Lyon the Lion

On Saturday, Armin and Julie drove me back to Lyon, where I would start the next part of my journey. I met my next host and got settled in to my holiday flat. I took a short walk in the evening along the river and then got some food from the ‘FanPrix’ (small grocery store) and went back to the flat to cook it and relax for the rest of the evening.

Unfortunately, the historical walk through the old town of Lyon was cancelled so I decided to do a walking tour on my own. Sunday looked very overcast and there was some rain in the forecast. After breakfast I made my way across the bridge to the old town. There were some classic cars coming back from the old town side so I got to see many antiques and some not so old … maybe the 60’s through to the 80’s.

I made the right choices of bridges to cross as it led me directly to the funicular that takes to you to the top of the hill in order to visit the Basilica and has the best views of Lyon in the city. It’s an impressive building with all it’s gold glimmering and mosiac floors. I didn’t stay too long as the rain clouds were moving in again. Back down the funicular, I went a café around the corner for some lunch and coffee. I had a Croque Madame (look it up ) and salad.

After lunch, I continued my walking tour up and down the narrow cobbled roads and trying to stay dryish under the canopies of the restaurants. There are many hidden alleyways (called Tarboules) that can take you from one street to another, they pass directly through the residences so you must be quiet. It was fun trying to find them all. The entrances look like every other door so I used the internet to help me locate them.

I wandered for about 5 hours then headed back to the flat. I had washed a few loads of laundry while here to I needed to get everything folded back up and repack everything away. There isn’t much room in my suitcase as my max allowance for the internal European flights is 23kg (approx 50lbs).

I’m off early in the morning to catch the train to Nice via Avignon … a 4 ½ hr journey. See you in Nice !