Macon (does NOT rhyme with 'bacon' - try mah-konh) started growing in the First Century B.C. and was initially a settlement founded by the Aedui tribe of the Celts. Over two millennia of history here! (Wiki: Macon)
But the story today started long before anything in Macon, I only just got here.
I set out as I had planned along N6 as I wanted to stay off the A6 Autobahn / Autoroute. I wanted to find some eggs as an egg breakfast will hold me sometimes all day. I saw a little place called La Pannetierre and it looked perfect so I stopped in to try even though I knew they would almost certainly not speak English.
This is one of those moments where if you expect to find jerks then you will and if you expect people to be good they will be. If you walk in there all tourist arrogance, you are not going to get anything to eat!
The most important thing is to make an honest try at speaking the language. If you're going to travel this road, use Google Translate and learn some stuff there. It doesn't matter if you're outstanding in one or two languages as most of the time, if you're really up for wandering, you won't be in the countries that speak them. The most important ones are hello, good-bye, good evening, good morning, thank you ... well, you get the message! If you start out learning some manners, you're halfway there.
I thought I knew how to ask for eggs ... I didn't. I thought I knew how to say tomato ... I didn't. My attempt to ask for a sandwich was failing miserably but they could see I was trying and one of the guys at the bar started trying to translate for me. They were all having good fun with it and were even cool enough to let me take a picture!
I'm sorry I didn't get his name but you can just look at him and see he's a good guy. It's all in your attitude. If you bring a bad attitude, you will find more bad attitudes. It's all about respect!
This was just outside of Valence and I pushed from there into Lyon. I expected to get lost there and, yep, I did. So then I switched to Cat style touring: oh wow, what's over there, let's go take a look at that.
This is the Facultes de Droit et Des Lettres or the Faculties of Law and Letters. Apparently this is part of the law school for the University of Lyon. I didn't have any idea what it was. I just thought it looked cool!
That's Le Rhone in the background and quite an impressive swimming pool in the foreground. I imagine the pool is so parents can chuck their kids into it without worrying about them having problems with the river traffic as there are quite big boats cruising up and down it. You can see one on the other side of the river. Also, take a look at the top of the hill on the left side of the picture. I had no idea what it was but thought, hmmm, I have got to find that!
I'm making some progress in getting toward the castle (?) and thought I would take some pictures along the way in case I got lost again.
I don't have any information on this church but she's quite a beauty, isn't she. I don't think there's the faintest chance that it was built to look old. It's really been there.
Here's another view on what turned out to be my closest approach. It looks quite possible that the buildings in this picture haven't changed in a very long time. Perhaps the only difference is that the road was paved during that time.
And the sidewalk cafes are everywhere. What I liked most about the picture is the old man with the walking stick as I was quite lost by this point and was studying a map of bus routes to try to get some idea of what to do. While I was doing that, there was a very sharp click, click, click from this walking stick as he made his way most determinedly across the street and on down the other side. Lovely old guy!
It seemed every time I saw another highway sign it was directing this way to A6 to Paris. I was doing quite a bit of highly-profane muttering after some time to the effect: I'm not trying to get to damn Paris ... although my language might have been a bit more colorful than that.
So I went with keep heading north and follow the river. Sooner or later you will find a road that works. And, yep, I did. It even got me to the one I wanted, D306, but I didn't know it for probably twenty kilometers or so. It was really lovely driving alongside the Rhone and there were lots of stops and goes but it was still wonderful. I didn't get as far as I had hoped but I spent a lot of time wandering about Lyon and some of it was frustrating but mostly it was fun just to explore.
But the story today started long before anything in Macon, I only just got here.
I set out as I had planned along N6 as I wanted to stay off the A6 Autobahn / Autoroute. I wanted to find some eggs as an egg breakfast will hold me sometimes all day. I saw a little place called La Pannetierre and it looked perfect so I stopped in to try even though I knew they would almost certainly not speak English.
This is one of those moments where if you expect to find jerks then you will and if you expect people to be good they will be. If you walk in there all tourist arrogance, you are not going to get anything to eat!
