It was just over 220km from Vaison-la-Romaine to Lyons to return the car. We of course chose every back road we could find, with no tolls, and Google said it would take us 3 hours and 15 minutes.

We went through many small towns with lots of 30km per hour sections. But we didn’t mind that. We reckon we get to see more of France from these roads than we do from a motorway.

Around 10.30am we needed a coffee and stopped at the small village of Chambeuil.

We found a park outside the Marie, which was very impressive. Every single village in France has a Marie and a Monsieur Le Maire or a La Maire.

This mural was very clever on one of the buildings we walked past to get us to the café / restaurant / bar. There was nothing to eat (à manger) there but next door at the little supermarket Mick was able to buy a croissant and chocolat pain. Perfect.

Next stop was Vienne so we could charge the car while we had some lunch. The EV charging station I’d picked was available, and we felt safe leaving the car as it was in front of the Gendarmerie.

We headed off in search of somewhere to eat.

We found a restaurant called Chez Nous where we had a very ordinary meal. It was about 30m from this old abbey.

We only had 30km to go. Everything went well until the last 2km. Lots of road work and weird turns. I took one wrong turn and that took us ten minutes to make up but eventually we found the parking station.

We were both very pleased with ourselves.

But then I had to drive up to the 6th floor via a spiral driveway. Scary.

But I made it!!

We walked across the road and caught the Rhône Express to the airport where we are staying the night. We found our hotel and enjoyed dinner in their restaurant.

But beforehand, we opened a 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Durieu that we had bought the other day when we were there. It might have been the best wine we have had from the region so far, or we were both so relieved to be safe in Lyons with the rental car returned without an issue.

Tomorrow we catch an Air France flight to Paris.

We have found hiring an EV in France to be very easy. Before we left Australia I signed up for this EV charging card.

It was a good thing I did because not all charging stations accepted only a credit card.

France has wonderful infrastructure to support EV vehicles. Every village, no matter the size, has a charging station. We were told that service stations on the motorways do as well but we never tested that.

Paris tomorrow.