to look at the various animals, like zebras, lions, and bears. And it was Halloween, so it was a fitting time to visit. 

A zebra.

Happy Halloween Mr. tiger.

Later in the day, I made my way back to the park to take a slower tour of it. After a pit stop for a macaron of course. There were a bunch of kids running around in their Halloween costumes, and as the sun went down, it definitely got nice and creepy in the park with the mist. 

Chocolate macaron.

The Botanical Garden.

Fall foliage.

Flamingos.

Pumpkins.

Later that evening I met up with my new friend Emma that I met in Lucerne. We hung out at a cute bar to have some wine, and to chat for a while. It’s always great meeting up with new friends on my travels, and it was a nice evening to end my stay in Lyon.

Lyon at night.

Passerelle du Palais de Justice.

The next day I said my goodbyes to my wonderful hosts Tiphaine and Ari, and headed out to meet my ride to Beaune. It was time to go drink some Burgundy, or Bourgogne. 

Bern

My next and last stop in Switzerland was Bern, the capital of the country. No it's not Geneva or Zurich. It's Bern. Although it's more of a de facto capital since Switzerland doesn't officially have one. Since the Federal Parliament and government are located in Bern, it is seen as the capital.

I walked from the train station to my hostel, which was a short distance away, but down a pretty steep hill. Going up and down hills and steep staircases isn't fun when you are loaded down with backpacks. I just needed to move slowly. I checked into my hostel, where I got upgraded from a 20-bed mixed dorm to a 6-bed female dorm. Score. The guy felt bad since there were 10 dudes in the mixed dorm. I was happy with the upgrade for sure. And I met a friendly girl from the US.

I went for a run along the Aare River. There were some great paths along the river and it really didn't feel like you were in the city. The weather was warmer, and I was definitely taking advantage of wearing shorts, even if it was a little rainy.

The Aare River.

Later that evening, I walked around a bit and looked for a grocery store to get dinner. I had a great view of the Parliament Building at night walking up the hill from my hostel.

The Parliament Building.

And as I headed back to the hostel, there was a light show. Even though it was raining, I committed to watching the entire show. It was pretty cool. I definitely picked up on the Red Cross theme throughout and later learned that this year's light show (6 years running) was honoring the 150th Anniversary of the Swiss Red Cross.

Parliament Building's light show.

The rain didn't really stop the next next morning, so I lingered for a while in the hostel, but chatted with my new friend, Shelby, from Florida. She's also a runner, but I didn't get her to go for a run. But she had a half planned that weekend and was looking forward to possibly running the Berlin Marathon next year. It's really cool to meet other runners on my travels. Especially since most people give me weird looks when I head out or return from a run.

City view on my morning run.

Falling for fall.

I spent the afternoon wandering around town checking out the sights.

Zytglogge.

I had to visit the cathedral, which actually went uncompleted for several hundred years. They finally finished the tower in 1893. Construction had started in 1421. It only took 472 years to finish.

Bern Cathedral.

Since Bern is located on a hill, there were a lot of nice views around town. I walked down hills, and across bridges to get all the different views.

One of many views of Bern.

Terraced gardens.

The Old Town buildings were really pretty, and I do love some plant decor.

Pretty facades.

I visited the Swiss Brand Museum. It was pretty small, but of course chocolate was included in the museum.

Yummy chocolate.

Eventually I made my way up the hill to Rosengarten to get a full view of the city from up above. I wish the sun would have made an appearance, but I made do. I sat on a terrace, made friends with a dog, and took in the view.

Bern.

After a walk around the Rosengarten, I headed back down the hill.

Rosengarten.

I wandered a bit more in town and eventually headed back to the hostel for dinner.

Plants everywhere.

Afterwards, I motivated myself to meet my new friend for a beer. I did have a few francs that I needed to spend before leaving the country. Apparently Switzerland has a lot of craft breweries. Something that I hadn't heard of, but will happily partake in. 

A Swiss beer before leaving town. 

Of course the next morning was gorgeous. Seriously I feel like every day that I choose to travel, it ends up being a gorgeous day. My bus wasn't until later in the afternoon though, so I did have a little bit of time to enjoy the weather.

Beautiful last day.

Roofs for miles.

Graffiti and leaves.

I backtracked a little bit around town, and I went to check out the bear again. I had seen it the day before, but it was a bit more active. Although I did feel bad that it was held captive.

Brown bear.

Signs of Halloween.

One last picture.

I got my bags, caught the local bus, and headed to the middle of nowhere to get my bus to Lyon. My time was up for Switzerland. Time to head to France.