A Parking Garage Again...

Thursday, August 31 -- Happy Birthday, Kim!!  Our walking tour started at 10 am today and so we got to sleep in a little.  We do have a 1 1/2 mile walk to the meeting point.  Once we are ready to go, we meandered our way towards the meeting point.  It was a nice, sunny day out and we crossed the Rhone River which is really beautiful.  Along the way, we stop at Pret A Manger (to honor Kim's birthday).  I think I first went to a Pret A Manger with Kim either in London or New York City.  I had a really great avocado sandwich and Thom got yogurt and granola.  After finishing, we had to cross a second river the Sadne.  From there it was a short distance to the meeting point in front of the Cathedrale St-Jean Baptiste (St. John the Baptist Cathedral.  Our guide's name is Paul and he is from Holland, but has lived in Lyon for 8 years.  

The Rhone River

Pret-A-Manger, Lyon

Breakfast

The Sadne River

Sadne River in the Other Direction

The cathedral sits on St. Jean Baptiste square and is a mix of Romanesque and Gothic styled. Our guide, Paul, tells us that this reflects the nature of Lyon itself as Lyon is a mixture of southern Europe (with more Roman and warm weather influenced) and northern Europe (more Gothic and cool weather influenced).  Paul tells us that the food culture of Lyon is influenced by both the flavors of Northern and Southern Europe and Lyon is know for its haute cuisine and Michelin Star Restaurants.  The church is beautiful inside but a highlight is the astronomical clock in the church.  

I never knew that the Michelin star ratings were started by the tire company to get people out in their cars to try new restaurants and places.  Restaurants may receive one to three MICHELIN Stars for the quality of their food based on five criteria: quality of the ingredients used, mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef in the cuisine, harmony of flavors, and consistency between visits.  A one star means it is worth a stop along the way, two star means worth a detour to get to, and three means it is worth a journey.  

The astronomical clock was the focal point of the city as people did not have their own timepieces and the clock kept the church bells ringing and the people of Lyon in sync.  According to Paul, this current clock was built in 1662 and is one of the oldest surviving machines from modern times and has been working up until recently. In 2013, a crazy man tried to break the clock and he damaged it. It can be fixed, but they are waiting to fix it until all the reconstruction is done, as the reconstruction is creating a lot of dust and they will clean and fix it at the same time.

The fountain in the square and the just recently cleaned the exterior of the cathedral was as dark as the cathedral in Cologne

The interior of the church

The name Charle is found as part of the design in the teardrop shape at the bottom

Interior of the cathedral

The astronomical clock

Interior of the cathedral

Ahmed Benzizin

Standard Gargoyle

Gargoyles on the cathedrals served two purposes. They were drain spouts to keep water from running down the sides of the building and they were ugly to ward off the evil spirits. The newest gargoyle pays tribute to Ahmed Benzizin. The gargoyle sculpted to look like, Benzizine, a Muslim, who worked on the restoration of the cathedral in Lyon, France.  The gargoyle sculpture stands over a sign saying (God is the Greatest) in both Arabic and French.

Notre-Dame de Fourviere

From the square, we had a decent view of the late 19th century Notre-Dame de Fourvière Basilica (Our Lady of Fourviere Basillica) which overlooks the city from the top of Fourvière hill.  Paul tells  that it was the Romans who originally settled on top of the hill and used aqueducts to get water up the hill.  After the Romans, Lyon was moved down the hill as the aqueducts no longer functioned and the use of wells and cisterns became the fashion.

Italian styled renaissance architecture in old town Lyon

Now a Cinematic Artifacts and Miniatures Museum

A hidden passageway and courtyard

This is a sign designating this as a public walkway and the doorway in to the passage way

A covered passage way and a courtyard

Their 40 public passageways in the old city section

From Paul, we learn there are many hidden passage (Traboules) ways in Lyon. While some are opened to the public; others are not.  Paul shows us several hidden passage ways and shows us how to use the button to get.  These passageways were design as shortcuts to the rivers as many people living here went to the river on a daily basis.  As buildings were built, the city said that the builder must leave a public passageway.  These passages lead to private flats and small business.  The passage ways often lead to open courtyards as well.

Hidden courtyard Maison du Crible (Pink Tower) Hotel

 

Pink Tower Courtyard

More Hidden Passage Ways

Brochier Soieries (1890) Silk Maker (Silk worms in an aquarium outside the soup)

Bouchon Rouge and Bouchon Restaurants

In 1466, King Louis XI set up a national silk industry in Lyon, consisting largely of Italian workers from the region of Calabria, known for its master silk weavers. By the 16th Century, Lyon was the capital of the European silk trade, and by the middle of the 17th Century, over 14,000 looms were operating in Lyon.  The industry declined when China entered the market with less expensive silk.  There is one silk maker now operating in Lyon and they have a display on silk worms out side of their shop.

