First off, I cannot guarantee that this entry will not exceed 1200 words. I will do my best, but I'm going to try and cover the 3 days I spent visiting Mary-Kate in Lyon, and we did a lot. I also took over 100 pictures, and many of them will appear here.
Saturday:
Mary-Kate met me at the Gare Part-Dieu (Lyon's main train station), when I arrived around 10:30am. I could tell even by the size of the train station that Lyon is a much bigger city than Besancon. First we dropped off my suitcase at Mary-Kate's studio apartment -- luckily I was able to borrow a smallish suitcase from GuiGui, because otherwise I was going to have to make due with my backpack. Mary-Kate lives a little east of the city center, east of the Rhone. Lyon is divided into three main sections by two rivers: the Saone and the Rhone. On the far west bank is vieux Lyon (the oldest part of the city, where there are still the remains of Lugdunem, a Roman city) and the neighborhood Fourviere, where the 19th century basilica Notre-Dame de Fourviere is located. In between the two rivers is the presqu'ile, where Place Bellecour, one of the main squares, is located. And then on the west bank, on the far side of the Rhone, is Part-Dieu and the economic/commercial center.
Before setting out to explore the city, we first sought some sustenance at a restaurant called Le Bouchon des Carnivoires. I guess the name should have given us an indication, but the cafe was definitely meat-themed. There were large-game heads mounted on the walls too -- not something I expected. Mary-Kate and I both got the menu du jour: terrine de sanglier maison (sort of like a cold meatloaf made of wild boar meat), agneau en pot au feu (lamb stew with cabbage, carrots, and celery), and fondant au marrons (sort of like cheesecake, but made with chestnuts). It was all delicious and quite filling!
Next we walked across the Saone to walk around vieux Lyon. First off we went inside Cathedrale St. George, a beautiful white Gothic-style church. We were just inside the front door when we came across two girls who looked to be about our age. And who turned out to be Wake students! Mary-Kate recognized one of them from her French tutoring!! They are currently studying abroad through the Dijon program and they were in Lyon just for the day. We all exchanged information and I offered to house them should they ever decide to come to Besancon. What a small world!
Then we continued walking through vieux Lyon (we were making our way toward the Roman amphitheater by way of vieux Lyon's cute little back streets). Next we stopped in Cathedrale St. Jean. This cathedral happened to contain a beautiful and enormous astrological clock, parts of which date back to 1583 (the plaque said that the clock is mentioned in documents with that date). The church also had a beautiful rosace entitled "Le Vitrail des deux Adams" (The Window of Two Adams). Beginning with the circle at the top and moving clockwise around the rosace, each of the smaller circular windows describes the lives of Adam and Jesus, respectively. I thought that the front of the church was very unique, with it's very pointed arches on the first level and then the traditional rosace up higher.
There's also a cute little square in front of Cathedrale St. Jean, with lots of cafes. Vieux Lyon has a layout which is very distinctive from the other areas of the city which were built more recently. The streets in vieux Lyon date back to the Middle Ages, and the narrow streets open up to little courtyards/squares quite frequently. Since much of the presqu'ile and other parts of Lyon are distinctively Hausmannian (think the wide boulevards and tall 19th-century apartment buildings of Paris), this difference is even more noticeable here than it would be in say, Besancon.
The guignols, or puppets, which are a French mainstay, were apparently invented in Lyon. There was a little guignol museum in vieux Lyon and these chocolate guignol-cards are doubly appropriate, because a long time ago Lyon was a center for the printing of playing cards.
Anyway, we continued our trek up the west bank. We decided to walk instead of take the tram (le funiculaire), and ended up getting a bit turned around. We just kept walking up (at one point we climbed A LOT of stairs) and ended up at the very top of Fourviere near the basilica. The view was incredible! The basilica, Notre-Dame de Fourviere was pretty impressive too. Although it looks old, it was built in the mid-1800s, which makes it quite new for Lyon. Mass was just beginning when we arrived, so unfortunately I
didn't get to see very much of the basilica or take many pictures. It was sort of nice to see such a beautiful church being used by a real congregation though!
