Euro-Rail II

Lyon – the second commercial capital of France, the center of the ancient French silk industry, the capital of French gastronomy and the city of the famed frescoes that have earned themselves a place in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. There seemed to be enough reasons to visit Lyon, yet people’s eyebrows went up when I cited the city in my list of destinations. To my relief, Lyon, with its eerily quiet and deserted streets after the peopled streets of Montpellier and Nice, did not disappoint. In fact it was quite a relief to the senses to wander in the quiet streets of Vieux Lyon, or the Colline de Fourvière or Croix Rousse, specially since it was amazingly pleasant (almost cool) after the heat and humidity of the previous two cities!

The high-points of our stay in Lyon:

Hôtel du Tourisme, where we stayed, a tiny but cozy place on the banks of Saône, a 15minute walk from the old city – affordable, clean and quite perfect! Our room overlooked their terrace which though a tiny, poky place at the back of the hotel had been transformed into a lovely, charming terrace providing the perfect ambiance to jot down the day’s notes with a cup of coffee…

The splendid view of the entire city from the Cathedrale de Notre Dame at the Colline de Fourvière which made worthwhile walking up 250m above sea-level instead of taking the cable-car, which any normal tourist would have done!

The satisfying meal we had at a restaurant in Vieux Lyon – I decided to throw caution to the winds and went ahead and ordered Rossbeef, served with potatoes stewed in the juice of the beef and green salad, while K had fish served with vegetable and saffron rice. It’s true that Lyon is the capital of French gastronomy – never have I enjoyed beef as I did that day and never has the meal in France been so completely satisfying…the dessert was the icing on the cake…

Walking around the corner to look up to one of Lyon’s acclaimed frescoes – even though I’d read much about them and seen a show on Travel and Living that focused on the frescoes of Lyon, nothing prepared me for the sight. An entire building painted to resemble a bookshop, a postman in the act of collecting letters from a postbox (which was real, not painted), citations from the French classics all over the building, a pigeon caught in the act of taking off, it’s shadow remarkably captured on the building’s façade. Despite the fact that the second fresco we saw was far more interesting, it’s the image of the former that has been burnt into my mind.

Failure to understand:

The charm behind the traboules – courtyards between buildings that apparently serve like secret passages from one street into the next, which we spent hours hunting, going up and down streets in the vain attempt to unearth them – only to finally find one traboule which was simply a dingy, stinky passage between buildings and not the least bit enigmatic or charming. Perhaps the charm lies in stumbling upon them and perhaps they were really useful during the war, we regretted having spent much time and energy looking for them!

The fuss about Croix Rousse, which at one time was the quartier of the canuts (silk-weavers) but today houses apartment complexes and offices and is just another neighbourhood – the cafés and restaurants didn’t bear a patch on those in Vieux Lyon and walking up this 250m seemed to have served only one purpose – that of leaving us dog-tired!

Unfulfilled Desire:

Attend a silk-weaving and painting workshop (lack of time) and buy a hand-woven and hand-painted silk scarf (was way beyond my reach) this time…next time!