LYON

We had recently had it so easy with trains that we didn't even think about having to book in advance for our trains to Marseille and then to Lyon.  This meant we had a 3-4 hour wait in total and didn't end up arriving in Lyon until about 8pm.

Zillions of years ago, the Romans built the city of Lugdunum on the slopes of the Fourviere.  Today, Lyon's 'hill of prayer' is topped by the iconic Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere, a really beautiful church that looks down over Vieux Lyon (old town). 

Our hostel was half way up this hill and was a real bitch to get to with our ginormous suitcases, but we finally made it.  Waiting until 9pm, we were flabbergasted to hear that we would be staying in separate boys and girls only rooms.  Anna was lucky and had a couple of nice Aussies in her room, whilst I dipped out a bit and had a couple of freakish weirdo's in mine, including one American who was a maths lecture at the University of Lyon and possibly the greatest nerd the world has ever seen.

                                 

                                             Anna not happy Jan

After getting over our sleeping arrangements, we rugged up (the first official day of autumn was a cold one!) and headed down to the old town to find a meal.  Lyon is said to be the gastronomical capital of France, so we were pretty excited to get stuck into its table of piggy-driven dishes and other lavish delicacies.

We settled on L'Amphitryon which was a small little family run restaurant that had really cool pig related paraphernalia all over its walls.  Our main meals were actually a bit of a let down, but the huge dish of 'gratin au dauphinois' that accompanied them was a delicious bowl of creamy potato heaven.

The red wine made us really tired and by the time we trudged back up to the hostel, it was nudging midnight.  Anna enjoyed a good night's sleep, whilst I had to work my way through what seemed like half of Mumbai standing out in the corridors and then try and get to sleep whilst listening to them chitter-chatter for hours.

standing outside Cathedrale Saint-Jean Baptiste de Lyon

We were both happy with the cold weather the next day because Anna was just sick of the heat and I was looking for any opportunity to wear my new jumper!

Saone River

Our first stop was one of the best food markets we have been to, it had everything you could dream of!

giant oysters

these chickens and roast potatoes smelt so good, we were definitely coming back for lunch

The hostel's breakfast was ordinary at best, so I was still terribly hungry.  I had a bit of fruit and when these apple pie's presented themselves, I devoured one so quickly I thought I was going to get indigestion!

If only there was a microwave and cream, I would have eaten them all

plenty of figs!

looking across the river Saone and up the hill to Fourviere

Walking through the market along the river Saone, it just kept going and going, it was amazing.  It had to finish somewhere, and when it did, we walked away from the market towards the largest clear square (ie. without any patches of greenery) in Europe, Place Bellecour.  Measuring 62,000m sq. it really was massive, but with a lack of greenery, it felt like a huge tennis court and really just a waste of space.

Looking up at it many times already in one morning, we thought it was about time we got the funicular up the hill to Fourviere to check out the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere.

We weren't really that interested in the church, as we have now seen so many that they need to be extra special for us to give a hoot about them, but we were interested in the views out over Lyon which definitely were extra special.

Back down the funicular we went to the old town for our next item on Guida's to-do-list, Lyon's "traboules".

Traboule courtyard

Traboules are a type of passageway and are primarily associated with the city of Lyon, with the first ones thought to have been built in the 4th century.  The layout of Vieux Lyon is such that there are very few connecting streets running perpendicular to the Saone river.  The traboules allowed workmen and craftsmen to transport clothes and other textiles through the city while remaining sheltered from inclement weather.

Nowadays, the traboules are tourist attractions, and over 40 are free and open to the public.  This is kind of weird because the majority of these traboules are on private property, serving as entrances to local apartments and a lot of them open up into private courtyards.  I certainly wouldn't want tourists wandering through my private living area!

Walking back down the main street of the old town, we came across some tasty looking sweets and thought we better give one a try.  The line outside the patisserie implied that it was a pretty good establishment which further enticed us inside!

Our next stop was a real highlight.  A local specialty in Lyon is painted walls, with over 150 giant murals on walls all over town depicting famous people and historical events.

The best and most famous is 'La Fresque des Lyonnaise' which covers an entire building of almost 600m sq. and depicts 31 dead and living people from in and around Lyon.

