Lyon
Spent the day just wandering around Vieux Lyon. My first stop was to the Roman Ampitheatre, just ten or so metres from the hostel. Constructed twenty years before the common era, these were my first Roman ruins. The structure itself was in good shape, and they had bits of facade resting in a fenced-off area. The ampitheatre, like the hostel, has fantastic views of Lyon, below.
Sunday morning spent overlooking a modern city from the remains of an ancient city, high on a hill on an overcast day. For company, I had a few other tourists mingling with the ruins, singing birds, and the peal of bells at a handful of cathedrals, appealing to the heavens for the clouds to part and reveal the day in its full glory. The same appeal of people of this place made towards different gods in the same sky two millenia ago.
I wandered more, found myself at the Cathedral Notre Dame de Fourviere, with another great view over the city. Downhill, I arrived at Rue du Boeuf (Beef Street) and took a picture, because of my friends’ affinities for all things meat. For 20€ I splurged for a three-course lunch and a bottle of wine at Les Pavés de St. Jean, just down Rue St. Jean from the Cathedrale St. Jean. The Salad Lyonnaise had chewy bacon and a poached egg in it. I hunger for that salad whenever I think of it.
I wandered more, past street vendors on the river, scoping out Internet cafes reccommended by the guidebook. I picked up a sandwich and a bottle of wine on my way back, as well as some postcards. I spent the evening at the hostel, which has an extremely chill atmosphere of young international students looking for housing, sharing bottles of wine, to the accompaniement of an ever-changing, ever-great soundtrack, mixed by the super-hip-but-still-friendly staff.
I wrote postcards, and talked with Italian and African students about the ramifications of American foreign policy. By bed time, counting lunch, I had consummed two and one third bottles of wine, and a neat vodka-beer thing. I had a slight headache the next morning.
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Some large blocks set aside at the Roman Ampitheatre for future restoration. |
That cathedral just pops right out of the hill, as seen from Vieux Lyon, below. |
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A narrow, old street twists along through Vieux Lyon. |
My favorite “landscape” shot from Lyon, from high in Vieux Lyon, featuring the funicular creeping up the hill below. Puts me in mind of Escher. |
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While enjoying an awesome lunch, I noticed the couple next to me, and snuck a few shots of them. I tried to explain that I thought I had a great picture, but they were pre-occupied with more important things than interpreting the mangled French of a drunk American tourist. |
This guy paints on canvas masking-taped to the sidewalk. I love it! |
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A great shot of a cathedral, seen in profile. |
Flying Buttresses! |
