With only 2 two days in such a big city, its difficult to form an opinion with so many conflicting images.Some beautiful - some very sad. I guess it’s the same in most large cities as opposed to the more regional and rural areas of France we enjoy so much and yet Lyon has given us some special
moments such as today at lunch, but more about that later.After catching the bus and then the funiculaire (the cable carriage) to the highest point of Lyon, we marvelled at the two Gallo-Roman theatres and the never ending view of the city sprawled below. The ancient amphitheatres were being set-up for
Lyon’s festival of arts. Amongst the artists are names such as David Byrne (ex talking heads & Marianne Faithful).With both the Saone and the Rhone winding below my viewpoint, how could you not marvel at the city’s beauty, yet close-up and personal it loses some its lustre.
After descending back down and into the old Lyon you find some of the homeless sleeping in bus stops, church steps and down narrow alleyways. In sections of the city, the gutters have litter of many days and the smokers of Lyon shed cigarette butts without thought. I saw one young female shop assistant having a cigarette outside h
er shop and just flick it on the pavement, still lit and walked straight back into the shop without a thought of littering her great city.And yet, we met others who were very proud of their city and its history, willing to offer advice on the best attractions and places to eat. Others on seeing us confused with the city map in hand
would ask if we needed assistance.Today we stumbled on a perfect Lyonnais Bouchon bistro and were seated beside an elderly well dressed French couple. They warmly welcomed us to their table and with his limited English and Sue’s limited French, we entered conversation that shared a little of each others lives in different parts
of the world.On the other side of us were four people from the USA who joined in conversation and we discovered that they ate at the same restaurant as us in Bourg-en-Bresse the previous night. Incidentally, the food was great
but the conversation with “Pierre and Andrea” at the table will be long remembered.
Tomorrow late afternoon, we catch the TGV to Paris where we can unwind for a full week. I get to ride the bike, Sue gets to shop and cook: oops, don’t take that the wrong way. If you have been reading the blog, by now you know that cooking is Sue’s passion and quite frankly, better than some of the restaurants I’ve eaten in at home.
