Euro trip part 5

Marc and Mika rode with us to the Ardeche gorge where we had a coffee and said goodbye, we continued on the D250 to Vallon pont Arc for lunch then Aubenas and finally to La Puy where we'd booked a hotel for a couple of nights, as we rode into town there was a huge catholic festival being policed by the gendarmes and the Army, a reminder of the fact France has had some high profile attacks. Our Hotel was just outside the town around 2 miles away, the restaurant attached to the hotel selling authentic French fayre and as i didn't fancy snails or frogs legs for dinner we walked into town, luckily it was downhill and even more luckily we managed to get a taxi back! The Moroccan taxi driver when he realised we were Scottish told us about the Robert Louis Stevenson connection with the town, there is even a walking trail attributed to him in the area, he seemingly rode his donkey as part of a pilgrimage in this area, fascinating stuff! .  The following day was spent exploring the town which is dominated by impressive churches and huge statues, it is a major religious site and has been visited by many famous historical figures and now even the Rondelli's.
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Vallon Pont Arc, busy as hell with tourists but a nice lunch

Le Puy on the way into town

From our Hotel

Churches and statues 

Leading to the church

Impressive

View down onto the town

Nice French feel to the place

Character in the buildings

It was colourful and busy

Lady with a goat again

Wouldn't fancy being the brickie on this job!

Random Triumph in impressive backdrop

Big Hoose, big statue

Maybe just me but the two arches and the cut of the rock looks like a smiley face?

Another statue 

We partied in the hotel room at night having bought provisions from the supermarket hence eating healthily, avoiding a taxi fare but drinking too much so the following day was a bit bleary to start with. First part of the route was good but then onto the Highway and pretty sure we took a wrong turn as we went around Lyon, very busy with caravans and motorhomes, holiday makers returning home and we got caught up, stopped at the services to refuel, long queues for fuel but eventually back onto the back roads into Dijon and found the campsite, funny enough we realised we'd been here before a few years ago. As soon as the tent was up Fi crashed out, it had been a hard day following a bit of a party the night before and it was hot. We needed to do some maintenance , mega tight spot on Fiona's chain, both chains adjusted and oiled and bikes checked over. A longer than I remembered walk into town , Beer, Pizza and then a walk Home.

More to follow;

I remembered this

and this impressive exchange

Looking out of the bar at the world going by

Very old building could tell a few stories

Baffled by this display

Church again

And elephants and Hippos everywhere