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Andy and Tiana arrived in Lyon to visit for about a week. They had first spent a few days in Paris, including celebrating Tiana’s birthday at the Buddha Bar. Then they took the high speed train down to Lyon.

Tiana likes flea markets so she did a web search and found Lyon’s weekend market. We took a city bus to the outskirts of Lyon and spent a fascinating Saturday morning exploring the market. It is a huge warren of stalls, each with a specialty (old clothes, phonograph records, home furnishings, etc.). Some of the goods were excellent finds, others were junk, but it was all interesting. And we were definitely far outside of the tourist circuit.

There were several small restaurants scattered about the flea market and we ended up in what is probably the only biker bar in Lyon. The owner was very friendly, and though he spoke very little English (and we spoke very little French) he went out of his way to make sure we understood the menu, even bringing some things from the kitchen to show us what was what. Throughout our stay in France we were often impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the people we encountered.

Tiana has a motorcycle and she showed the restaurant owner some photos of her bike.  He knew exactly what she had and they were able to communicate a shared interest, even with few shared words.

We explored the Croix-Rousse neighborhood, located on a steep hill to the north of the center of Lyon.  The streets are steep and are interspersed with stairways to allow people to easily walk up and down the hills in their neighborhood.  We took the bus to the top of the hill and walked back down some of the stairs.

Starting in the 16th century and continuing into the 19th century Lyon was the capital of the European silk trade, and Croix-Rousse became a major silk weaving center.  Many of the buildings in Croix-Rousse have 12-foot ceilings to accommodate the silk looms.  Now Croix-Rousse has become a favorite neighborhood for young adults, kind of “hipster central” for Lyon.

Around 1800 Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a mechanized loom that used punch cards much like the early computers used more than a century later.  The Jacquard loom revolutionized the silk industry and contributed to the prosperity of Lyon during the 19th century.  There is a statue of Jacquard in the central square in Croix-Rousse.  There was a pigeon sitting on his head during our visit.

The weather in Lyon during early April was hit-or-miss with some relatively nice (but cool) days and others with rain and wind.  It was fairly nice on the day we visited Croix-Rousse so we sat outside at a cafe for lunch.  As part of the cafe there was a man shucking oysters at an outdoor table, providing oysters to the cafe patrons as well as to anyone who walked by.  Oysters are common on menus in Lyon and seem to be a preferred treat for the locals.

 

Lyon was the center of the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation in World War II.  Lyon now has an excellent museum documenting the Resistance activities as well as the deportation of Jews to the Nazi concentration camps.  The museum is called the “Centre d’historie de la resistance et de la deportation” and it is housed in a former military medical school building that was used by the Nazis during the war to torture Resistance fighters.  We spent an entire afternoon in this fascinating yet haunting museum.  All of the signage was in French, but the museum provided a cell phone app that gave a guided tour in English.

The Resistance fighters in Lyon fought bravely but many were captured and tortured or killed.  And despite their efforts to hide and protect their Jewish neighbors, many thousands of Jews were deported from France to the concentration camps.  The Resistance fighters were very well-organized, with a communications network of newsletters and radios.  Many of the newsletters were printed and distributed in the traboules of Vieux Lyon to avoid detection by the Nazis.

The most brutal torture was conducted under the watch of the Lyon Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, aka the Butcher of Lyon. “Among other atrocities, Barbie personally tortured and executed many of his prisoners. In 1943, he captured Jean Moulin, the leader of the French Resistance, and had him slowly beaten to death. In 1944, Barbie rounded up 44 young Jewish children and their seven teachers hiding in a boarding house in Izieu and deported them to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Of the 51, only one teacher survived.” (from History.com)

After the war Barbie fled to Bolivia but he was eventually hunted down and returned to Lyon in 1987 where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity (the statute of limitations had expired for war crimes) and sentenced to life imprisonment.  The museum has a chilling 45-minute documentary film on Barbie’s trial, much of which consists of Barbie’s victims describing the atrocities they suffered.

