Looking Around Lyon

Only 100km northwest of Grenoble lies Lyon, the third largest city in France. It was our destination for the day. As the sun began to peek over the mountains, we took the 9am train from Grenoble and arrived in Lyon mid morning. Walking through Lyon we noticed the oversize flower pots and the bams - our name for the trams with wheels or the buses on tram lines?!

Andy was walking us over the Rhone and Saone rivers to Vieux-Lyon, the largest renaissance old quarters in Europe which was built in 15th, 16th and 17th centuries when Lyon's silk industry was thriving, Unique to this district (as well as La Croix-Rousse, the district on the other side of the river Saone), are traboules. These delightful small passageways that run beneath buildings were initially built in the 4th century to allow a more direct access to fresh water. Later on the traboules allowed the silk workers to transport their textiles easily, quickly and safely from the elements. In WWII the traboules came in handy preventing the occupying Germans from taking complete control of this area.

Today there are over 400 traboules and the majority of these are on private property either used as entrances to apartments or for storage.  There are however a small portion that are open to the public, so Andy had us looking for a lion's head symbol used to identify these traboules. Absent of a lion's head symbol or any part of a lion, Andy looked at a derelict doorway and in a very convincing voice told us he had found the first one. We were not convinced but followed him in. This small passageway to us looked like the entrance to a variety of apartments. We all felt uneasy about the intrusion and were glad to reach the other end. Now in the heart of the old town with narrow cobblestone streets, hunger and cold was setting in and the majority of us were unconvinced about these traboules.

Luckily amongst all the expensive looking restaurants, we saw King Marcel, my burger is French and retreated inside. Happy to sit down in the warmth, we negotiated the menu and ordered lunch. The burgers and home cut chips were nice. Over lunch we discussed the traboules and decided in hindsight that it would have been better to do a guided tour but now didn't have time to. Post lunch we opted to do one more, the La Longue Traboule. We had no trouble finding this one, with a name plaque next to the door. We pushed the door open and entered the passageway. Traversing through 4 different buildings and courtyards, this traboule linked rue Saint Jean to rue de Boeuf.

Winding our way through the streets, we discovered a golden lion statue in the Place de la Basoche which was too irresistible not to climb! The Lion is one of the statues from the 2004 event The Lions Biennale - 60 lions, 60 places and 60 artists. Around the corner we admired the Cathedral Saint Jean Baptiste before purchasing a ticket for the funicular.

The 2 minute journey on the Saint Jean - Fourviere funicular saw us travel 400m and climb 116m. Climbing the stairs out of the station we found ourselves standing in front of an impressive looking building, the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere.

Finished in 1884, the Lyonnais architect, Pierre Bossan drew inspiration from both Romanesque and Byzantine architecture. Overlooking Lyon, perched on the top of Fourviere Hill, the Basilica dominates the skyline with it's four towers. These 48 metre high structures represent the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperate, force and justice.

We touch the lion's nose as we pull open the heavy door leading us inside. I don't think any of us were ready for what we saw. The interior of this Basilica was huge and amazing...... richly decorated gilded mosaics filling the walls and majestic massive stained glassed windows. One's eye is drawn upwards to the high vaulted beautifully decorated ceilings along the three cupolas then down the central nave ornately decorated to the altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary to whom this basilica is dedicated to. A peaceful place to pause for a moment.

Our exploration around Lyon continues - going further back in history to the Roman era. Only 300m southwest of the Basilica is the Lugdunum. Established in 43BC, this Roman colony was the capital of the province of Lyon. We explored the remains of the Roman theatres. Conveniently located side by side, the Grand theatre, is the larger of the two spanning 108m in diameter. Audiences of up to 10,000 people sat in the 25 stands under canvas awning to watch comedies or tragedies. The smaller Odeon theatre only sat 2,500 people and was commonly used by poets, musicians or politicians. We enjoyed discovering this ancient site.

Travelling by metro, our final destination for the day was at the request of the girls - Parc de la Tete d'Or. The largest and most popular urban park in Lyon. Boasting the botanical gardens, a (free) zoo, a velodrome, a boating lake and the list goes on! We made a bee line past the botanical gardens to the centre of the park where the zoo was located. On the way we saw the deer enclosure and the centre de recuperation des tortues de Floride - a waterway full of Florida Turtles - aimed at educating the potential environmental damage done when releasing pet Florida Turtles into the waterways in France.

Next into view was a fair, which we thankfully didn't have time for, before the edge of the zoo was seen. The noisy tamarins stopped everyone in their tracks. We skirted around the periphery spying various animals - flamingoes, buffalo, the giraffes nicely tucked away inside out of the cold, a zebra or two. Eventually we came across the entrance weaving our way from display to display trying to spot the animal without much luck - it seemed like they were all keeping warm hiding inside! To try and warm us up too, we bought freshly made churros - delicious and warm!

Originally aiming for the 5.20pm train, we realised that with all our sight seeing done perhaps we could make an earlier train. A little searching revealed there was a 4.20 train. It was 3.50pm and we were a 22 min google walk from the train station. Tickets were purchased en route and we arrived walking straight on to the train to enjoy the journey home. A great day out!