And as luck would have it, 3 rafale fighters flew by on the way out to Orange:

It had been 12 years since I got to visit non-Paris France. Thanks to a festival in the middle of the country, it was an excuse to see a few more bits. Due to limited time, I had to make hard choices on what to go see during only a few days when there actually so many worthwhile things to see.
In the end, I decided to make a push from Geneva to Orange, before spending the night in Lyon. It was a bit difficult because there are multiple days of cool things to see close to Orange, but due to Hadra Trance Festival dates, there wasn't enough time for that.

The trip from Geneva started a bit later than planned due to my being an idiot and dropping one of my 2 phones in the uber to the airpot to pick up the rental car. Thankfully the uber driver was a champ and was able to meet me in town, which sadly wasted over 1h, but it didn't impact the rest of the day too much.

The first stop was la cité du chocolat Valrhona which had a cool museum:

the store did not suck either

Next was the Musée Européen de l'Aviation de Chasse (clickme) by Montélimar:

but sadly I missed the Palace of Sweets and Nougat that was a few minutes away and we went to Orange, next:

Best preserved Romain Theatre in France, still used for shows

Started with a small museum across the street:

Then came time for the theatre, which thankfully closed late (19:30):

And a really nice triumph arch on the way out of town. Is it maybe the oldest one in France?

After that, a 2H drive back north to Lyon for the night.

From there, it was finally time to finish the drive to Hadra Trance Festival for the next 3 days

Day 2 was the last day before going to Hadra Trance Festival, so it was meant to be a bit shorter, but in the end it was a full day because Lyon honestly has 2 days' worth of things to see. Anyway, I gave it a reasonable shot :)

subway to mid-city

firsr church

funiculaire to the 2nd much better church

Lyon has a good public transit system

Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière looks unusual from outside

and it is absolutely amazing inside

did I say how beautiful it was inside?

This area from Lyon is high up, good view of town from up there:

roman theatre just next door

nice mural

I then went back to low town and picked a movie prop museum which was excellent:

B5, I miss you!

fast and furious original NOS seat!

fifth element!

Old Lyon is known for old small narrow streets, but many can't be visited anymore:

Cute stores though:

yum

Then found Lyon Museum of Fine arts which was quite decent:

Then we back to mid town to switch to a tram to the cool looking building of Musée des Confluences:

good views from that museum

Then, it was time to leave Lyon, even if it was a bit early. Obligatory selfie:

I was supposed to go to directly to Hadra Trance Festival from there, but ended up doing a stop at Abbaye de Cluny first.

After Hadra Trance Festival, the nearest city woth visiting was Bourges, and it was nice:

Happened to find a random cosplay, manga and video game expo:

Then there was time to visit the rest of the city:

old very narrow streets

nice little snack break

Bourges Cathedral is of course nice:

Stopped at a small natural science museum:

The next morning, before heading out, went to visit the cool and unusal path through canals, place des Frênes

So long, Bourges: