Bonus day

As mentioned previously, today I was planning to hike part of the Chemin de Stevenson trail. This came about when the writer Robert Louis Stevenson was staying in France for his health. He met an America woman, Fanny Van de Grift, who was estranged from her husband in the US. they became lovers, but then she returned to the US leaving him heart broken.

Some stories suggest she told him to take a hike, and that is what he did. The entire walk is 120 miles through the mountains and valleys of the Massif Central range. I was only planning to do about two miles myself. But it is a popular hike in warmer weather and people take about 12-14 days to complete.

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I returned in time to meet Amy for lunch as we needed to fortify ourselves before some shopping.

Amy needed an in between season jacket and found a really cool maroon jacket with a pink collar that goes great with her red hair. I found a super cute cat scarf which I had to have. But my main hunt was for some undergarments which led to awkward attempt to try to ask for a bra without an underwire in French. But that was managed and purchases were made.

We whiled away some time again at the cafe Palais and I had my new favorite a suze cocktail. But then it was time for a rest and a search for dinner.

I found a place, L’émotion, not far from our hotel and made a reservation. At 7:30, it was dead and we worried about our choice. But they brought a yummy amuse bouche and we had the house cocktail which was raspberry liqueur and procesecco.

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I had a smoked salmon entre and my

Main plat was prawns. Amy had escargot and something with beef. The place the filling up and it was easy to see why. This food was excellent; it was a great farewell dinner!

Back to the hotel for some last minute organizing and to write a a note to one of the front desk workers, Sophie. The precious day we had a long discussion in Franglais about the US, France, materialism etc. Turns out her dream place to visit in the US is Waco, Tx. She could see from my face I was kinda shocked.

She is expecting a lot of cowboys. I told her to also expect a lot of Trump supporters. Amy chimed in that it was where Dr Pepper was invented, and she is working with another language assistant who lived in Waco for a while. So, we had promised to provide some information for her. I wrote her a thank you for being so helpful and gave my email address. Amy gave her the info of her friend and I hope her own because Sophie was eager to work on her English.

Amy has no school on Wednesdays so we planned a leisurely start and then a trip to the neighboring town to see Polignac castle before I drove back to Lyon to catch my flight on Thursday.