joduhl

Just back from a wonderful trip to France and Switzerland. We began in Bordeaux, a city that far exceeded our expectations. It is relatively small, easy to navigate - great public transportation - , pedestrian friendly, beautiful, good food and wine. What else does one need?

We stayed at Hotel du Tourny, a small European hotel in the heart of the city - easy to walk many places and public transportation is handy from there. We were very impressed on our first day when we were trying to figure out how to buy tram tickets, two different women in uniforms offered to help us - apparently city or tourism employees hanging around to help tourists!

Highlights of our 3 days in Bordeaux - Cite du Vin - lots of diverse exhibits on history, mythology, role, smell of wine. Funny, irreverent shows and exhibits; not a typical museum. We had audio guides that did a good job.

We really liked Les Capucins - the Bordeaux food market - it has a roof on the top and is open on the sides. Many stalls of beautiful veggies, fruit, fish. Not at all touristy. We easily took Tram B there.

The river esplanade - it is La Garonne - is beautiful. We also went to the Public Gardens - verdant and lots of diverse people strolling on a beautiful sunny day.

We had the best oysters at Le Petit Commerce - they come from just a few Km away and you can taste the sea!

Sarlat le Caneda was our next stop. We were interested in going to the Dordogne because we are both immersed in Martin Walker's Bruno series which is set there. We stayed at a VRBO rental and ate twice at the owner's "gastronomic" restaurant - Les Jardins d'Harmonie. Just wonderful in terms of ambiance, food, music, presentation. Lots of the local specialty, canard, but also a wonderful diversity of vegetables cooked just perfectly.

A short drive away from Sarlat we went to Les Jardin de Marqueyessac. It is on the grounds of a chateau, with amazing sculpted gardens, paths with tall hedges overlooks, art work. Very well done and easy to navigate. The gardens overlook a verdant valley with walnut groves, farms, the Dordogne River. And - a special treat- there are peacocks just hanging out, exhibiting their plumage.

We also visited Lascaux II caves. We reserved in advance - the English language tour, but because of a GPS mishap got there late and ended up on the French tour. But we got to fully explore the caves with the amazing reconstruction/replication paintings from 1,000 generations ! ago.

After five nights in Sarlat, we drove to Lyon - about a 5 hour drive on the highway alongside rolling hills, farms, and eventually the snow covered Alps. There were lots of good picnic sites along the way and we joined the French on the roadside, eating food we'd bought at the Saturday market in Sarlat.

Lyon seemed a very large and noisy city after quiet Sarlat. We stayed in another VRBO rental near Place Bellecour - a central location with many restaurants, bars, diverse stores, and the Metro, which we found very easy to use. A recommendation: Worth buying a 24 hour pass which you can use repeatedly on both Metros and trams.

Lyon is a very large city and we are glad we took the Hop On Hop Off bus tour which gave us a perspective on the entire city, and a good orientation to its architecture, history, economy, etc. We got off the bus in Vieux Lyon but found it too touristy. And then we waited an hour for the bus to come back because, the driver said, it was lunch break! C'est la France.

We visited the Centre D''Histoire de la Resistance et de la Deportation. It is a very well done, comprehensive history, narration, documentation of Lyon during WWII and after.

In Lyon, inspired by Anthony Bourdain, we ate in different bouchins. Our favorite was Bouchin Tupin - great ambiance, service, food. I had the best grilled lamb sweetbreads (aka brains) on a bed of pureed garlic. We had made advance reservations at Bouchin Tupin through Fork website and that worked well.

We took the train from Lyon to Lausanne - via Geneva. Swiss trains are clean, efficient, and on time. We stayed at Hotel des Vouyageurs, which is a good location and had a great breakfast with many choices. We discovered that in Switzerland public transportation is free for tourists - you need to ask your hotel for a card. We took the Metro to Ouchy, the beautiful waterfront on Lake Geneva. Lausanne is built on many levels - there's an elevator that connects the upper and lower levels of the center city. The Metro is very steep and even the floors at the stops are built on a curve.

We spent a day on the Golden Pass train, taking a commuter train from Lausanne to Montreaux and then the Golden Pass from Montreaux to Interlaken and back. It was an amazing trip through the Alps - narrow passes, tunnels, twists and turns through mountains with lots of vistas of farms, villages, jet set ski resorts, and snow capped mountains. We got off at Interlaken and had lunch. Interlaken seemed very touristy - lots of watch stores.

