Owen and Lynne visit

Our good friends Owen and Lynne visited us just after dad and Thea left. At this point we had the apartment sort of working, but still had a broken fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine, and no microwave or dryer. But we have electricity and hot water! That and a bed is all you really need right? This week we got our second set of keys including one to our "cave" ooh! This damp storage area under the building must be 400 years old. Owen thought it could make a good dungeon for uncooperative guests. I also love my gigantic key to the monster double doors of our traboule. These covered passageways are a trademark of Lyon from its silk-making heyday. Our apartment was probably once a silk workshop in the 1700s before the industry moved up the hill in the 1800s, although we really don't know how old the place is. I also love the incongruity of my modern USB keyfob and the ancient heavy doorkey on the same keychain.

Lynne had never been to Europe before and we had a great time soaking in France with a newcomer. But she would not touch the frog's legs! "You can't eat Kermit! That's Kermit!" Well, I think if he was cooked in butter, pepper, and herbs and served piping hot, even Miss Piggy would have a hard time turning away her snout. But we had to respect her resolve. More for the rest of us... Yum! We went to a lot of great places by our new apartment including a crepe place that makes Monica's new weakness - the Texane: a crepe with chile and tabasco among its ingredients. Owen summed up the France food experience by saying that not only did the food taste great, your body felt like it was getting top grade fuel.



For the weekend we rented a car and drove down to Grenoble. This is a cute college town with a large pedestrian zone and fountains. We had to go for a ride in the 'Giant balls' - a string of spherical gondolas up to a nearby peak. But the highlight of this trip in my mind was using Owen's GPS to travel the tiny backroads to visit the Palais Ideal. The countryside was beautiful and we got to top it off by seeing the results of a deranged postman.

I guess since postmen here do not have access to high powered weaponry, they have to express themselves in other ways. This guy used rocks and cement to build a bizarre castle-like structure. Little did the surrounding townsfolk suspect this crazy endeavor would become a tourist attraction and now it has become an official site with attendant gift shops, cafes, bus parking, and maintenance staff. It probably provides half the employment in town. Ah, there is nothing quite so lovely as a cement chandelier! You can see more at this English site http://www.sadtomato.net/cheval/.



We continued our trip back to Lyon by using driving directions from Owen's GPS to 'avoid tolls.' This took us along tiny roads and through little villages and roundabouts. Boy, cheapskates have some long trips, but it was perfect for us since we weren't in a hurry and preferred the scenery immensely over the boring straight shot past the nuclear reactors. It worked amazingly well and we didn't even take a wrong turn once.