Leaving Taillades, we travelled north again to Lyon, where we enjoyed a week in the lovely home of our friend Marie-Agnes and her family. Her son, Arthur, attended UBC in Vancouver last year where we met him, and we looked forward to discovering Lyon for the first time and seeing them again! Lyon is a fantastic city. As Florence is to Rome, Lyon is to Paris: a slightly smaller yet more charming version of its larger counterpart.
“A Parisienne believes himself to be the best, a Lyonnaise knows himself to be!”
Lyon sits at the intersection of the Rhone and Saone Rivers, small enough to be walkable, yet full of lovely diverse neighbours and with lots to see and do. The downtown of Lyon has moved many times over the years, from high above the river as a strategic military vantage point during Roman times, to the riverside during the renaissance when the silk trade brought money and prestige to the city, and finally to its current location between the rivers. We toured each and every part of Lyon, starting with the neighbourhood at the top of the hill called Fourvieres, the site of Notre Dame Basilica, (this one is still standing), where the best views of the city are had.
We subscribed to the Lyon Card which allowed us unlimited transit and 23 museums and multiple tours, (we would recommend it) and allowed us to access the funicular, getting us up to Fourvieres, thank goodness, those were steep hills. We explored the neighbourhood and took in the roman ruins, including the amphitheatre and aqueducts. The Lyon card also included a boat tour, which gave us an excellent vantage point to see how the different neighbourhoods in Lyon have evolved over the years. The Lyon card further entitled us to a 2 hour guided tour of the old city that dates back to the renaissance and we really loved this tour, our guide was both informative and funny. We love to walk, which is good because everything in Lyon is accessible on foot within 20-30 minutes once you are downtown.
We took in various museums, with the highlights being the Museum of the Confluences, sitting at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone Rivers (ergo the name) and the Museum of Deportation and Resistance, detailing the French cooperation as well as its resistance during the Second World War. Too many museums and not enough time. It was a busy few days, but we found time to just hang out in a few beautiful parks along the river to escape some of the hottest weather.
The Silk Trade
Historically, the silk trade was very important to Lyon. In fact, an innovation to silk loom invented by Jacquard used a series of cards with punched holes which controlled the pattern. These holes and spaces functioned like binary code and automated the weaving process (those of us old enough may remember using punch cards and binary code in our elementary “computing” courses). This invention was therefore the pre-cursor to the current day computer. The silk trade influenced the architecture of the old city with the creation of covered passageways connecting streets called traboules, which served to protect the movement of silk from the weather while also allowing for central courtyards to service multiple apartments, allowing for greater densification.
The Food
Lyon is also all about its rustic, rich food and famous for its home-style eateries known as “Bouchon”: meaning a both “a cork” and now “a traffic jam”. These very small cafes were jammed in small spaces and historically run by women, in a time before many women worked, to serve home cooked food to the workers. Our guide also said another meaning for a Bouchon was the practice of wiping down your horse with a ‘bouchon’, or hay bundle before going in for dinner. He also explained that French people eat absolutely every single part of an animal and I can attest to this having now experienced a bouchon firsthand. Not for the faint of heart but delicious. Art had a chicken liver salad followed by the typical andouille sausage, (tripe sausage, not for Heidi). Heidi had the fish soufflé, (she described it more as a mousse) with a salad consisting of fresh goat cheese, ham and potato.
Of course, Lyon is also known for its pastries and sweets, especially pralines, and window upon window of bakeries show off their wares along the streets of old town. Many of the articles we read, and people we have spoken to, referred to Lyon as the gastronomic capital of France. We concur!
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