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Published: September 4th 2016
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Lyon
Last night we arrived in Lyon after dark. It is an exceptional pretty town to sail into by night. There are new unusual buildings fully lit up in different colours. Also as you look up to the hills all the old buildings are beautifully lit with the cathedral at the top being the crowning glory. Lyon lays at the point where the Rhone river and the Soane river converge or as the say confluence. It has a long and distinguished history for silk and textile making and is known as the world’s leading centre of textile design. We went on the usual walking tour with a guide for an overview and to hear a brief history. First stop in the morning was the famous food market Le Halles who famous patron is Paul Bacuse the 90 year old Michelin chef. Farro’s eat your heart out! My stomach had a breakdown because my brain could not process what I was seeing. These people take their food so seriously. It is the whole culture of a gastronomy. I know that most of the wines are AOC but I didn’t realise that so is the cheese chicken and a dozen other food
products and they are still having products of France registered as lately as 2 years ago. Very smart people. I think we should start to consider Kiwi cuisine for AOC registration – Mince and cheese pies, Pavlova (better get in quick with that one before the Aussies), Manuka honey definitely. We were lucky to be served samples of quenelles and of course wine. This visit was a great highlight. Onto town. Some of the apartment buildings in the centre of the old town date back to the 14
th century. They were very rundown in the 60’s and 70’s with no sewerage and running water. The city fathers at that time wanted to demolish them but calls to restore them have meant they have been updated and are used as social housing. They are often connected by passageways. Some of these have become able to be used by the public and tourist due to an agreement with the council to help with lighting and upkeep. During the war these were actively used by the resistance for clandestine meeting and the leaving of important messages. In the afternoon Grant was booked to do the bike tour with 10 others. They went for
a bike ride following the river on the new cycle track to Parc Chabrieres that included the zoo and botanical gardens . It was about a 10km ride in all with a beer stop. I chummed up with some others and we went back to town for another wander and stopped in a cute café that I’m sure was vintage 1923. We got a bit overheated so decided to catch a tram back, very proud of ourselves managing to get our tickets from the machine only in French. After dinner we were on the topless buses for the panoramic tour. We drove up the windy little streets. From the top deck we could see easily into people living rooms in the old buildings Feeling a little like a voyeur but added to the experience. The cathedral and the view from the top was awesome. By the time we got back town was hopping everybody seemed to be out a lithe lovely blaming evening. Lyon seems to be a very user friendly, pretty easy to get around city, Would be lovely to have a few days here.
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