The most important thing is to make an honest try at speaking the language. If you're going to travel this road, use Google Translate and learn some stuff there. It doesn't matter if you're outstanding in one or two languages as most of the time, if you're really up for wandering, you won't be in the countries that speak them. The most important ones are hello, good-bye, good evening, good morning, thank you ... well, you get the message! If you start out learning some manners, you're halfway there.
I thought I knew how to ask for eggs ... I didn't. I thought I knew how to say tomato ... I didn't. My attempt to ask for a sandwich was failing miserably but they could see I was trying and one of the guys at the bar started trying to translate for me. They were all having good fun with it and were even cool enough to let me take a picture!
I'm sorry I didn't get his name but you can just look at him and see he's a good guy. It's all in your attitude. If you bring a bad attitude, you will find more bad attitudes. It's all about respect!
This was just outside of Valence and I pushed from there into Lyon. I expected to get lost there and, yep, I did. So then I switched to Cat style touring: oh wow, what's over there, let's go take a look at that.
This is the Facultes de Droit et Des Lettres or the Faculties of Law and Letters. Apparently this is part of the law school for the University of Lyon. I didn't have any idea what it was. I just thought it looked cool!
That's Le Rhone in the background and quite an impressive swimming pool in the foreground. I imagine the pool is so parents can chuck their kids into it without worrying about them having problems with the river traffic as there are quite big boats cruising up and down it. You can see one on the other side of the river. Also, take a look at the top of the hill on the left side of the picture. I had no idea what it was but thought, hmmm, I have got to find that!
I'm making some progress in getting toward the castle (?) and thought I would take some pictures along the way in case I got lost again.
I don't have any information on this church but she's quite a beauty, isn't she. I don't think there's the faintest chance that it was built to look old. It's really been there.
Here's another view on what turned out to be my closest approach. It looks quite possible that the buildings in this picture haven't changed in a very long time. Perhaps the only difference is that the road was paved during that time.
And the sidewalk cafes are everywhere. What I liked most about the picture is the old man with the walking stick as I was quite lost by this point and was studying a map of bus routes to try to get some idea of what to do. While I was doing that, there was a very sharp click, click, click from this walking stick as he made his way most determinedly across the street and on down the other side. Lovely old guy!
It seemed every time I saw another highway sign it was directing this way to A6 to Paris. I was doing quite a bit of highly-profane muttering after some time to the effect: I'm not trying to get to damn Paris ... although my language might have been a bit more colorful than that.
So I went with keep heading north and follow the river. Sooner or later you will find a road that works. And, yep, I did. It even got me to the one I wanted, D306, but I didn't know it for probably twenty kilometers or so. It was really lovely driving alongside the Rhone and there were lots of stops and goes but it was still wonderful. I didn't get as far as I had hoped but I spent a lot of time wandering about Lyon and some of it was frustrating but mostly it was fun just to explore.
13 comments:
Le Tour is all around you but does not cross your path. It is around Lyons Sat and Sun.
For an extra 100km you could stop in Belgium for the night later this week
Also look at Le Havre to Portsmouth instead of Calais to Dover. About 200km less 100km of this side and another 100km in the UK side
And towards Le Harve is LeMans
That would be pretty cool. May have to do that!
The Chunnel goes across from Calais but that also sends me smack into London which I don't want to do. Seems it would be much less expensive than a ferry, tho.
That would be another religious experience!
Hmm...that would mean screwing off around here for three days but why not. Hmm.
Going to Portsmouth is pretty cool as that takes me on a path to Stonehenge but the ferry is much more expensive than a ferry from Calais to Dover. It's a train that goes across the Channel Tunnel but I can't tell yet if it will transport the scooter too.
i think the portsmouth le havre ferry with scooter is about €50 And that way is 200 km shorter by scooter. you miss london. may see Le Tour Stonehenge another awakening and LeMans
To make Belgium, I would stick to the route I've been taking as it would be a relatively short run from Reims. I'm not sure if it's a sensible run but this Le Tour hasn't been sensible from the start! That would mean missing Le Mans, tho. Le Havre does look like a good place to cross. Decisions, decisions!
Le Havre via LeMans looks good. Catch Belgium Luxemborg on the trip to Germany next year
Looks like you found a way to tour europe cheaply now. Sounded impossible at firdt but looks cool
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