We had a lot of fun playing around with the camera trying to absorb ourselves into the painting!

little old lady! (dumb & dumber)

getting my picture taken

this was a separate painting, but Anna couldn't help but pose for this one

Looking at our watches, it was close to 2pm and definitely time for lunch.  We found a great little cafe in the old town that had a really good menu.  The lasagne I had was as close to perfection as possible and easily the best I have had (sorry Mum!) and our coffee's were perfect!

We felt like we had covered a huge portion of the city and our feet were really sore, but we still had a few hours left in the day, so rather than go back to the hostel, we went and saw a movie.  Praying that the new Jason Bourne flick was out, we were let down to find the only one worth seeing that was in English was Expendables 2.  We knew it would be shit, but we saw it anyway and quite enjoyed it for what it was.

view of Lyon from the terrace of our hostel

An hour or so rest and then showers etc. at the hostel and we were back in the old town searching for dinner.  We were eager to have gratin au dauphinois again after the night before and made that the criteria for choosing a restaurant.  Unfortunately this proved harder than we imagined and we walked around in circles for a good hour before we finally just said stuff it and sat down at one that looked semi decent.

The 'Lyonnaise salad' (lettuce, bacon, poached egg, croutons, dressing) was pretty plain but damn it was good and our main meals of Lyonnaise style sausage with gratin au dauphinois was also really good.

We had ordered the 18 euro entree, main and desert meal which meant we also had to fit in desert afterwards.  There was no way I wasn't going for the nutella and raspberry jam crepe, whereas Anna went for the more healthy (I think??) cheese platter.

Coming home that night, I again had to deal with a plethora of Indians hanging around like a bad smell (literally!).  Thankfully this night they weren't so loud and I was able to nod off pretty quickly.

The next day we headed for the Cathedrale Saint-Jean Baptiste de Lyon because we were told that at 11am, 1pm, 2pm and 4pm, the clock did something fancy.  We got there a few minutes before 11am and stood out the front watching the clock, hoping it was going to be something worth hurrying down the hill for...........It got to 11:05am and nothing had happened, so we just assumed whatever was supposed to happen was really crap and we just didn't even notice it.
We walked inside the church to check it out and at the other end there was a large group of people and we realised that there was another clock inside, a large astronomical clock, and that was the one we were supposed to be watching, derrrrrrr!

Unfazed by our apparent stupidity, we hopped on the metro train, bound for the La Croix-Rousse area. It is on another hill on the other side of the river and although there were a couple of decent views, the best part about going there was a little patisserie we found that had a big jam tart that tasted just like Mums, it was bloody good!

Fontaine Bartholdi on the left and in the background is the Hotel de Ville Lyon, the city hall

On 20 April 1857, the Bordeaux city council decided to hold a competition to create a fountain for one of its squares.  Frederic Bartholdi, then aged 23, won the contest, however the city of Bordeaux decided not to carry out his project.
After Bartholdi had created the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1886, the Mayor of Bordeaux contacted him, but Bartholdi basically told him to get stuffed.  He was finally persuaded to start his project in 1988, but it was deemed too expensive and therefore sold to Lyon.

The Fontaine Bartholdi was eventually put at Place des Terreaux and is still there today.  The fountain depicts France as a female seated on a chariot controlling the four great rivers of France, represented by wildly rearing and plunging horses.

By now we had covered nearly all there was to see in Lyon, but we still had half a day left.  There was only one thing to do........go shopping!

I came across a cool shop that amongst other things, had some great rain jackets that were perfect for both the golf course and the footy.  The only problem was that there were so many different colours, I had real trouble trying to pick one.  In the end it hurt my wallet, but I had to buy two of them - one was a white, purple and aqua one (golf course) and one was red and royal blue in the same design as the Dees jumper, just perfect for a rainy day at the footy!

walking back up the hill to our hostel

That night we found a really cute little restaurant and had probably the best meal of our time in Lyon.  Again we ordered the entree, main and desert offer, because it was such good value.

salad, potatoes and cheese for entree

juicy seared sirloin steak with caramelised onion garnish, a small serving of gratin au dauphinois and something else weird that I think was a bit like polenta but Anna says it was more like a zucchini flower frittata 

beanie at the dinner table, it must have been cold!

We shivered our way back up to the hostel after dinner as we needed to back our bags and have everything ready for a reasonably early departure the next morning to Switzerland.

view of Lyon at night from the hostel terrace