Home again home again (Lyon to Chamelet)

The Gare de Lyon Part-Dieu is actually a very well laid-out train station.  There are automatic self-serve ticket machines that take cash or credit cards, plus electronic signs everywhere showing which trains are scheduled to arrive and depart.  For those intimidated by the self-serve machines, a glass-encased "Acceuil" (Reception/Info) Centre, plus extra staff wandering around in red vests marked "Acceuils," can help you negotiate your trip.  We have used both in the past, and they are very kind and helpful.

Very conveniently, the Gare also serves "fast food," like gourmet baguette sandwiches and freshly baked pastries, and might be the only place in France you can find Starbucks Coffee.  ;)   If you are craving your Venti (20 oz / 600mL) non-whip latté, you had better grab it here, because you probably won't see another one in France. Actually, googlemaps tells me that there are three Starbucks in Lyon and three in Paris; however, I have to say, in my many visits to these cities, I have never actually seen one.  Vancouverites might find this shocking, but it won't be the only coffee shock you will get in France!

Although I digress, it seems to be the right place to talk about this.  The coffee experience in France is in a whole other category than coffee in North America.  How many ways can I count the difference?  For one, nobody walks around holding a massive to-go cup of drip coffee here.  That is so uncivilized!  If you want a coffee, you go sit down at a café, wait for it, and sip it slowly while munching the tiny cookie or square of dark chocolate that always accompanies it.  The coffee is black espresso, and always comes in a teeny one-shot cup and saucer.  If you want some cream/foam, order a "noisette."  They are fantastic -- something like an Italian style espresso macchiatto.  If you want sugar, you add it yourself: normally the coffee will come with a little sugar packet on the side. Anyway, this whole coffee process can take up to 45 minutes.  You will NOT get your coffee in 5 minutes or less, like you would expect in Canada.  You will also NOT be served coffee before or along with your meal.  If you order coffee with your meal, it will automatically arrive after the dessert.  If you try to insist on getting it sooner, you will probably get an incredulous and dismissive look from the server.   lol.  On the bright side, the coffee quality is amazing here, and I highly recommend it!!  It puts dear Timmy's "double double" to shame.  ;)

Ok, back to Gare de Lyon Part-Dieu!  The train station also has public washrooms (you need to pay the attendant 50 cents), a couple of convenience stores, and a place to charge your phone battery. Although with the latter, there is a catch:  you have to pedal for your power!  I get a real kick out of this.

We use the self-serve ticket machines and easily locate the proper platform to board our train to Chamelet. The line from Lyon to Chamelet is actually labelled "Nevers," which is the terminal station past Chamelet.  This name gives us about half an hour of entertainment.  (One has to enjoy the small things in life!)   Ours is a short 4-car train, but we easily nab two seats with tables facing forward... perfect for the baguette sandwiches and bottled waters we bought in the Gare.  Before the doors close, we double-check the scrolling message sign inside the train car to confirm we are indeed on the  correct train.  We see "Chamelet" in the long list of town names, and sink happily into our seats.  

Sitting in a nice cool train car after so many hours under the hot sun of Lyon, an hour passes extremely quickly, and we soon arrive in Chamelet. Actually, the train stops between Chamelet and La Grange, the little town next to Chamelet.

We prepare ourselves for the hike up to the gite, including making use of the free public washroom at the train stop.  We're not sure how long it will take to hike up to the gite from here.  Nor, we quickly realize, did we actually map out the randonnée from this end.  Although I was careful to note where it joined up with Le Cocon in Le Crèt (see "A Rainy Day"), I never actually followed it out to the bottom (due to said "Rainy Day"), so we had no idea where  it actually entered the town!  Uh oh!  We ask a local (ok, I ask a local) and he gives me a quizzical look.  "Piste randonnée??  Here??   I don't know.   Just walk on the road!!  There's no traffic."   Even though this is now the second local person to tell us this, we are still hesitant to actually walk on the roads, and would prefer to stick to the walking trails. We peer up towards the town, willing it to reveal its secret passages.  We know what the trail is supposed to look like on the map... we just can't seem to see it in real life.

We can see from the train station that there is a long staircase cutting through the town (dead centre of the photo below).   That must be the path, we decide, and head on in.

We cross the river L'Azergues, and head up the staircase.  The staircase opens at the top onto Rue de la République, which we recognize from driving through the town. I make a note of where it exits: between this turret labelled Montée des Roches and another little parking lot.  We follow Rue de la République past the town church to Les Halles, the traditional village marketplace, where we see the green directional sign for the gite.

Beside the sign for the gite, there is also a signpost marking the distances to other villages, just like the posts we've been using on the other randonnées.  This seems like a good sign (pun unintended!), but we still can't see any clear way to access the walking trail from this location, so we shrug and consign ourselves to walking on the road.  When we reach the parking lot on the other side of town, there is another set of signposts, and another sign for the gite leading up the hill to the left. Again, no obvious trailhead, and we continue on the road. (Why is there a big parking lot behind Chamelet, you might wonder, when there are no amenities there...?  My guess is that it is for people who live in Le Crèt to park in the winter, when they can't get up the hill.  Alban said they got 30cm of snow here this year.  When Colin asked him how he drives up to La Muzetière in those conditions, Alban confirmed: "I don't.")

Just as we get to the part of the road that had worried us the most--the cliff-hugging narrow switchback up to Le Crèt--we see a sign for "Les Danières" on the left, and a little frog pond full of riotous crawwwwking on the right.  Here Colin stops, throws his hands in the air in frustration, and pulls out his phone.  After searching on "HERE Maps" a long minute, he declares, "This way," and starts walking up the hairpin turn to the left.  I hadn't noticed there was even a street there!  As I get closer, I see a tiny blue card nailed to the telephone pole. Even though it's not the red and yellow flag we are used to seeing, we assume it must simply be a different type of mark for a walking path.

After walking a decent distance, we are not convinced that this is not just someone's driveway.  The pavement twists and turns through a farm property.  We meet a really sweet dog.  Then... jackpot!!!  The path passes some stacks of wood, turns to dirt, and stretches almost directly up through the fields above.

There is one fork in the trail, and we follow the path to the right, which is marked with the familiar red and yellow trail flag.  Finally, we exit up onto the familiar Le Cocon, hot and sweaty, yet pleased with ourselves. Then we realize we still have 750m in distance and 75m in elevation to go before we're done.  It's definitely another two-shower day.

Back at the gite, I look at the clock and determine it took us 45 minutes to walk 2.5km.  Not too impressive.  However, Colin calculates our randonnée on googlemaps and announces: it is the same distance as walking up Thermal Drive (from St John's to Como Lake Road) in our childhood hometown of Coquitlam... only much much steeper!!  Today we travelled over 225m of elevation, compared to Thermal's puny 143m.  ;)   This info will impress anyone from The Tri-Cities area.  lol.  Or anyone who remembers the 1987 Rick Hansen "Man In Motion" Tour... or anyone from the younger crowd who caught his repeat performance in 2012.  Mollified, I reach for my well-earned croissant.