The second half of the river tour was equally fun. On Monday morning, I took the wine and chocolate tour and John and Janet took the hiking and wine tasting tour.
For wine and chocolate, we walked down to the local palace and went into the wine cellar of the church. We had two guides, a sommelier and a chocolatier. The sommelier selected one white and two red wines and then the chocolatier invented a chocolate to go with each wine. They were wonderful and even I could tell how much better both the wine and the chocolate tasted when eaten together.
For the hike and wine tasting, John and Janet joined the group which walked across the bridge toward a region titled The Hermitage. After strolling among the vineyards, they headed for a winery called Chapoutier where they also tasted one white and two red wines.
In the afternoon we participated in a wine quiz called The Twelve Labours of Bacchus. It included wine tasting and smelling, reading a wine region map and general knowledge about wine. I tied with a man from San Francisco and won by guessing the number of French wines in the top
The next day, we all took walking tours of Vienne. My tour rode the local mini train to the top of the hill where there was a big cathedral and then took the same train back down and took a tour of the town. The most interesting place was a well preserved temple to Octavius Caesar and his wife Livia. Octavius had been adopted by Julius Caesar and when Julius was murdered (Et tu, Brute?) Octavius had him declared a god. This made Octavius the son of a god and so temples to his worship were appropriate. (Politicians never change.)
During and after lunch the boat sailed to Lyon and we arrived about 3:30. John and I signed up for the Taste of Lyon tour and Janet took the Active walking tour of Lyon. On the Taste tour, we visited a local market. It was named after Chef Paul Bocuse who was a leader in cooking. First, we learned about Quenelle which is a local dish but did not get to try it. Then we tried several types of local meat
at one stall with wine, three kinds of cheese with wine at another stall and finally a Praline torte at a third stall.
On Wednesday the weather was cold and dreary. We had no tours in the morning so spent the morning doing not very much. In the afternoon, the ship offered a tour of Beaujolais wine country but we decided to skip it to do our prep for the trip to Maldives. It took a long time but about an hour before dark, we decided to go for a walk. We walked through the old town to the base of the hill with the Cathedral then took the funicular to the top of the hill. We went inside the church but since they were holding Mass we just stood in the back and looked. It was a pretty church with lots of gold leaf.
Outside there was another service. We did not know what it was so stayed away from it so as not to disturb. We wanted to see over the edge so we walked past some car barriers. Immediately, a man came up to us talking frantically in French and gesturing back towards the barriers.
We did not understand what he was saying but got the gist of it; get back behind the barriers. Less than a minute later, fireworks started going off. It was a pretty and elaborate fireworks show and lit up the words Merci Marie.
