Today we drove from Tours to Lyon which would be similar to driving from Albury to Sydney. According to Google it would take us 4 hours and 20 minutes if we used the tollways or 6 hours if we didn't. So we decided to do a bit of both as we wanted to get to Lyon before it got dark but we were also keen on taking the more scenic route. The tollways are ridiculously expensive. It cost us about €20 for the two stretches we used on our trip. Cool to legally drive at 130km/hour though. And I don't know why we can't drive at that speed on our freeways at home as our roads are just as good - if not better. We're not finding driving on the right side of the road too tricky but parking is another story altogether! I don't think either of us has managed to park the car straight yet.
Lots of driving through pretty little villages when we ventured off the main road. And the scenery was gorgeous. I couldn't help myself from every so often stating the bleeding obvious by saying things like: "It's so green!" We stopped at a village called St-Amand-Montrond for lunch and at a town called Roanne for afternoon tea. Found our motel in Lyon relatively easily. We decided to just go to the motel restaurant for dinner even though it looked expensive (based on the room service prices) as we were feeling a bit weary and not up to going out in search of a restaurant. As it turned out that was the best decision we could have made! The motel restaurant (called Le Cabochon) had an €18 two-course special of the day and it was one of the best meals I've had in France. And that's saying something because all the food I've eaten here has been delicious.
