Well its been a very nice stay in the LOT valley , one of our most favourite places, but its time to leave and head for the Italian Lakes. We left the Hotel around 1000 and trundled thro the country lanes for about an hour and finally found the the motorway. Driving the the country lines is lovely nut wen you have several hundred miles to cover there is no way you can do this and arrive at your destination in reasonable time.
So we joined the Motorway ( Autoroute ) for a couple of hours and there we spotted a services area with Esso selling fuel at Euro 1.42 per litre, ab40 cents per litre than anywhere else and so we joined in and got a full tank along with many other motorists, no wonder the place was packed. A short while later we stopped for lunch of yesterdays baguette and some brie we also had left over and needed finishing.
We followed the SAT Nav as just as we arrived on the outskirts of Lyon the heavens opened and buckets of rain were chucked down on us all for about forty minutes, perhaps an hour but we found the Hotel which is tucked away in an business and Expo area and checked in and went to our room but then thought after a cup of tea we would check out the Hotel which had only this year year become a member of the Hilton Group as it was previously a member of the Dutch Golden Tulip Group and so Hilton have started work on improving the place but still a bit more to do.
We went to the bar to check it out and there was a very friendly Romanian barman who we chatted to for about an hour and consumed some Heineken beer before returning to the room to change for dinner in the Hotel as we really did not feel like going out. The dinner actually was very good and the staff really tried to follow Noels challenges and it would appear fully succeeded as no ills afterwards. The Restaurant was quite busy but the the limited staff and kitchen crew seemed to cope quite well under pressure.
It was also today that Noel received some sad news about an ex KN colleague who only about a month ago was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and then one month later passed away, quite a shock and so Noel then spent a some time sending out the appropriate email to other colleagues. Life can be so sad sometimes.