We took the funiculaire back down to Vieux Lyon and took another line back up to the Roman amphitheater (we had walked a lot at this point, and sundown would be coming soon -- we wanted to get there before it got back!) The amphitheater is part of the remains of Lugdunum, the Roman city which was located where Lyon stands today. I was really impressed by how much of the amphitheater is still intact!
So that night we cooked dinner at Mary-Kate's apartment and afterwards went out for a drink near Place Terreau (where the Hotel de Ville -- city hall -- and the Fine Arts Museum are both located).
Sunday:
We slept in quite late and then went to a market along the Saone. We thought it was going to be an artisan/craft market, but it turned out to be more of the typical weekend farmers' market. That was okay though -- I got to take lots of pretty pictures and we bought fruit to have with lunch and vegetables for dinner that evening.
We took the fruit to St. Jean's square in vieux Lyon, bought sandwiches from a store nearby, and had a delicious little picnic. There were lots of people eating in the cafes around the square, and a small crowd of rowdy rugby fans outside a bar on the corner. The New Zealand vs. France Rugby World Cup Final was on Sunday morning, and based on how much singing and dancing was going on, MK and I figured France had won (it turns out they lost 8-7). But that didn't stop these guys from dancing around the accordion player who was trying to serenade the cafe-goers....
After lunch we hit up the Musee Gadagne, a museum of the history of the city of Lyon. It may sound a bit boring, but Lyon has been sort of important for the past 400 years or so (both politically, but also as a center of printing, silk production, etc). The museum was really well done -- lots of variety in the objects that were displayed and a really good (and free!) audio tour. It was quite extensive though, and when we finished around 4pm MK and I were both desperately in need of a little pick-me-up. So we grabbed some coffee at one of the quite little cafes in vieux Lyon, then headed back in the direction of MK's apartment. On the way we came across this little book market -- it looked like the kind of thing which was open every weekend -- and spent lots of time browsing through the books. Most of the paperbacks were 1-2 euro each, and I was very tempted by several, but various people (Steff and Charly, teachers, etc) have loaned me books in French and so I really don't need to be lugging around others. But it was cool to look:
We made dinner at Mary-Kate and her friend Mathilde came over. MK met Mathilde in the hostel when she first arrived in Lyon and was trying to find a place to live. I asked Mathilde if she thought that there were more babies/bigger families now than in the recent past. She confirmed that France's birth replacement rate has actually increased in the last few years (I wondered if it was just Besancon, but noticed there were lots of families in Lyon too). Anyway, we had a great time and Mathilde brought a really yummy apple crumble. Afterward we walked around the presqu'ile taking pictures with the churches and buildings all lit up:
Monday:
My last day in Lyon, we headed to the Musee Beaux-Arts (fine arts museum) because I had heard great things. It turns out that their collection is mostly Italian and Flemish art, and mostly before 1800. Honestly this visit to the museum reminded me how little I know about art. I took one art history class in Dijon, and that was French art and focused on the 19th century and onward. I still have so much more to learn!After the museum we had lunch at a cute little place called Cafe 203. Then we went for a bike ride on a route Mary-Kate had found as a nice tour of the city. We saw the painted building, which portrays famous artists and authors from Lyon. There's a building across the street with windows painted on, can you tell which ones are real? (smaller picture on right)
Then we made our way to the Parc de la Tete d'Or, one of the largest urban parks in France. It opened in 1857, the same year as Central Park in NYC. It has a zoo, 8,800 trees and 30,000 flowers (thanks to Wikipedia for those last two stats). It was another perfect day to be outside -- sunny with brisk autumn air and a light breeze. I wish we could have spent all afternoon there, but we had to get back so I could make my plane to Vienna! I had a really wonderful weekend with Mary-Kate -- very relaxing and laid-back. We spent lots of time exploring the city and I liked Lyon very much. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting France. That's all for now!
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