Au Revoir, Paris. We started our day early, leaving at 7:30 am .  We beat most of the morning rush and traveled south toward France's 3rd largest city – Lyon, founded by the Romans in 43BC.

Our first stop was in the village of Beaune for a tour of the Hotel-Dieu or Hospice de Beaune, an early hospital and a place I had been looking forward to visiting . The hospital was built in 1443 by Nichols Rolin, chancellor of Duke of Burgundy who used his personal fortunate to build and endow this hospital as a palace for the poor. He spared no expense and filled the building with fantastic art, including the amazing The Polyptych of the last Judgement. The hospital cared for patients until the 1970s when a more modern building was built.

After Beaune, we got back on the bus for the trip to Lyon and a visit to the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is an amazing section of about ten blocks which is largely as it was during the Renaissance when Lyon was a wealthy commercial center famous for silk weaving and silk painting.

We ended the day with a festive dinner with two other couples and lots of Beaujolais wine.  As the local saying goes, Lyon has three rivers – the Rhone, the Saone and the Beaujalais.  We are learning the French take their wine very seriously. We arrived back at our hotel at about 9:30pm – really tired from all the activity of the past four days.

Photos from Hospice du Beaune and Lyon.