Cubapop
Life, Culture and Travels from the perspective of a Cuban
08.14.2012
Weekend in Lyon – Some Thoughts About the Town
Categories: Trips

The 8:57 am train left Paris Gare de Lyon on time. The traject to the city of Lyon shows a pretty French countryside. The trip felt longer since everyone was quietly sleeping… not me, as usual. I was one of the few people who got to enjoy the exuberant trees, the bodies of water and the bright sunny ciel. Two hours later, we were out and about in Lyon, looking for our hotel.

Lyon is a beautiful town with a lot of history and places to admire. The weather was marvelous, even coming from warm Paris. I do not think I saw one single cloud in the perfect blue sky during the three days I was there. I even started noticing the excess of blue in my pictures. I did not complain. Every building and corner of the city had a special glow with these Lyonnaise rays of light. I apologize for my meteomania.

We walked a lot, crossing the bridges million times to get to our different destinations. I have visited so many stunning cathedrals since I got to France that I started to seeing them as the normal architecture around me. The power of religion has always been immense. There is no doubt about it!. The beauty of this world, the one created by the hands of mortals, revolves around religious structures. There is still so much more to see for me.

On Friday afternoon, we passed by the Opera building and stayed there after seeing that the stage was getting ready for the sound of the Bastien Brison Trio. We enjoyed an unexpected and very nice jazz concert in the Cafe – Concert Jazz Terrase.

The city of Lyon was once named Lugdunum by the Romans. We spent a couple of hours seeing the Gallo Roman museum of Fourviere that hold as terrific collection. The objects are well preserved and the tour is nicely explained in the audio guide. The museum architecture is also very interesting.

 The Old Lyon area was my favourite to walk. They have tons of restaurants and cafes but also little passages and stairs that take you through buildings that come out to the other side of the street. Of course, most of the tourists and the activity was on this side of the city. We stayed very closed to Perrache train station (Hotel de Savoies) and this part of town, although very central, was less busy at all times.
I have been mentioning that the month of August is dead in French cities. Lots of establishments are closed for the August holidays (congés) so if you leave the touristic areas chances are that you will see most of the businesses shutted down. We went to the Lumiere Museum, which was about 4 km from a hotel, and we did not see one human being on our way there. We were trying to find an open bakery on a Sunday, in the month of August! Sooo, no luck.
There is always something scary but attractive about empty cities. On one side you look like a lost soul walking nowhere but on the other side you feel the city is your house, that you own each metre of it. Maybe this time I fully enjoyed it because I was not alone.

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