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Our friends Chris and Reed arrived to spend a few days with us in Lyon before they ventured south to Avignon. Over the next several days we took them to a number of places we had gotten to know – Vieux Lyon, Notre Dame de Fourviere, Saone boat cruise, Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, dinner at Daniel et Denise. Reed was able to exercise his French language skills in Les Halles, purchasing an array of cheeses from a vendor who was very friendly but knew only a few English words. We enjoyed the cheese with some wine and baguettes back in the apartment that evening.

But the unexpected highlight of the week was a stroll in Parc de la Tete D’Or. We had taken a picnic lunch and we stopped to eat in a gazebo that housed an outdoor grand piano, covered only in a large blue tarp. While we were eating some young people arrived and one young man began playing the piano and singing. More and more showed up until there were a dozen or so, taking turns playing the piano and singing. We supposed they might have been music students from a local university. We spent the better part of an hour watching them perform. It was one of those totally unexpected occurrences that adds richness to travel.

Photos in Parc de la Tête d’or – Clicking on the first photo will enlarge the gallery for better viewing

Video of impromptu musicians in the park – It is a large file and takes a minute to download. Click on “img_6291”, then click on the the small white type in the black box to start the download. The video does not work properly for us using Firefox so try a different browser if you have problems.

Lyon is a large, urban city but, like many cities, it has done a good job of preserving parkland for its citizens to enjoy.  On a Sunday afternoon we took the streetcar to the end of the line and took a long walk in Parc de la Feyssine. This park preserves a long stretch of woodlands along the Rhone to the north of the city. There were lots of families enjoying the day, as well as bicyclists using the bike trails that crisscross the park. There were frequent “No Swimming” signs along the river. The Rhone is a large, swift river and it would seem dangerous to swim in the strong currents.

We caught the bus to go home right in front of a large Interpol building. Nowadays Interpol is an agency designed to allow communication among police departments in its member countries, but it reminded us of something out of a cold war spy novel.

It was Andy and Tiana’s last day in Lyon and we decided to make it a food day.  Lyon is the culinary capital of France (perhaps of the world) so eating is an event in Lyon.  We were very fortunate that our apartment was only two blocks from arguably the best food shopping and eating place in France, Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. Les Halles is an incredible indoor shopping mart of food stalls and cafes, each offering a specialty (cheese, charcuterie, fresh meat, fish, oysters, sweets, and on and on). The facility is very upscale and the products are the finest one could hope to find anywhere. Just window shopping there is a treat.

After much browsing and deliberation we decided to buy the ingredients for an Italian meal.  We bought lasagna, fresh pasta, marinara sauce, roasted vegetables, freshly grated parmesean, fresh baguettes, and an almond tart to finish it off. Tiana made the best garlic bread we have ever tasted, using freshly-minced garlic. It was a memorable meal to complete their visit to Lyon.

It was Charlie’s birthday and he chose to go on a boat cruise.  Les Bateaux Lyonnais offers a 1-hour tour that goes up the Saone for a bit and then all the way down to the confluence with the Rhone.  It’s a good way to see the various parts of the city from the perspective of the river.  We had considered taking the cruise a week or so earlier but they weren’t offering it then due to the high water from the spring runoff.

We sat on the roof of the boat so we could get the best view.  A class of squirmy elementary school kids, probably around 9 years old, joined us on the roof.  Unfortunately, the squirmiest kid of the group, Enzo, sat right in front of us.  We knew his name was Enzo because his teacher kept reprimanding him.  At one point in the cruise Enzo decided that it would be interesting to take a sip of his bottled water and spit off the side of the boat, presumably to see it hit the water.  Third graders have not yet been taught physics so he miscalculated the effects of wind speed and direction, and his spit ended up on us instead.  Carrie tried to resurrect her best high school French to say “Don’t spit on us!” but her demeanor was more convincing than her French.

When we returned to our apartment Tiana gave Charlie a birthday haircut.  He was due for a haircut, but he mostly wanted to be able to tell people that he had brought his stylist along on his trip to France.

For Charlie’s birthday dinner we went to one of Lyon’s best known bouchons, Daniel et Denise.  A bouchon is a type of restaurant typical of Lyon.  The food is excellent but the atmosphere is casual, with closely packed tables and red-and-white checkered tablecloths. We had a lengthy and memorable meal.  In the back of the restaurant there was a big table occupied by a group of local French men and a few women.  Part way through the meal several of them got up, put on raincoats, and started singing and dancing around their table.  We never figured out what that was all about but it was fun to watch.

Andy and Tiana had never been to Italy so they took the train over to Torino for a couple of days.  We decided to get out of town, too, so we took a day trip to Annecy, about two hours away by train. Annecy is a beautiful medieval town on the shore of Lake Annecy at the base of the French Alps, not far from Geneva, Switzerland.  The old town is bisected by a swift, clear Alpine stream and the old buildings are quaint and interesting.  We enjoyed strolling around town and having an outdoor lunch at a cafe next to the stream.

Charlie participated in a common French custom, stepping in dog poop. But, France being France, there was also a lovely fountain nearby to wash it all away.  He smelled fine on the train trip back to Lyon.

Andy had visited Lyon previously and he recommended that we all go to the cinema museum in Vieux Lyon (Musee Miniature et Cinema).  The museum has two parts, both related to the movie industry.  The first section has an impressive display of costumes and sets from many movies, some famous and some not so much.  The second section consists of miniature models of movie sets, most in small spaces about the size of a microwave oven.  Some of the miniatures were actually used in movies and others were made simply as pieces of art related to particular movies.  It was a fun, interesting, and very different museum to visit.

After lunch we took the funicular railway to the top of Fourviere Hill. Lyon has two funiculars that scale this high, steep hill on the west bank of the Saone above Vieux Lyon. Dominating the hilltop is the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, a large church that can be seen from many spots throughout Lyon. It was built in the late 1800s so it is rather new among European churches.  We toured the church and then went outside to see the spectacular views of Lyon from the top of the hill.  It was chilly and windy so we didn’t stay outside very long.

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?