2026 – Europe

Started a great walking tour of Lyon from the Place des Terreaux/City Hall/famous Bartoli fountain through the Old City with its famous passageways. Took the funicular up to the ornate Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière and enjoyed beautiful views of the city. Stumbled on a good place for lunch then hung out at our apartment resting…

Photos Summary This was supposed to be a lazy day and it did start out that way with breakfast, trip planning and lunch (creative use of leftovers – my specialty!) at our apartment. We started out on a short walk in the afternoon but ended going about 5 miles, to the famous mural of noted…

Packed up our stuff and departed Lyon in our newly rented, peacock blue, Ford Kuga. Took the A6 Autoroute north thru Burgundy. These major highways are great for getting from A to B quickly but don’t offer photo stops. So you’ll just have to imagine the beauty of a medieval fortress on the top of…

After a leisurely morning we hiked into the village of Semur-(en-Auxois) to explore. It was a bit of a trek with plenty of stairs but it is pretty magical with very well preserved buildings from medieval times. It sits above a lush, green valley and the Armançon river. Back at our hotel we change and…

We spent the day touring around the hilly, green, pastoral Côte d’Or (Gold Coast) in the north of Burgundy, hitting the France trifecta – hill town, religious monument and château. The hill town was the beautiful Plus Beaux Village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. Seriously, a picture perfect, flower-filled little place with the “factory” where the very famous…

One last visit to the breakfast buffet then on the road early, headed south to Beaune. Not because we were going to be tourists there (it’s a lovely city)but because we were catching a train to Lyon to meet up with our former VRBO host who had discovered our missing piece of baggage and agreed…

Enjoyed the nice buffet breakfast at our hotel then drove down the hill to Saint-Pères to find a rose garden I’d read about. The only thing currently in bloom there was a massive white wisteria. But, in the village there were plenty of lilacs, irises and peonies. Drove from there through the beautiful Cousin River…

Leaving Vézelay, we decided to take the (way) backroads to Sancerre, home of Karen’s favorite wine and our lodgings for the next three nights. We drove through very fertile rolling fields interspersed with dense forests as well as visually stunning fields of magenta (crimson clover) and pale blue (flax). The fields gave way to the…

Slept late (for us) but managed to hit just before rush hour at breakfast. Walked up the hill to see what Sancerre had to offer which didn’t take long. Took a 4 kilometer hike through some of the nearby vineyards then came back into town for lunch on the main square. Afterwards we visited the…

Awoke to steady rain which continued all morning. Late morning we drove to nearby Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire for a hike along the Loire river and lunch. On the way back to our hotel we stopped into Le Perrière winery for a Sancerre tasting and view of their caves. Bought a few bottle for the near future. Spectacular…