What a strange, strange day we had! As planned, we left our hotel first thing in the morning headed to the train station to take the train to Lyon. As we have become used to, we left in the rain.

We got to the train station, checked the board for the platform and were surprised to see that it said "Berth 6". Expecting that our French was not up to the task, I asked at information and discovered that there is no train to Lyon, but that we would be boarding a bus to St. Etienne, where we would switch to a train for Lyon.

Two hours later, which included a stop during which the National Police got on the bus and check everyone's identification, including a close inspection of our visa stamps, we arrived in Saint Etienne to discover... train to Lyon cancelled! We had four hours to kill in Saint Etienne. In the rain.

Did we pull on our waterproof clothes and head out to see the Cathedral? Did we purchase an umbrella and set off to see the newly renovated main square? No, we did not. We sat in a cafe nursing coffees and eventually lunch and read our books.

Tomorrow I head back to America for five days for a college reunion, while Eric heads off to East France for his own bike safari. He will be valiantly keeping up the blog while I'm gone.