La vie en rose

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Au revoir confinement, bonjour la vie !

Yes, you read it right the lockdown is over, and we can discover France again. There is still a curfew at 7 pm and non-essential shops are still closed but we can move further than 10 km again so that’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, in this blog I will talk about our last two weekends before we finished our internship. The last two weekends were like this:

Two women standing on a platform with a view over a river surrounded by green trees with a blue sky
A small group of people standing on a platform overlooking a river surrounded by green trees and a distant hill during a sunny day with blue sky

My internship is almost finished (21/05/2021). I will write a last blog about my life in France and afterwards we will travel around in France. When we are traveling around you can read about our adventures in the section ‘destinations’.

Le temps est bon, le ciel est blue

Friday evening, we drove with some friends to Ardèche, it’s around a 2.5h drive from Lyon. In the evening we made some pizza and played some boardgames. We had a really nice time and learned a new game called ‘Exploding Kittens’, it was in French, but it was cool.

A red box of a board game called exploding kittens with a black cat on the box

On Saturday we eat a typical French thing called Brioche, you must try it when you’re in France. After our breakfast we went kayaking. There are many companies where you can rent a kayak. We did the smallest route, and it was €20 each person. It was a beautiful kayak route that took around 2 hours. We saw the beautiful Pont d’Arc, it’s a natural bridge.

A group of young people wearing life jackets while standing between a whole bunch of kayaks ready to go into the water
A view from behind a woman sitting in a kayak in the middle of a river between beautiful green mountains
Two couples taking a selfie while in separate kayaks with a cliff in the background with green trees
A view taken from the middle of a river looking at the river bank with lush green vegetation and some hills
A view from behind a woman while she is kayaking the oar on the left side in the middle of a river between beautiful green mountains
Panorama view taken from a rock of a winding river between cliffs on the left bank and green forest on the right side
Panorama view of a green river with a natural bridge arching over it and a dozen of kayaks parked on the left river bank
Three women posing in front of a natural bridge with green vegetation on it arching over a green river
Two kayaks parked on the river bank in front of a natural bridge with green vegetation on it arching over a green river
A group of three couples taking a selfie on their double kayaks while rowing under a natural bridge

Saturday evening, we drove back to Lyon. The Sunday we did a small hike near Saint-Germain. It was 2.5 hours hiking. During the hike we passed by a blue lake, stunning views and a ruin from a castle called château de Saint-Germain. We also worked for school because we need to finish some tasks.

A woman with long red hair, a brown shirt and dark green leggings sitting between trees overhanging a bright blue lake
A panorama view of green mountains fully covered in trees

France, tu es belle

Thursday was a holiday, so we decided to go hiking in ‘Réserve naturelle des Hauts de Chartreuse’ again because there is a lot to see there. We did a hike of three hours at Col Du Granier. Normally we would have a lot of stunning views, but it was foggy. Then, when we were finishing our hike, the sky cleared up, it was beautiful.

A woman and a man walking from left to right on a rocky path between trees that lost their leaves on a misty mountain peak
A man carrying a woman in the air in the middle of a grassy field with a small forest of pine trees in the distance and a high mountain cliff on the background on a somewhat cloudy day

So, we decided to do another hike of 2 hours to some waterfalls (cascade in French). With our car we had to pay €4.5 entrance for this hike. There were toilets and a place where you can buy snacks. A lot of families were there with children. There is also a smaller hike you can do with children. The waterfalls are beautiful and is called Cirque de Saint-Même. On Friday we had to work.

The top half of a pine tree on the right in front of a high mountain cliff with a few pine trees growing on the side and a pine forest on the top
Panorama view of distant mountains with green trees in the front
A waterfall from a high cliff with lots of pine trees
A woman standing close to the edge of a cliff overlooking a higher cliff with a waterfall in a forest
A man sitting on a rock close to the edge of a cliff overlooking a higher cliff with a waterfall in a forest
A woman sitting on a rock close to the edge of a cliff overlooking a higher cliff with a waterfall in a forest
Woman with red hair leaning on the side of an arching bridge in front of a waterfall

The Saturday we went with some friends to Annecy. We woke up early and drove to Château de Menthon-Saint-Bernard. The castle was still closed (opens at 2 pm) but the view was still worth it.

Man and woman holding hands while sitting on a bench with a distant castle and mountains in the background
Two couples talking to each other in front of a bench with a distant castle and mountains in the background

Afterwards we drove to Réserve Naturelle du Roc de Chère. We walked for 25 minutes to a viewpoint called Belvédère de la Crête. We had breakfast with a stunning view over Lac D’Annecy.

The next stop was the city Annecy. This city has a lot of history and is a must do when you are in the neighborhood.

After visiting the city, we passed by another castle called Château de Montrottier. We also passed by Gorges du Fier but unfortunately it was closed because of Covid. Normally it’s a hike between canyons. We just went to the entrance. Next, we drove back to Lyon.

On Sunday we visited a medieval village nearby Lyon called Pérouges. It’s only 30 minutes driving. Galettes de Pérouges is a specialty from this village. It looks like pizza but it’s sweet with sugar. There are different hikes around the village with different lengths. We wanted to do the longest hike, but it started raining really hard so in the middle of our hike we decided to take a shortcut.

That’s it for our last two weekends. Stay tuned for my last blog on ‘Life in France’.

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