Salad Welcome

We are north of Lyon, France in the Rhone River Valley region. I'm sure that means a lot more to some wine afficienados than it does to us. To us it means that the heat is abating and life is getting cooler. Yea! We spent the day travelling from Arles to Macon (I don't know how to get that thingy above the "a" in Macon. You'll just have to pretend it's there) through a short stop in Lyon. France (yes the whole country) takes vacation in August. We saw them all on the motorway. Thankfully, they were going the opposite direction - but their cars were just as packed as ours was (only theirs are smaller cars. But! we saw *2* American sized SUVs today on the road. Oh those crazy frenchies...)
We stopped in Lyon because we needed to eat and it's a pretty major city in France (third largest behind Marseilles and Paris.) Since we aren't getting to Normandie, I thought we could hit a few other WWII sights for Colin, since he has expressed interest in this era. Lyon is home to the Museum of French Resistance (just try to say that without the accent. It's impossible. Really.) and I also wanted to visit: must be all those viewings of the Val Kilmer classic "Top Secret." The kids were able to relate a bit, too, after we pointed out that the movie "Valient" covered the same thing.
We needed to eat, and of course, being Sunday, everything was closed. Except the movie theater. So we ate at the snack bar. Lucky for us, Lyon's movie theater serves quiche and fruit salad.
Off to the museum, and the kids were free (Hooray! I LOVE Lyon) so for 8 euro, we got 6 audioguides and about an hour's worth of info on the French resistance movement. It was all very interesting. Edwin enjoyed playing with the audioguide and listening to English. Aidan and Colin got the most out of the trip - Julia's tour was a bit abridged as I steered her away from some of the more intense internment camp details. There were life sized models of housed and basements where much of the movement took place and the whole exhibit was well lit and had both French and English information.
Back on the road we went after retrieving the car from it's spot in front of the museum that we didn't have to pay for because... the whole country is on vacation and parking metere don't require money for the month of August. The whole month. Because they are all on vacation. The land of taxes in surplus of 44 percent going to good use here...
On to Macon (see spelling note above) and check in to the hotel. I should say check out first, since I refuse to stay anywhere now without looking at the rooms first. And getting there during daylight is a must. The rooms are small, but have AC and are clean. The staff is truly French (read: rude) so after being refused dinner at the hotel restaurant because they were "full" we headed over to another restaurant around the corner. We are staying at an obvious rest stop off the highway as there are at least 5 hotel/motels within 2 blocks of each other (one being a Comfort Inn.) So we headed to the restaurant that caters to the traveller and it felt like an American place with a few exceptions: the biggest being the no english thing. The next was the "salad welcome." As soon as you sit down, they come up to your table and offer either a salad or plate of salami as a pre-first course snack. Kind of like the free bread deal in restaurants at home. It's a "welcome to the restaurant, here's a salad for you." On the menu it's even called the salade du bienvenue. And since the dressing was mayonnaise based (a horrible no-no in Italia) it was even a better welcome. On a curious note, marked on the bottle of Vittel mineral water was the sign of the French Resistance movement; Large V with the double cross inside it. We only noticed it because we had just seen it about 1000 times at the museum this afternoon. I have no idea what kind of significance it has to do with the water...maybe it's to free the world from the Coca Cola corporation or something. After the 3 course meal, (Brian had four; the first being a baked potato without the potato: some kind of cheese topped with onion, chives and creme fraiche) I took the 3 younger kids and walked them back to the hotel to burn off some energy. We ran into a large group of English people (from England) and had a lovely chat. They are headed south and can't wait to get somewhere warmer. We assured them that there is plenty of heat and sun waiting for them. We are headed north to Paris tomorrow and hoping for a break in the heat. We will be up early to see if we can rent bicycles for a short (I can only hope) journey on the Voire Vert before heading on to Paris. I am counting on some more salad welcomes along the way, because really, what kind of welcome would it be without some fresh greens drenched in dressing?