To Vienne via Lyon

We jumped on the train at Les Halles and almost immediately realised we were going the wrong way!  One long ride then two stops back to Paris Gare de Lyon.  We just made it.  People were helpful all the way – a platform guard at Paris Nord got us onto a crowded train and a passenger helped Hilary’s bag over the gap and up to the train, the ticket collector at Paris Gare de Lyon very kind when the Grenoble ticket kept popping up on the phone!

After loading our cases at the Left Luggage/Consignee locker in Lyon, we walked to the Archives Départementales and booked our cartons.  They came in archival boxes, a year of quarto pages wrapped in paper.  The first two boxes, 1857 and 1858, had not been touched since archiving so were very dusty.  The third had fingerprints all over the paper, so that one had been opened.  We were glad to wash our hands.

We had hoped to find guardianship/la tutelle papers for Jean Louis [Hilary’s great, great grandfather] as his father died before he was 21 and an estate inventory/inventoire de deces after François died, but found neither.  We dawdled over looking at page after page of beautiful writing, often with names of people we recognised from the area - but not relatives.  We did get a copy of the Contract of [re]Marriage for Jean Louis’ mother.  We have the marriage certificate.  We will talk with Hilary’s cousin Jean Paul to see if he has other ideas about the research.

Train to Vienne and a late afternoon walk around the town. A Roman temple here, Roman ruins there.

Geoff had an email from SNCF [after he complained] apologising for the misinformation message, and also an email from Le French Text noting our problem and saying they would look at changing the instructions.