Still More Of Lyon

A traditional bouchon, what Lyon eating was
about before eating was its main business

Wine cellar

One of Lyons' architectural curiosities is its
traboules--in the very olden days, owners
of adjoining buildings on separate streets
might get together and provide a private
alley through their buildings; here is the
entrance to one

Inside, looking up

Emerging on the other side

Our next stop was the "Mary" church--sometime friend and
fellow guide Rickie Stevie says this is the most Marian
church in all Europe--I won't dispute this--it was built in
the latter 19th century--oh, its real name is the Fouviere
Basilica

It is also Europe's most scaffolded church

Scaffolding notwithstanding, here's Mary saving the
Christians from the Turks at the naval battle of Lepanto
("the Naval" as Cervantes would say)(he was wounded
there, losing the use of an arm)

One of the windows; Vicki, who has a seriously keen eye
for these things, spotted its almost Stil Mucha/art nouveau
nature; seriously

The Fouviere Basilica has upper and lower naves/chancels--
sort of like the church of St. Francis at Assisi--however,
here the lower church is dedicated to Mary's long-suffering
"earthly" "husband," Joseph; it is rather plain; Christians
have never really paid a lot of attention to Joseph, have they?

The Tour Metallique; a rather sorry
comparison with the Tour Eiffel

View of some of this large city, from the Fouviere perch;
residents of Lyon refer to the tall building as "the pencil':
it is actually a Radisson or somesuch

Next we funicula'd up to the Roman theatre ruins; under
reconstruction, so we got no closer than this

Outdoor sculpture at one of the Rhone bridges; reminded
us of Rebecca's bridal bouquet

Parthian shot (from the bus): Sushi delivery bikes,
something new to me; in Lyon we also saw our first doner
kabob/pizza/crepes shop; a world cuisine is
emerging...

Lyon

In all our travels in France, we had always missed Lyon, but had resolved earlier this would be the time to do France's 2nd city. So we boldly drove into town, somehow found a free parking space on a boulevard by the Rhone, and, led confidently by me, climbed 285 steps up a city wall; in the wrong direction. At least we could see where we were and also where we wanted to be, a couple of kilometers away. Things got better as soon as we bought city transportation day-passes (Lyon has excellent public transportation) and Vicki resumed her usual duties as navigatrix. There's really little to look at in Lyon, if you ask me, very little of serious historical importance; and a museum not as attractive as some say. We read about it in several guides and decided it was not worth our time. Which is not exactly limited. Lyon is about food, choosing it, preparing it, eating it, watching other people in these processes. That's mostly what we did, as chronicled here and in the next post.

Safely and securely and freely parked by the Rhone

View of town from the wrong hill

Lyon's barren yet uninteresting main square, flanked by the
Office of Tourism and McDonald's; oh yes, there's Louis14
("Sonny") learning to ride; and in the distance, two of the
city's major landmarks, the Mary church and the Tour
Metallique, more of which later

Crossing the Saone (Lyon is at the confluence of the two
great rivers)

The church of St. Jean; gorgeous on the outside facade

Nave view

Some nice windows

Now in the old town, across the Saone, many
old buildings, some going back to the
Renaissance

Ditto

How many sculptors' studios do you see like this?

More street scene

Very old door for a Renaissance palace

Even in the Gastronomic Capital of France...

On the recommendation of a local merchant
whose business we stimulated, we settled on
a place dubiously named "Maitre Boeuf"; here
is Vicki, after the salade Lyon, into her
unadventurous steak and frites; she goaded
me into...

The egg poached in red wine (with onion and mushroom)
(oef en meurette); and then I had the above, coarse
grained tripe with pork sausage in mustard sauce (andouillette
bobosse); the waitress actually laughed when I tried to
pronounce this; nobody in the restaurant spoke English,
which we always regard as a good sign; I thought the mustard
sauce was heavy, amateurish actually, maybe dumbed-down
for the Americaine; oh, I finished with the Saint Marcellin
cheese; Vicki with some gelato; "I can't believe I ate the whole
thing"!

Perouges Curiosities

In a restaurant on the main square...keeps vampires away?

Santiago came this way too

Get your Route 66 sign here

Hanging bucket, another Medieval practice
still not well understood, at least by me

(Non-Medieval) Nuclear reactors, never very far away in
France

Medieval doggie-door? Nearly every house
had one, usually bricked-up behind the door

Cobble-stone paving everywhere; and every now and then
a stone with an apparent lens in it; another mystery; the TI
was, of course, closed

No mystery here; the galettes were wonderful

Medieval door-bell?

The nails spell poete on the right; couldn't make out the left;
"Louie de Poete"?

Very old town gate

Perouges

Perouges is a restored Medieval village that dates, it is said, from pre-Roman times. The original settlers came from Perugia, Italy. I'm not so sure about that, but the more recent history of the place, the last millennium or so, is fairly well documented, preserved and restored in the stones, mostly by or through the energies of the Lyon historical society. It's a fairly good representation of what a Medieval village might have looked like, architecturally. Walls and fortifications, defensive structures, including the church, fortified gates, etc. Mostly high middle ages, 12th-14th centuries. And not very near the beaten tour bus path. The town lived mostly on agriculture and textile work, but went into serious decline only when the railroad went elsewhere. When the Lyon folks rescued it in the latter 19th century, it was nearly an uninhabited wreck. Not so anymore. We spent the night, along with other savage campeurs (that's what French-type personnes call "wild camping"), in the village parking lot (2 euros).

West From Chamonix

Looking at the calendar, we decided it was time to head further west and take in a bit more of France. We got as far as the restored Medieval village of Perouges.

We plodded along familiar roads, skirting Geneva, Annecy,
even along a bit of the Route des Grandes Alpes; above, a
new-looking Caterham/Lotus 7; one sees many of these in
Europe, particularly in the Alpine regions; anyhow, this pic
is for you, Ken Stolz

Stopping for lunch at the beautiful little lake town of
Nantua, sort of a mini-Annecy

Chateau across the lake

Authentic welcome in a concrete patch in the park

And a monument to martyrs of the Resistance