Saturday, June 08
It was a warm night in Lyon so we had the windows in the apart-hotel opened; around 1AM the bars down below started to quiet down and then at 8AM I awoke to what I thought was a drumline practicing outside. Turns out that the cobbled pedestrian streets make a lot of noise when a bunch of logistical wheeled lifts and dumpsters pass by. Roused by the noise, we moved on to coffee and eventually made an outing.
A much emptier square compared to last night, but about as noisy with heavy wheeled dollies.
First stop of the day was by a store called Pralus to pick up a Praline, though in this case, the treat was crushed up candy incorporated into a brioche dough. Since we had gone there searching for a tarte à la praline, we made our way to another store where we grabbed a baguette and three tartelettes. Back at home base, we enjoyed a late breakfast of baguette and nutella; we'll save the tarteletes for later.
We also spotted a store specializing in pavlovas; we're not the biggest meringue fans but I could be persuaded...
And here's a patisserie featuring the tarte à praline where we grabbed the tartelettes.
Checking out the weekend river market. Plenty of stalls featuring produce, local products, and flowers.
Say fromage!
From the market, we worked our way towards the town hall square so we could preview the museum of beaux-arts, or at least the sculptures in its cool cloister
Et voila, the town hall! It wasn't clear to me if a lot people had business inside or were just entering to see it.
Wow. Get a load of the detail... on the toes and soles of the feet
Butt for real, its incredible that sculpteurs can mimic the folds of cloth and lightness of hair with marble.
Before committing to the museum, we made a quick stop at the amphitheater of the three Gauls a short way into the Croix-Rousse section. Looks like its an open air theater that hosts free performances now.
With the weather looking ready to rain hard and my parents having already walked most of the old town and croix-rousse, we planned to spend the potentially hot afternoon at the museum of Beaux Arts. The museum was definitely worth the €8 entry given it's surprisingly large number of rooms; we kept thinking we were almost done with a floor only to find the rooms kept going 😅. Audio guides were only €1 and seemingly provided a bit more info that the French plaque for each item listed (I declined an audio guide because I wanted to force myself to read the plaques in French); plus tickets were valid all day, so we were able to see the sculptures in the basement and then grab a late lunch before returning for more. But about 17h45 the staff got everyone out of the place.
The museum used to be an old abbey/monsastery, which is why there was a cloister with a sculpture garden.
The basement featured just a few more sculptures; many of the plaques spoke about Rodin and how his work influenced many of the other scultpures featured in the museum. Maybe I didn't quite understand what the plaques/handouts were trying to communicate completely, but it seems Rodin was a figurehead of the movement away from pure realism and more towards exaggeration of forms and features.
I found this to be the most fascinating sculpture for me: titled "the power of will" it features different human forms on both front and back seemingly maintaining shape/existence in harsh conditions but capable of adapting.
Taking a break to get lunch nearby. This libanais place featured tacos, naans, etc. all quick and cheap dining options.
The 2nd floor featured a walk through history and many regions; I feel the collections here were appreciable (not too big but several examples of each thing). Here we see how important pulling calves out of cows was to the Egyptians. It was kinda surprising to see wood figurines; I typically associated wood art with medieval but that's probably because wood typically doesn't survive long enough for really ancient art.
Slightly less ancient, this furniture is art that once decorated a famous person's bedroom. They can't be that famous cause I can't remember their name 😅 but the color palette and forms made me think this would fit right in at Casa Battlo in Barcelona.
On the third floor, we found paintings from all areas and ages. I'd stepped into medieval France and started to work my way around from there but we were quickly running out of time till closing. I call this one "A Case of the Mondays"
"Alright, who wants to get smote?!!"
For dinner, we returned towards Place Bellecourse to walk the wide open square and observe the Rhone and the river cruise ships tied up there. Then we found a restaurant on la Rue des Marroniers, which had been pointed out to me by my flight neighbor the night before.