According to Paul, Les Bouchons Lyonnais, the Bouchon tradition has been around since the 16th or 17th century. It first started in Croix-Rousse, the Canut (silk worker) district, where silk workers were often in search of a warm, home-cooked meal in a friendly setting after finishing work in the early morning.  The wonderful food served in Bouchons is made without fuss and stems from a style handed down by Les Mères Lyonnaises, a group of female chefs who opened their own restaurants from the mid-18th century on, helping build Lyon’s gastronomic reputation.    Paul told us that you should have a translation dictionary with you to order at a Bouchon and that they definitely are not for vegetarians.

Palais de Justice (Historic Courthouse Building of Lyon) 

Klaus Barbie, known as the Butcher of Lyon, was tried in this building for atrocities to resistance in Lyon.  After WWII, Barbie escaped to Argentina, but was extradited  and return to Lyon for trial in 1987.  He was found guilty and lived the remainder life in prison.

Paul points out a sculpture as we cross the Sadne after viewing the Palais de Justice.  The sculpture is called the "Weight of Oneself" and depicts a man carry himself.

Le theatre des Celestins 

We head to the land between the rivers and to theater.  There our guide informed us that we would be going down into the parking garage to see and art exhibit.  This is the second tour that leads us into a parking garage.  In 1996, this parking garage won the award issued by the European Parking Association for Europe's most remarkable car park renovation project. The architects were Michel Targe and Jean-Michel Wilmotte and the artist Daniel Buren.  When we walked into the garage, we headed to the center and looked through the arched windows in a circle in the garage.  There you see an extremely large kaleidoscope and is truly amazing. It is constantly rotating and it can be disorienting. The garage was extremely clean and painted in black and yellow.  It has a separate bike parking area.  Daniel Buren is a French Conception Artist.

                                               Looking down in to the kaleidoscope 

Looking through the windows to the bike parking

Yellow and black walls of the garage seen through the archways

                                                               Bike parking

Michelin design star and the periscope above the parking garage for view from the outside

The Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon is one of the largest buildings on the Lyon peninsula . It is built on the western edge of the Rhône as a hospital. In 2007, it was decided to locate the hospital services to other hospitals in the city. From 2010 to 2015, the building remained unused, and after 2015 major work was carried out over approximately three years to turn the former hospital in to a mixed complex housing a hotel, restaurants, upscale shops, a museum, and courtyards for public use.  It opens in June 2019.  It was established as an historic site in 2011.

Hôtel-Dieu

After our tour ends, we headed to a new section of town that our guide referred to as "hipster" with vintage shops and vegan restaurants. On our way we see the Bartholdi Fountain (another example of quadriga sculpture), painted stairway, and the ruins of a Roman theater.  

The place he recommended was closed and so we went back to a little restaurant that we saw along the way.  We order donburi which are Donburi is a Japanese "rice-bowl dish" consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice. Donburi meals are usually served in oversized rice bowls which are also called donburi.  Our donburi is served cold and mine has tofu while Thom's has pork.  These were exceptional.  I never had so many flavors in one bowl.  The description for mine was marinated tofu with beet hummus, braised vegetable, smoked paprika mayonnaise, vegetable caviar, mint, coriander, and peanut toppings.  Along with the beet hummus there were two additional pureed dips; one tasted like mushroom and the other like a lentil hummus.  Thom's was the same except for the addition of pulled pork, lemon-chive fresh cheese, and summer truffles.

After lunch, we hike up the hill to see the Notre-Dame de Fourviere Basilica which was built in the neo-Byzantine style in the late 19th century and the golden statue of Mary was added in 1870.  The tile work inside the church is the most beautiful tile work I have ever seen.  The floor and walls are all tile.  As we walk out of the basilica to see the views, we see the a Rotary Clubs of Lyon sign.  They have install large flower pots with small trees to hang special ribbons on.  When you purchase a ribbon, you make a wish.  It is probably a fund raiser to support something, but I not sure what.

The Lyon Rotary Project

The Art Exhibit near the basilica

The start of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

The views are amazing as the sky is very clear and we can see all way out to the mountains.  We see the iconic pencil shaped Radisson Hotel as well as many other buildings we recognized from earlier today.  After seeing the views, we headed back down and crossed both rivers to the botanical garden and the zoo.  At the entrance to the park there is a carousel and lake.    We enjoyed seeing a giraffe actually running around in the Africa area and then a zebra chased it out of view.  We see red pandas and monkeys and something called a biturong or wild cat.  It is endangered.  We saw Madagascan flamingoes, which are bigger than the flamingoes at our zoos.  These were more whitish pink with very pink legs.  Most of the zoo was closed, because the exhibits are under construction.  The botanical garden was also very pretty and we saw some sequoias in the arboretum.

Biturong in the tree

We found that the schedule for dinner is definitely more southern as most restaurant didn't open for dinner until 7 to 8:30.  We were hungry around 6:00 pm and although many small restaurants were open, they were only serving drinks.  We were not in the touristy area and the restaurants were local.  We found a small French cuisine restaurant open.  The waitress did not speak much English "pas de fromage" is no cheese and she understood.  I had Salad Nicoise, and push the tuna aside.  Thom had a calzone with egg in and rocket salad.  The meal came with olives for an appetizer and bread with flavored olive oil.  The food was good in Lyon.