“Who needs an umbrella,” we said while packing our bags before this trip. Well, if we`d known what a washout our rest day in Lyon was going to be we might have taken one with us! It poured the whole day, so after a morning at a war museum and a few minutes wandering around getting soaked we decided to return to our hotel room by the early afternoon. A few hours in a small room meant we were ready to get going when Saturday morning dawned. Navigating our way out of Lyon was remarkably easy and we got some friendly waves from local cyclists as we passed. Before long we were cycling along the twisty roads which trace the Rhone river.

We stopped in Vienne for a visit to their Roman museum and archeological site, which contained an amazing number of mosaics and artifacts (more here online if you are interested, and in English too).

There were plenty of campsites leaving Vienne, but they all appeared to be closed. Finally we stopped to ask at one and the owner directed us to a site open in the area, of course on top of a rather large hill! It seems this is a trend with youth hostels and campsites. Nothing like a good sweat-inducing climb at the end of the day. We made it up after 10 minutes or so of hard work and enjoyed a good meal of pasta, before playing a few games of cards and collapsing into our sleeping bags at the late hour of 7:30pm or so. Doesn`t take much to put us out when we are cycling!