One caution - we had booked our seats in the panoramic car well in advance - paid a lot of attention to which seats we wanted. But it turned out that while we had paid for seats, we did not have train tickets! A very nice woman at the Lausanne train station worked it all out for us and also advised us to buy half price rail passes as we were taking a number of trains.

From Lausanne we took the train - less than an hour - to Neuchatel, a smaller, pretty city on a large lake. There we again took advantage of the free public transportation to explore the city on buses and the funiculars. We even took a funicular direct to the train station. We took a train from Neuchatel right to the Geneva airport - an hour and a half - and flew home from there.

A great trip, and already planning the next one!!

jpie

Great trip report! We did this much of this same route last summer going from Bordeaux to Chambéry for a wedding. One highlight for us was visiting the Puy de Dôme in the Auverge. I would highly recommend it to others if they are passing through that area. We have been all over France driving but hadn't spent much time in this area so it was a fun stop. There is a small train that takes you to the top of the dome:

https://www.panoramiquedesdomes.fr/page/le-puy-de-dome

Also, just small culinary comment, grilled lamb sweetbreads i.e. "ris d'agneau" is the thymus and/or pancreas gland (if that is what you had) versus cervelle or cervaux which is brains. My sister also loved the ris d'agneau she had in France last year as well.

Patricia Wells has a great glossary of food terms on her site that I thought others might be interested in:

Glossary ? Patricia Wells

joannyc

StCirq

Those were buchons, not bouchins, that you and anthony ate at.

GinnyJo

thanks for posting -- great information! Sounds like a wonderful time. We are booked at Hotel des Vouyageurs for 2 nights, so good to hear that you enjoyed your stay there.

kerouac

Actually, they were bouchons.

joduhl

We were also there for 2 nights. Being pretty restaurant-ed out by that point of our trip. we ate at a pizza place a few doors down from the hotel (on the same side of street.) It was actually very good - lots of topping choices and great crust. And there seemed to be a lot of action right around the Metro stop - on the lower level, right across the street, there was a very "happening" bar. We saw it our first night and intended to go the second night but it is not enclosed and that was a cold night. Enjoy!

StCirq

Yes, bouchons. My keyboard is skipping letters. I must have spilled honey on it with my tea!

kerouac

I actually had to pay for a new keyboard to be installed (90 euros) on one of my laptops, but it was such a relief after struggling with stuck keys for six months.

gooster

Thanks for the report. If you are referring to the area down below, near the Metro stop, that area is called the Flon. It's a big trendy bar and nightlife area, with cafes, bars and night clubs.

StCirq

I had to do that, too, kerouac, but it was because I spilled some sort of sweet cocktail (something I hardly ever drink unless it's an Apérol Spritz) all over it. Totally killed the keyboard within about 24 hours.

I eat a LOT of honey. I need to keep it on the plan de travail, where it belongs, and not bring it over near the keyboard.

TDudette

Thanks for the nice TR, joduhl. Agree about the ease of the tram system in Bordeaux.

GinnyJo

I was glad you mentioned being restaurant-ed out; that's exactly what happens to me. I love finding the casual, local places where we might be able to sit at the bar and where it doesn't matter how much or what we order or share. So, I *had* to look up the pizza place; these pics certainly seem like they fit your description, and yes, now I am hungry
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lrice

Joduhl, what do you think about Bordeaux, Sarlat or Lausanne for a long stay.

joduhl

Of those three places, Bordeaux is the one I am hoping to return to. It is a lovely city to wander, very easy to navigate on public transportation, and there are many good restaurants. I also would like to explore the nearby coast, home to those delicious oysters. I could see spending a few weeks in Bordeaux, getting to know the city and environs well.

Sarlat was fun for a short stay - the market, the restaurants. You would need a car there, I think; there are so many beautiful and interesting villages nearby and the scenery is magnificent.

For Lausanne, I would say it depends on the season. We were there very briefly, and I wish we had had a longer stay. We just scratched the surface of the city, and certainly enjoyed what we did see, And the wonderful trains provide so many opportunities to explore nearby towns and cities.

So while I am glad to have visited all three places, Bordeaux is the one on my list of future possible trips.