France page 2   Carcassonne

France page 3   Orange, Avignon

France page 4   Lyon

France page 5   Annecy

France page 6   Dijon

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JOURNEYS BY PAUL

Page 4

Lyon

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July 9   ** An American in Paris**

July 10  **Train Ride Orange to Lyon**

July 11 ** Walk Around Lyon**

Streets Of Lyon

Lyon Street Scene	After Work	Plaza
19th Century Architecture	Street Scene	Notre Dame Basilica
Notre Dame Basilica	Once Again	Old Town from the Basilica

More  Street Scenes of Lyon

(remember to click on any picture to enlarge)

Nice Sidewalk Cafe (McDonald's)	Red Cross District	Red Cross District
Saone River	Footbridge Across the Saone	Saone River
Part of the Town	Same Part	Old Town

Inside the Notre Dame

More Lyon Scenes

Nice Sidewalk Cafe	Red Cross District	Red Cross District
Saone River	Footbridge Across the Saone	Saone River
Part of the Town	Same Part	George Michael
Hugs on the Wall	Art	A Nice Store Name

 

 

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July 12  Lyon    I'm still in Lyon. I think I've done all I want to do here. I've walked all over the place. I visited 'old town' a few times, walked around the Croix Rousse area, been up two funiculars; one to the Basilica Notre Dame, the other to the Roman ruins, checked out restaurants, cafes, boulangeries, done my laundry,  and even took the subway and bus to see Die Hard 4. Who but me would come to France to pay 13 U.S. dollars to see an American movie? Well, I haven't been able to watch much screen media since I arrived in France so I needed a  fix. And seeing a movie in France is different than seeing one in the U.S., especially when it's in a big city like Lyon. The grand advertisements preceding the film are worth the extra bucks alone They're very interesting. The theater was huge. There was a big lobby that even had it's own bar, and patrons were enjoying beers and wine before going into the actual theater, where the seating was stadium and the screen was as big as the biggest ones in the U.S. At the concession stand, I was given the option of popcorn with either salt or sugar. One Die Hard version playing was with the original language, then there was another version in French that started 15 minutes later. I was surprised to find the one in English about 3/4 full. So some French people do enjoy their Bruce Willis speaking English. And for a people who often criticize Americans for their values, they seemed to like a good old fashion American movie. And isn't Die Hard with Bruce Willis as American as it gets?

Lyon  (at least the part where I'm staying) is situated on a strip of land between the Rhone and Saone Rivers. The rivers run north and south, and the land between them is less than a half a mile wide. The Romans took over this place in the 1st Century and called it Lugdulum, which translates to Lyon, I read. Before that the area was inhabited by the Celtic Gauls. In the 16th Century, Lyon became  famous for weaving silk. Enough history. And if you're into architecture, the city has lots of 18th and 19th Century buildings.

Old Town	House of Me	This Statue has steam coming out of the Horse's Nostrils

Yesterday,  I ventured into a famed traboule in the old town. Traboules are supposed to be ancient pathways under the city that will lead from street to street before resurfacing. But this one was nothing but a street level path through the lower floor of several buildings - kind of an enclosed alley. Maybe I was in the wrong place, but, if I was, there were several other tourists in the wrong place too. I think there's better traboules in the Croix Rousse district. In case you've noticed that I spelled Lyon as Lyons in a few places, it's because the French spelling is Lyon, and the English spelling is Lyons. I got a little confused when I first arrived so I decided to pass the confusion on to you. By the way, I should have mentioned earlier, Lyon is pronounced Lee-Own. Anyway, this city is nice as far as cities go. It's is a clean and neat town and the people are friendly. Well, I don't know if they could be called friendly. They're definitely not unfriendly. But they certainly are not as friendly as the people who live in the smaller towns I've visited. On a similar note, when people greet here, they kiss on only one cheek, not three like they did in Orange. And most of time there is no cheek kissing at all. (And technically, they just brush cheeks and pretend to kiss. So don't get carried away if you attempt it some day.) I guess they're too busy in the big city to do it three times.  I think I may be a three-cheek kiss kind of person. Not that I'd kiss someone on the cheek three times every time I greet them - it's just that the towns where that is the custom seem to be the right size for me. There aren't a lot of English speaking tourists here. I think I've heard English three times in the three days I've been here.

Elvis Costello	Do you recongize any of these musicians?	Here's one for Ken

 

So I've done my laundry, and I've walked around enough, and it's time for me to leave Lyon and head for some other place. It took me a day to research the logistics but in an hour I'm going to catch a city bus to catch a long range bus to catch a train to Annecy in the alps. I don't think I'll have wifi  in my hotel there like I do here but I'm sure I'll be able to connect somewhere.

 

thanks for reading,

Paul Ogier