On the river Rhone side of things, apparently its a large pool complex over there. The other side of the river also featured lots of tiered seating along the river, seemed kinda nice. This part of the Presque-île is dominated by car routes along the river.
A quenelle, which I'd say is like a fish soufflé served in a crayfish sauce. Light, fluffy, and tasty 😋
Funnily, my Dad had seen people being served this and thought it was a sausage in cheese sauce
A late night stroll along the Saone to let the food settle
Sunday, June 09
We indulged a bit more than we should have for breakfast, eating the whole praluline when we probably should have just eaten half. But it was really good, and wasn't going to get better with age 😅
The praluline is a brioche with broken up bits of Lyon's signature red praline folded into the dough. It's soft, rich, sweet, and nutty all at the same time 😋
Today we walked a bit through old Lyon before following the Saone down to the Confluence. It was a good walk along a rehabilitated industrial port. I was impressed with how lively things along the banks of the Saone were, lots of house boats / paniches that seemingly operated as auberges. The tip of the confluence itself wasn't much of a sight aside from a few swans patrolling the area but I'm glad we took the time to make the trek.
Some sort of market happening in the square in old town; this seemed more like household items and antiques than local products.
Looks like it could be comfy. There were a lot of these boats tied up along the river.
Not to get too into the weeds, but as we approached the confluence section of the Presque-île, there were a few ponds featuring fish and some noisy frogs. At first we thought they were birds, but after my parents tried using an app to identify birds that yielded no results, we deduced it was the grenouilles.
As we entered the renovated port area, it was neat to see how each building was given its own unique style; this was eye catching not only because of the orange color but also the balconies formed in this cutout.
Even if this one kept most of the original facade, the inclusion of deep balconies is pretty neat.
Et voila, the tip of the Presque-île; consider yourself confluenced.
I remember seeing a pair of swans crossing the Saone, then looking away and seeing a pair of swans walking over the bit of land and into the Rhone. Turns out they were different pairs but I digress.
The map puts it into perspective why this is called the Presque-île. Also, during my ride from the airport to Lyon, I was informed about the difference between the French words "fleuve" and "riviere": la Rhone is a fleuve because it terminates at the Mediterannean, la Saone is a riviere because it terminates at the Rhone.
This museum at the Confluence had me recalling images of the Guggenheim in Bilbao; we didn't go inside for the art museum within but it was an interesting building to walk around.
From the confluence, we took a tram and bus to le Part Dieu and then up to the Tete D'Or park. There we swung by a grocery store to make a picnic lunch: baguette, cured beef, comté, strawberries, and petits beurres. To my great delight, our improvised picnic was a hit with my parents as we munched on a shady bench near the botanical gardens.
Afterwards, public gardens and the zoo. The park is quite large, with the zoo it reminds me of Millenium Park in Chicago; riding bicycles around the lake/park could be an interesting way to spend a sunny day. Plenty of people were out on the grass lounging in the sun.
It got very toasty inside the greenhouses of the botanical gardens but it was interesting to see the species from francophone tropical areas
It's been interesting getting to discover which words the French have decided it's not worth making a new word for. Example A: chewing gum
There weren't too many active monkeys in the other pens of this building, so the capuchins in this section were drawing a lot of interest.
A large section of the zoo is dedicated to an African enclosure; it wasn't until I spotted the giraffes that I could confirm it was an African enclosure.
While I don't think they're specifically a part of the Africa enclosure, these pelicans were really hamming it up for the visitors. One was right on the hand rail, striking poses for people.
With my sister arriving via train in the afternoon, we started to make our way out of the park. We didn't have too much time to stop and smell the flowers of this rose garden, but there were a lot of people finding quiet spots in the grass to relax around it.
I'm glad we made a detour to briefly see the lake; it makes up a substantial amount of the park, it'd have been a shame not to see the electric boats puttering about this Sunday afternoon.
