The First Two Weeks of France: Le Mazel and Lyon

Bonjour!

I landed safely in France, hopped a very fast train to Avignon, and was picked up in a car by a lovely lady named Diana and driven 2 hours to a place called Le Mazel. Which is both the name of a small hamlet and the name of the house (that we called the chateau even though that's not technically accurate) that I was staying in. An improv buddy of mine, Cindy, was celebrating her birthday in style with a long holiday in France with friends from Australia and the rest of the world. When I told her of my travel plans she insisted I join her for some of it.

This was our view from the top of the tower on the chateau. There was a forest fire two valleys over on the second day that I was there. Five aeroplanes water-bombed it all afternoon and it was out by nightfall.

Here's a different view.

Mostly I laid around and rested. Went for a few walks, saw some old coal mining sites and a roman viaduct that spanned the bottom of a valley.

This was a grasshopper that turned up at dinner one night. He ate some of my balsamic vinegar, and enjoyed it so much he hung around until dinner the next night.

One of the other guests found this awesome pink an white rose.

After a few days the Chateau portion of the trip was over. I kept travelling Cindy and Diana to Lyon, while everyone else went their own way.

One of the first things I did was use the awesome VeloV system, which is hired bicycles (A system that actually works because there are no helmet laws or a helmet law exemption or something). I used the bikes almost everyday. One of the more fun things was riding along the river and discovering a huge park that had a botanical gardens in it...

And a small zoo!

This guy was one of two spectacled bears in the zoo. I stumpbled across the zoo by accident and these guys were the first thing I saw. It was unexpected.

I did a whole bunch more stuff in Lyon. But I didn't take many photos, because I didn't have a camera and while the camera in my phone is okay for a phone camera, it isn't the same.

So on the last day in Lyon I bought a new camera!

It's the panasonic GX7 and a 20mm prime lens for it. I've wanted it for about 2 months, when I first read about it, but it's brand new and only became available this week. All the reviews indicated that it met my needs of small camera (in comparison to a dslr, its still larger than a point and shoot) and good photo quality, as well as decent video capabilities. And I have to say it's really lived up to expectations, and taken some great photos over the last few days, some of which I'll post to here in the next few days. I'm not going to post everything on the blog, but a lot is available at my flikr for those who are curious. I'll eventually get a zoom lens but I'm limited to the prime for now, which will be a fun challenge hopefully.

Here's one of Cindy (normally a huge grin on her face, i caught her at a ponderous moment)

I'm very excited by the camera and plan to post to this blog a photo I think is particularly interesting, quirky or fun everyday. So here is your first interesting photo, some small books Cindy made in Lyon using pamphlets and paper she had gathered in her tourist adventures. Stay tuned for Paris, which is where I am now!