Lyon Part II

Well its been a week since we were in Lyon. So I suppose I should get around to posting my pictures from our travels there.

The first day we arrived in the afternoon and spent our time checking out the Roman Ruins in the city, which were built in 15 B.C. It was pretty neat to walk around in 2,000 year old ruins. There were two roman amphitheaters, roads, columns and a few old building walls. You can see from the tree leaves that its definitely beginning to look like fall.







Here's the one picture I have of Matt in Lyon. I must have caught him in a distracted contemplative mood. Somehow I managed to not get a single picture of myself the whole 4 days!



Up on the hill from Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) in the Fourviere where our hostel was located we were in easy walking distance of the Roman Ruins and this new Cathedral, the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere built in the 1880's. We had a nice view down into the Presqu'ile, or the section of town that lies between the two rivers that flow through town, the Saone and the Rhone. In the city view you can see the Place Bellecour, which is the largest clear square in Europe. In the center of the square is a statue of King Louis the 14th.





The second day we did a lot of walking around the city. It happened to be All Saints Day, a national holiday, so almost everything was closed. But having a shut-down city makes for nice photo opportunities. Here's some of the city:







One of the parts of Lyon I enjoyed the most was just wandering the streets and finding random staircases and traboules, or covered walkways. The traboules were thought to originally have been created as part of Lyons silk trade as means to transport silk from looms to storage rooms without being damaged by weather. The were used by the Resistance in World War II as escape routes and for information gathering.

Staircases:





Traboules:





On the third day we went to the Cathedral St. Jean and saw some wonderful stained glass and a 14th Century Astronomical Clock with automatons. The Cathedral was finished in 1476, but was built on the ruins of a 6th Century church. We happened to visit when the afternoon light was streaming through the windows and it was quite beautiful.









I really enjoyed seeing Lyon at night. Cities always somehow seem more elegant at night, all lit up. And Lyon with its restaurant scene seemed to have a more energetic and interesting atmosphere at night.