We grabbed an Uber back to the apartment to await my sister's arrival. When she reached us, we chit chatted and compared Paris notes briefly before heading down to dinner. Eating at a place close to the apart-hotel, we enjoyed some beaujolais rouge.
Waiting for our Uber to take us from the main gate back to the hotel; the park is definitely un coup d'oeil if one can spare the time. Not pictured is the giant carousel just out of frame to the left.
I liked that the taxi info stands looked like they said "tata xixi" from the right angle.
A poached pear for my dessert. Dinner was located close to where we were staying; the little pedestrian center was bustling at dinnertime but we didn't struggle to be seated without reservations.
A quick family call for our usual Sunday time slot:
Monday, June 10
My sister and I slept on the split single beds of the couch and we all enjoyed a breakfast of bakewell tarts my parents brought from Bakewell, UK. Not too much longer after, my sister's fiancés family arrived and we prepared for a day of exploring Lyon.
My parents have accumulated an impressive amount of knowledge in their stay here and my Dad acted as primary tour guide today. We walked to Place Bellecourse and then the vielle-ville as he explained a little about the various monuments, places, and statues we encountered.
This fountain features four "sons" of Lyon from different centuries; that's about what I got from our quick walk around the fountain and I'm ok with that 😆
Here in Place Bellecour, we had learned at the Museum of Beaux Arts that King Louis XIV is supposed to have sculptures representing the Rhone and Saone to his left and right but they're on display at the museum for renovation.
A sculpture of Antoine de Saint-Exupery with his famous little prince. My Dad liked how the author's disappearance over the Mediterannean closely mirrored a quote from the Little Prince about how the Prince would return home.
Next stop, old town and Fourviere!
Our little group of 8 had a good time making a brief walk through old town; its a charming area.
I guess a puppet named Guignoll was a popular Lyonais figure for a while?
A river cruise tour group was here as we passed by; the guide mentioned how this building was owned by a family who used the sun as their crest.
From the vielle-ville, we rode the funicular up to the top of Fourviere. The basilica up there was impressive, just a little decorated on the inside, and featured a highly-inclusive (or cooptive) gallery of Mary and Jesus in the crypt.
Kinda neat that the funicular is just part of the greater public transit system; the line to Fourviere only has one stop but the other line has two stops.
This was the first funicular I've taken that has a tunnel; it was a bit unsettling to see the descending car's headlights "hurtling" at us until the tracks split enough for the cars to pass.
Fourvière isn't a particularly old basilica (1896) but it was certainly impressive.
Inside the place was also really well decorated. It reminded me a bit of visiting Lourdes, the "newness" of the place can be felt in the art style and methods.
Down in the crypt, the first sign we were in for not just the virgin next door was this Notre Dame d'Afrique
I mean, it's not much of a crypt without a cryptic, inaccessible area, right?
This one piqued a lot of interests in our group; it's interesting to think how things would've turned out if the nativity had happened in Sichuan.
Atop Fourviere, the hill provides a great view of Lyon and we admired it for a bit. We had sandwiches before stopping by the metal tower (not much to seemingly interact with); then doubled back to see the roman theaters.
Pretty neat that we could make out the foothills of the Alps today.
It's certainly a metallic tower. We took a peak around the corner and I don't think there's anything to be done with this tower...
Les Théatres de Lugdunum: these were an impressive display of stone ruins with some walls seemingly left partially in tact. We meandered around the ruins for a bit while several artists were touring the modern stages for what must be an upcoming performance. I found it pretty interesting when a sign mentioned that big difference between Roman and Greek theaters was that Roman theaters were enclosed such that the Roman audience wouldn't have been able to see the mountains.
It's cool that they use it as a current event venue; at least, I assume so based on the condition of the seat section
The area had a fairly lassaiz-faire approach for visitors; we were fairly free to wander about and peruse the various walls and alleys.
