Only Lyon

The girls and I had a great weekend getaway to Lyon! As soon as we arrived, it was easy to tell that Lyon is a BIG city. Lyon is the second largest city in France; it was quite invigorating to have that big city feeling and to have so much to explore! 

V and N were able to skip out on work on Friday, so they arrived in the late morning, while C and I couldn't miss all of our Friday classes and so arrived in the evening. We all met up at an English pub for a drink (they had Banana Bread Beer on tap!!) before moseying on to the Spanish bar next door for some late-night tapas and sangria. Yum!

C and I headed out early the next day to get a jump-start on exploring. We walked along the Saône river and enjoyed all of the colorful buildings along the banks. Lyon had a surprisingly Mediterranean feel for a city near the mountains! 

While wandering in a northerly direction, we managed to find a cafe that I had read about while doing some research about the city before we left. The Grand Café des Négociants opened in 1864 and is still beautifully decorated in the old style. It is famous in the city for it's decoration, history, and it's hot chocolate! All the reviews I read raved about the thick, mix-it-yourself hot chocolate and frothed milk. C and I both decided to give it a go and didn't regret it! We agreed that it was the best hot chocolate we'd ever had (although for me, it ties with the hot chocolate at the Colville Street Patisserie in Walla Walla, WA- the BEST!). YUM! An excellent, rich treat with which to start the day.

Served with a Speculoos cookie to boot!

The bar at the cafe.

We continued to head north up the "Presqu'ile" and bumped into the Hotel de Ville and a beautiful fountain by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the same fellow who designed the Statue of Liberty!

Lyon is well known in France for a lot of things, one of which is it's "trompe l'oeil" artwork on the facades of some of it's buildings. I had read about three of them, but C and I were only able to track down two. They were both beautiful! Below on the left side, you have the "Mur des Ecrivains" (Writer's Wall), and on the right you have the "Mur des Lyonnais"(Lyonnais Wall). It was incredible that the entire sides of these buildings were painted in such color and detail. It really was hard at first glance to tell that it wasn't real! Those were very cool to see. 

Posing with the Mur des Lyonnais

Along the river banks near the Writer's Wall was a book market! We took a quick peek in passing at a couple of stalls, but the old books and etchings that were for sale were awesome. My inner librarian was loving it. 

Back in the Roman era, Lyon and its environs were a huge base for Gallo-Roman activity. Smack in the middle of the Vieux Lyon ("Old Lyon") neighborhood at the top of the hill were a couple of Roman amphitheaters that were open to the public. C and I enjoyed walking around and posing for pictures amidst the ruins and having our minds blown by the fact that those things had been around since about 200 BC!

Very close to the amphitheaters is the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, which is without a doubt the most incredibly beautiful cathedral I have ever seen - and I've seen hundreds of cathedrals, so that's saying something!! The facade is very beautiful, but I was literally speechless when I walked inside and saw the most amazing mosaic and marble interior. I took so many photos trying to capture the beauty. We walked out of the cathedral after about 15 minutes and we didn't get very far before I told C that I had to go back in to just stand there and soak it up. Unbelievable! 

The Basilica is at the very top of the big hill in Lyon, and right below it is a pleasant park that winds down the hillside. We headed down through the bare trees and statues back to the flat, river-side part of Vieux Lyon to meet up with N and V.

The four of us then looked at postcards, checked out the menus for several "bouchons" (the traditional restaurants in Lyon that are famous for their comfort food/home cookin'/hearty meals), and even found a traboule. Traboules are old passageways in Vieux Lyon that connect buildings together via courtyards. They look like normal doors into apartment buildings, and unless you saw the sign, you wouldn't have a clue that opening that door would take you through a maze deep into the chaotic buildings of Vieux Lyon! Traboules have an interesting history; during times of occupation, the locals used their advantage of knowing the ins and outs of the passageways to facilitate underground resistance movements. Since the occupiers had no idea the passageways existed, they didn't know to shut them down to stop the resistance! Pretty cool. :)

One of the courtyards we came upon had a statue of
Lyon's symbol - a lion. Go figure! :)

Vieux Lyon is really cute: small streets, stacked buildings, and always abuzz with activity. 

The afternoon was very casual; we took a break, window-shopped, and explored at random. I had fun finding this crazy flower-tree sculpture and taking pictures near the massively large and centrally located Place Bellecour. 

Place Bellecour, with the hill of Vieux Lyon in the background.

I loved the style of this hotel at Bellecour!

When in Lyon, climb statues :)

In the evening, the four of us went to a street near Place Bellecour for dinner at a bouchon. We were all eager for some yummy, rich food, and we found it in the form of Chez M'man. It was delicious!

Salade de chèvre chaud

Marinated pork and macaroni gratinée

The next day, the four of us had a quick coffee-and-pastry breakfast near our hotel before walking back through Vieux Lyon for a while. V and N had an earlier train back to Nantes than C and  I, so they split off around noon while C and I went into the Croix-Rousse neighborhood to climb more hills and check out this steep, quirky, lovely part of town.

A peak at the Rhône river from the hills
of Croix-Rousse

There was a lot of awesome street art in Croix-Rousse, which I was loving! Graffiti and street art, if done tastefully, is really cool stuff. Here are some of the things I saw, including one by Banksy (the rat one), an extremely famous British street artist.

This says, -"Where were you?" -"Here"

We had a late lunch near the opera house and realized that there was a Starbucks nearby (I know, I know...)! C was craving a latte and I had been desperate for a tall, non-fat dirty Chai for MONTHS, so I was alright with breaking down for a Starbs run. :) That dirty Chai tasted just as good as I had hoped it would; I was in hog-heaven!

We then wandered down Rue de la Republique and made it into both the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée de l'imprimerie for free! Although we were a bit pressed for time, both museums were in great, old buildings, were lovely to walk through, and housed some wonderful artwork.

At the end of the day, we rushed off to catch our train, grabbed a quick bite to eat on the way, and lazed around in first class for the 4 1/2 hour trek back to Nantes. Our feet were really sore from walking all over town for two full days; it was a true life pleasure to take off our shoes and socks and stretch out in our big seats with lots of legroom. Quite the luxurious end to our ladies' weekend! :)