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Published: June 25th 2013
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Apr 22, 2013.
Lyon. The city of Lyon lies at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers. It was established by the Romans around 43 B.C. and has served as a trading and manufacturing centre, particularly in the silk industry, over the centuries. Today, as the two rivers converge they form a long, thin, pencil-shaped land mass connected on both sides by bridges – and you wouldn't believe the traffic congestion at rush hour. After a quick check-in we headed for the "old city" to meet a local guide for a walking tour. We learned that, as the silk industry prospered and matured over the years, the money, the factories and the populace eventually moved out of those cramped, medieval quarters over to newer zones where there was room for expansion. Thus, like many old downtown areas, the old city began to deteriorate and fall into ruin. A plan was hatched to raze the whole area but the local citizenry rose up and developed a counter plan to renew this historical site. Today it stands in typical medieval form, with narrow, twisting cobblestone streets framed by two or three story stone or stucco-faced buildings.
Two claims to fame for Lyon that were brought to our attention: The first ever moving picture was produced and filmed in Lyon in 1895 by the Lumiere brothers. Their “Workers Leaving a Factory” ran on a hand-cranked projector and lasted for about 50 seconds. And the famous French puppet “Guignol,” forerunner to the English “Punch,” was created by a dentist named Mourguet. It was intended as a distraction for his patients who were otherwise enduring the pain of his dentistry. So there you go. One interesting Lyon architectural feature not commonly found is the existence of “traboules” which are hidden passageways that exist behind normal looking doorways. These passageways connect streets and courtyards, allowing quick passage from place to place, avoiding busy – or rainy - streets. We were told the French resistance fighters used them to good effect when eluding German occupational forces during World War II. They had good reason to be elusive because Lyon was under the command of Klause Barbie the so called “Butcher of Lyon” who took pleasure in torturing his captives and was said to be responsible for as many as 14,000 prisoner deaths through the war years.
For dinner that evening we gathered at La Voute restaurant for a passable meal of veal. Our table companions were three ladies from eastern Australia who had left their husbands behind as they went off for a couple of weeks at a villa in Tuscany, followed by this tour of France. Interestingly, this was the fifth such group – of women travelling in France while hubbies kept the fires burning at home - that we encountered on our trip, including our three friends from Saskatchewan. The three Aussies had an enviable sojourn in Italy wherein they did day trips out to see the surrounding sights, and at one point brought an Italian chef in for the day to teach Italian cooking. It doesn’t get any better than that.
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