Do you think the ancient Romans had someone walking around selling bags of peanuts?
The site features two theaters, one bigger than the other. If there was a reason for it, I've already forgotten 😅
I can't imagine the hours of labor needed to build this stone by stone; cause it's a lot of small stones...
We weren't the only ones here, the other big group seemed to be singers getting acquainted with the venue
With all the passages, walls, and stairs, it makes me wonder what this place would have looked like in its heyday.
We took the funicular down from the theater ruins and worked our way up through the rest of old town, which was our first exposure to the traboule. At the upper edge of old town, we crossed over the Soene and proceeded up the hill of Croix-Rousse.
It suddently struck me that there was a sky-blue background to the window of the top triangle; could the triangle really just be a part of the facade?
We've come across our first traboule: these covered passages connect private buildings clear through to the next street. Some are open to the public but I suppose even more in Lyon are private.
This long traboule featured a few covered passageways opening up into courtyards
A nifty little quirk in the town's arhictecture!
This one was called the Long Traboule and it was fairly long, I think we passed through 4 buildings.
Things got narrow in some areas but still more passable than a stone wall
The stair wells have a distinct feel to them here to accommodate the traboule.
Lyon had a bustling silk textile business for a while; so it was cool to see live silkworms on display here
So many people gathered around this little clock for the 3PM show. At 3PM , the panel opened up and a little wooden figure game out; then the ones inside the glass case did a few spins or twirls and that was that 😂 It was all rather unclimatic
The narrowness of this building caught my attention; it's built almost like a wall rather than a residential building.
Crossing the Saone to get into Croix-Rousse; I'm so glad the weather was cooperative today. All our walking could have been unpleasant if things were too warm and miserable if things were rainy.
Our visit to Croix-Rousse terminated with the mural des Canuts, a truly impressive mural work. From there, we worked our way down via an eastern facing park (the big pebble) and another traboule. While walking, I found my hand suddenly sliced from a metal band sticking out from street post! Fortunately, it was only a minor cut and stopped bleeding with just a bit of pressure from my other hand; still, a bizarre occurrence.
Various influential Lyonais are featured in this mural; at the bottom is Paul Bocuse, a highly renowned chef / gastronome
Another look at the theater des 3 Gauls, this time from a different angle as we ascend the hill to the summit of Croix-Rousse.
This area felt different but still historied and pleasant; can't complain about a wide open stair street like this.
One park we found featured concrete silk-cocoon benches. This area featured a lot of silk workers, called Canuts.
A quick little exhibit about how the mural has changed over the years; even its first iteration was an ambitious work that meant to beautify the space around the advertising boards
"Your hand in mine, like a 10-fingered sun, (then) the universe can start"
Our route brought us back along the town hall and opera house before returning to the hotel to give our feet a moment of rest. But not too long, my sister, her fiancé, and I did a quick walk about to buy a praluline for tomorrow's breakfast and some cheese (a saint-martinne et une saint-felicienne). We had a nice moment on the bank of the Soene trying cheese and baguette using the picnic-perfect knife he'd gifted me today!
I'm not sure what it's trying to say, but this impromptu piece of art on the wall is speaking to me.
Another traboule, le Cour des Voraces. The look of this courtyard is just dominated by the slant of the stairwells.
When my sister wondered aloud if this was a dentist office, a woman we were passing by audibly laughed and paused to inform us it was a theater 😁
Tatin! The other side of the town hall! Honestly, the side facing the fountain might be more impressive.
The opera house; my dad said it's referred to as the Toaster, which makes sense. I'm just wondering where he read / heard that.
This kid seemed very entertained with his game of "how close can I get my face to the water"
Shortly after, we made our way to old-ville for dinner. I'd tried getting reservations for the buffet-style bouchon at Chez Chabert the previous day but didn't have any luck, so I had made reservations for another place that listed itself as a bouchon. Turns out Auberge des Canuts has many of the dishes served for a bouchon but not in the bucket-style my parents had tested last Thursday; still, we all left dinner quite stuffed.
