Sarlat to Lyon

Today was a big travel day, we drove from Sarlat to Lyon. While it was only about 450km it took us close to 7 hours, what with a lunch and multiple photo stops, we also took the more scenic route that kept us off the major roads and therefore kept our speed down........but it was worth it.

It was very foggy and misty in the morning when we left Sarlat, and we seemed to keep that way for quite a few hours into the drive. We were not able to get any spectacular scenery photos, but we got quite a few eirie foggy ones instead.

Fog Stayed With Us For Hours

We pulled into Aurillac about lunch time and decided to get something quick to eat. All we could find that was quick and handy, dare I say it, was a MacDonalds. Now we came to France to experience the French lifestyle, and we were told that the French are the second highest spenders at MacDonalds behind the Americans.......so when in France do as the French......eat a Big Mac. The car park was full, but I eventually got a spot as someone pulled out, the restaurant was full, the queues were long....boy the French love this stuff!

After lunch we were back in the car and back following the GPS towards Lyon. Before long we were entering the Central Massif region of south-central France. This is an elevated region consisting of mountains and plateaus. The area is thickly forested and has heaps of rivers and lakes. This region covers close to one sixth of France and used to have well in excess of 100 volcanoes throughout the region.......driving through it with the fog made it feel quite unreal....what a spectacular place.

Vic-Sur-Cere In The Central Massif Area

As we drove higher into the Central Massif through the mountains and tunnels, the outside temperature dropped considerably, we even started to notice snow that had been scraped and piled up on the sides of the road.........damn it is cold, and it is still only October!!!

Mountain Tunnels

Starting To See Snow

Forests, Fog, and Really Cold!

As we came into Murlat, a small town with a spectacular statue of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on a big hill overlooking the town.....but we both agreed it was far too cold to get out, and we just wanted to get to Lyon...so Lesley took a photo through the windscreen....it hardy does it justice at all.

Murlat and That Statue

Soon we were a few kilometres north of Puy approaching the small village of Chadrac......the site that suddenly appeared through the trees of a castle on a plateau above the town was nothing short of spectacular, we had to stop and get out to check this out...fantastic, We actually stopped a few times as we drove around the town.

The Village of Chadrac and Its Castle

Very shortly after Chadrac we started to hit 2 and 3 lane freeways which sped things up drastically and soon we were in Lyon.

We found our apartment, and dropped everything off. We then drove the car about 3.5kms away to drop it off back at Avis. As soon as we dropped it off the heavens opened up, lucky we had an umbrella. To make matters worse I misread the map and got us lost.....it took us 2 hours to get back to the apartment....Lesley now has a new pet name for me....it starts with D and ends with HEAD........not liking Lyon yet!!!!

 

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