As we toured the museum we encountered several groups of teenagers who appeared to be on school trips to the museum.  It was heartening to know that France is making the effort to ensure that the next generation understands the atrocities that were committed under the Nazis so they can do their best not to allow it to happen again.

We spent some time exploring the various parts of Lyon, our new home for the month of April.  The center of Lyon is located on the presqu’ile (press-KEEL), a narrow peninsula between the Rhone and Saone Rivers, just upstream from their confluence.  The presqu’ile is only about 1 km wide and about 5 km long so it is easily walkable.  It contains many of Lyon’s best shops and restaurants, as well as the city hall, Hotel de Ville de Lyon.

At the center of the presqu’ile is Place Bellecour, the largest square in Lyon and the cultural heart of the city.  There is a large equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the center of the square.  Place Bellecour has been the site of many celebrations and demonstrations over the years.  During our time in Lyon we witnessed a huge demonstration by striking railroad workers, including a large bonfire right in Place Bellecour.

We wanted to see the actual confluence of the rivers so we took the streetcar to the end of the presqu’ile so we could take a look.  Lyon has an excellent public transportation system consisting of buses, streetcars, and an underground Metro, so you can easily get to any part of the city.  We bought a transit pass for the month of April so we had unrestricted transportation while we were in Lyon.

The Rhone and the Saone are both major rivers flowing out of the Alps, so the confluence was quite impressive.  There is a lot of water there, making its way to the Mediterranean near Marseilles.  There is a new museum right near the confluence, the Musee des Confluences.  It is a science and anthropology museum which opened its doors in December 2014.  We didn’t enter the museum but we enjoyed seeing its modern architecture.  Locals in Lyon liken it to a spaceship, although the architect said it was inspired by clouds. What’s your take?

Our first Sunday in Lyon was Easter.  We had been forewarned that most business are closed on Sunday in France so we had stocked up on our necessities.  Some restaurants remain open and some grocery stores and boulangeries are open until about noon but most other places are closed.  Even the big shopping mall in our neighborhood was shuttered on Sunday.  It reminded us of U.S. business practices back in the 1950s.

We spent much of the day at Parc de la Tete D’Or, a huge urban park (one of the biggest in France), a short bus ride north of our apartment.  There were lots of families there enjoying the day together.  The park has a lake, a free zoo, a botanical garden, and lots of walking paths for enjoying the beautiful springtime foliage.  It is a quintessential urban park, much like Central Park or Golden Gate Park in the U.S.

Also located in the park is a statue commemorating the 22nd G7 summit held in Lyon in 1996. The countries and their leaders represented were Canada, Jean Chrétien; France, Jacques Chirac; Germany, Helmut Kohl; Italy, Romano Prodi; Japan, Ryutaro Hashimoto; United Kingdom, John Major; and United States, Bill Clinton. The leaders’ signatures are engraved into a part of the statue.

France is a beautiful and tidy country in most respects, but for some reason Parc de la Tete D’Or had some of the nastiest public toilets we have ever seen.  People were even refusing to enter some of the worst stalls.  Go figure.  But they had nice semi-outdoor urinals for the men!

We spent our first few days in Lyon getting oriented to our neighborhood and (for Carrie) getting over a cold.  But by Saturday we were ready to begin exploring the city.  We began with a long, leisurely lunch (that’s the French style) at La Traboulerie, a small indoor/outdoor cafe in the center of Lyon.  La Traboulerie is on Rue Merciere, an old narrow street lined with cafes.  Every place was packed with local couples and families.  We began to learn that people in Lyon love to go out on Saturdays, especially when the weather is good.

After lunch we crossed the footbridge over the Saone and spent the afternoon exploring Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon).  This neighborhood is the oldest in the city and many of the buildings go back to the Middle Ages, although there are ruins on the hillsides that go back to the Romans around the time of Christ.  Vieux Lyon has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was fun and interesting to walk through these ancient narrow streets.