Un tablier de sapeur: breaded and fried tripe 😋
Good food and family, only the freshest local(?) ingredients for this birthday meal
We finished off the night by walking around town after sunset. We came across a protest snaking its way around town; I'm not sure what they were protesting but at least one chant included the word "Gaza".
Even more ruins to stumble across at night!
I gotta say, I get the appeal of Lyon. Thus far I'd say it's a town I could live in; for some reason I want to say it feels a bit like Chicago but I don't have any logic or words to explain that feeling.
It was at this moment, this this car knew "I gotta back up"
By all means run, chicken, but I'd suggest a different street...
Another photo to add to the album of interesting European water fountains.
Great weekend here in Lyon and a great birthday to celebrate among visiting family.
Tuesday, June 11
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but it's on the agenda for today. We had an easy morning by having breakfast as a group in one of our rooms: un praluline, une tarte a la praline, du pain, de la confiture, et du fromage. Having eaten very well we stashed the suitcases and developed a plan of attack for our three groups.
We all met chez les Halles de Lyon but my parents shortly moved on to the train station. I helped wheel one of their suitcases there and when walking back I found there were several people engaging those exiting the station. They introduced themselves as animateurs and were peddling cards as a fund raiser to support activities for children; I'm unsure if they're scammers or not (someone was equipped with a bag for making change) but I passed all the same.
Crossing the Rhone from the Presque-île; this barge with construction equipment did a 180 on the river in front of us. Kansei dorifto!
Back in les Halles, I found my sister's squad were perusing the stalls and purchased a few local items (including a candy shaped like a silk cocoon). To profit from being in France, we all sat down for a platter of les fruit de mer. For the youngest of our group, it was his first taste of raw oysters but everyone seem pleased with the experience.
We even tried two different varieties/harvests(?) of oysters; I was very surprised at the difference in taste between them! Still not my favorite thing in the world but I'm glad they all got to experience a French culinary classic
From les Halles, we meandered our way up to Parc Tête d'or. After giving them some advice about where to visit in the parc, I bade them adieu and started the walk back to the hotel to reclaim my bags.
I'm tickled pink that they everyone could come visit me. I can only hope I'm as energetic or spry as my parents when I'm their age: they took every step I did and never complained about being tired! And having confined my travels to mostly France recently, I find the idea of traveling to a country where I don't know the language well to be daunting (I'm not sure when that happened because I don't think it was the case before).
Navigating from the Presqu'île to the airport was simple enough: a metro ride and an air train had me at LYS in an hour. I was getting drowsy on the air train just before arriving, but was awake to marvel at the LYS' example of a combined air/train station.
A smooth air train ride; my quick ride from the airport to town meant that I didn't realize just how far away from the historic parts of town the airport is.
Behold! You have options planes, trains, and automobiles here
I decided to try out the tomato juice option on the flight to see why it kept being offered; turns out it comes with celery salt too. 🤷♂️
The only mishap this travel was picnic knife I received as a gift didn't make it through security. I suppose that's not really a surprise; what was a surprise was that the guy explaining to me I couldn't just check my bag because of the style of knife. Being a folding Opinel with a bracket for locking the blade, he told me that such knives are ok at home but forbidden in public places: technically, he'd be obligated to call the police. But surrendering the knife and letting it go in the garbage sufficed instead getting my mug shot taken; but it does have me wonder how are such knives getting from the store to private domiciles? Do they teleport? Anyhow, I breathed a sigh of relief when it seems that it wasn't a $100 knife.
Back in BIQ, I picked up my new rental vehicle to finish out my stay here. It's an automatic Peugeot, this one only has 1,500 km on it!
Here's Biarritz's presque-île
It was great to quickly check out a different part of France with family; hopefully some day they'll have the chance to visit the SW of France too.
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