Today has been forecasting rain for the last week, and it was a correct forecast. I had booked a free walking tour for 10AM and have been debating the last few days to cancel, but this morning looks like it is clearing up by 11AM, so raincoats on, umbrella in hand and off we go. We really like doing these walking tours, always tons of little bits of information that you would never find out on your own.
There were 16 of us on the tour today. I think our guide was surprised everyone that signed up turned up. We actually thought we may be the only 2. It was a fantastic tour, we had read about Lyon and knew some of the stories, but it was great hearing about it in person. Paul is originally from the Netherlands, but has lived all over the place, and the last 10 years in Lyon, he loves it here, I think he has found his home for awhile. Great outdoors place going in all directions for 30 minutes with a car.
The walk started in Place des Terreaux where there is a beautiful fountain. A beautiful fountain that does not belong in Lyon. The fountain Bartholdi was commissioned by Bordeaux and created by the same person that designed the Statue of Liberty. It was first put in Paris for the Paris Exhibition, then when it came time to move it to Bordeaux they didn't have the money to pay for it so it was purchased by Lyon. The 4 horses represent the 4 tributaries of the river in Bordeaux. A funny story.
Lyon is the 2nd largest city in France after Paris, and in Roman times was much much larger than Paris. It had a population of 200,000 while Paris had 6,000. Lyon is also known as the culinary capital of France. Paul Bocuse was based in Lyon, we will be visiting the Halles Paul Bocuse covered food market at some point this week for lunch. He is know as the father of modern French cuisine. Speaking of food we also learned more about Bouchon, which are traditional restaurants in Lyon. These restaurants were started by women in the 19th and 20th century as the were very poor and would make home cooked meals with cheap cuts of meat to sell. Some of the food is VERY traditional and I will pass, think no part of an animal wasted. But, we have a reservation at a Bouchon tonight, I checked out the menu, I will survive, as long as Andre doesn't go too crazy.
Paul also took us through some Traboules, which are hidden passageways. Many of these were in the silk section so that you had a more direct route to the river rather then going around buildings, you kind of go through them in little alleys. Paul showed us a few, and how to locate them, like secret signs on the side of buildings, some lead to beautiful courtyards. We picked up a map when we arrived of the Traboules in old town, we will definitely be exploring these more. Many of the Traboules are only open from 7AM to noon, for the postman, at noon they are locked up for the rest of the day/night. When we first checked in here I thought what a weird place for mail boxes, and what weird mail boxes, well turns out they are all look the same as this.
Also saw some beautiful murals on our tour. The biggest outdoor mural in Europe is here, we will be visiting this during the week as it is a little out of town. We did see some of the murals, and lots of graffiti as well.
Back to our apartment for lunch and a rest and then we are back out again. This afternoon on our own we explored more of the Presqu'ile section of the city, which is the middle section between the 2 rivers. Beautiful squares, beautiful architecture, just amazing walking around. Most buildings dates to the 18th and 19th century excepts for some of the churches. We started off by walking over to the Rhone river, after all it has been about 24 hours since we have been here.
Out for supper at 7:30. We went to Chez Grand Mere. There is a sign upstairs we will be happy to serve you downstairs, only written in French. Arrived downstairs and it felt like a Cabin a Sucre in Quebec. The tables set up with zero space between them, so that you are basically sat with others. No private conversation here.
I had made reservations this afternoon, thank goodness because the place was packed. We had at least 10 people come in without reservations that were turned away. We both enjoyed our meals, I had a Lyonnaise dish called Quenelle which is a fish croquette, and onion soup to start and Praline tart for dessert. All of these were typical Lyonaise food and very delicious. Andre had baked liver tart to start, beef something, and floating island for dessert. We both were happy with our choices. We sat beside 2 younger girls from Turkey that were here working. They were so excited that we both had worked in IT, as they were both IT. They asked what languages we had programmed in, they said they had heard of COBOL in the history of programming course in university lol. We are so old. They were really nice to speak to, which was good as we were basically sitting on top of them!
Walked back home along the river to avoid the cobblestone streets in old town for a break. Beautiful views of the Basilica, we will be back with proper cameras again I am sure.
A great first full day, so far we are loving Lyon
Steps today 24,500 or 15.5 KM
A light drizzle on the way to our walking tour, hoping it's going to clear up
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