Vieux Lyon is crisccrossed by narrow walkways called traboules that connect streets and buildings.  They were originally built so the silk workers could transport their goods from building to building without being exposed to the elements.  During World War II the traboules were used as secret passageways by the French Resistance fighters to avoid the Nazis.

On Monday afternoon we took the high speed train to Lyon, only about two hours nonstop from Paris. The French rail system is excellent, far superior to Amtrak. It is fast, smooth, quiet, and comfortable, and trains run regularly throughout the day.

We were met at our apartment in Lyon by our host, Elisabeth, who showed us how to operate the appliances and gave us tips on where to buy groceries and such. The apartment was in a quiet neighborhood away from the hustle and bustle of tourist centers, but it was also just a short walk or bus ride from all of Lyon’s attractions. The apartment was spacious and comfortable and met our needs perfectly.

One of the first things we purchased was a 30-day transportation pass, good for trips on Lyon’s convenient buses, the metro and the trolley. We were assisted by a friendly young college student whose English was very good. He opened our passports and said that the picture of the American flag and the eagle were the most beautiful things he had ever seen, smiling broadly. He said he would like to continue his studies in America when he has a better mastery of English. But, above all, he wanted to visit New Orleans and Seattle.

He then asked us where we were from. Puzzled, we answered “the United States”. He said, no, what are your origins. He guessed that Charlie’s heritage was the British Isles because of his last name. Carrie told him she had mostly German roots. Asking him the same question, he answered that he was from France, with a grin. He looked Middle Eastern, so we said, no! what is your origin. He laughed and said his mom was from Lebanon and his dad was from Morocco.

We grew to love Lyon during our month there. It is a beautiful city at the confluence of two major rivers, the Rhone and the Saone. It has been occupied since around the time of Christ, first by the Romans, but it is also modern in many ways. We especially enjoyed being away from the tourist frenzy of Paris. We rarely encountered other Americans during our wanderings about the city.

We spent our last full day in Paris exploring the Ile de la Cite, one of the oldest parts of the city and home to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was Palm Sunday so we saw a number of people carrying small branches (no palm trees in northern France). We had to pass through a security checkpoint to cross the bridge to the island. The French police and military are very visible around tourist and transportation centers, often carrying potent-looking machine guns. They do a good job of keeping the country safe.

The line to enter Notre Dame was long but it seemed to be moving fast so we took our place in line. In fact, it only took about ten or fifteen minutes to enter the cathedral. The building is spectacular, well worth seeing.

We walked around the Ile de la Cite and found a restaurant with a few small tables on a back street. It was nice to escape the hustle and bustle of Notre Dame. But when we walked around the block after lunch we discovered that we ate at the back patio of a much larger restaurant directly across the street from Notre Dame. So much for avoiding the Paris tourist circuit!

We finished the day by exploring the Conciergerie, a Gothic riverside fortress that was used as a prison by the French revolutionaries in the 18th century. Marie Antionette was held in the prison before she was led off the the Place de la Concorde to be beheaded.

We took the train to Versailles to visit the palace started by Louis XIV in the XVI century. We were herded through the main part of the building with hundreds of other tourists, but we also purchased extra admission to the royal private quarters with the added bonus of a tour guide and a smaller group. We were struck by the restraint of the revolutionaries in not destroying these priceless antiquities.

“Les Invalides, commonly known as Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in Paris containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building’s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l’Armée, and the Dôme des Invalides, a large church with the tombs of some of France’s war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte. Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers. The museum was created on this site in 1905 and its permanent collections are presented chronologically in ‘historical’ collections representing time periods, from Antiquity to the end of the Second World War, and rounded off with objects belonging to a certain theme (emblems, paintings, military decorations…).”

We spent an afternoon touring the WWI and WWII exhibits: http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-spaces/modern-department-from-louis-xiv-to-napoleon-iii-1643-1870.html