2010 FRANCE * Lyon #3 (July 5-10)

Travel is joy.  Art is passion.  

Lyon

As the days pass and everyday sites seem to become more ordinary, I start to notice the details or find myself seeking new points of view.  After class one day I decided to go for an exploring walk and ended up walking for about five hours .. a bit longer than planned.  Partially the situation was that once I started to exhaust my poor feet, I was already on the other side of the city!  I hadn’t taken a bus yet so aimed for the metro (subway), which was not as close as I had hoped.  I had wanted to see the Fort at the foot of the hill La Croix Rousse.  It is carved into living rock and is impressive. From above the Fort I had a great view of the rooftops of Lyon, sienna red puzzle pieces amidst the deep green of trees and yellow limestone buildings freckled with dark windows.  The patio at the Beaux Arts school offered an abstract shot of russet, black and grays.

Another warm yet breezy afternoon some of us students, along with Anne, a teacher at ESL,  took the double-decker tour bus ride around the city.  It was a nice respite for my punished feet and the height allowed cooler breezes to refresh us.  It’s great to see a different viewpoint, especially one from from above what one normally sees (even though we had to often duck to avoid low-hanging branches).  My friend Sigrid from Austria relied upon me to take photos since she had left her camera behind that day.  We work to speak only in French.  Many of the sites I had seen previously, but it was nice to explore another section of the city and ascend the Basilica Hill from the other side.  We later passed the city swimming pool - which is two long, very long, pools running beside the Rhône.  (A Canadian friend from the school went one day to swim and thought it was nice but not especially so.  It is, however, popular with many local families - especially during hot vacations.)

Agnès, Robin, Pat - celebrating the Bac

That evening I arrived “home” to learn that Robin (host son) had passed his “Bac” with very good grades - the best amongst his friends!  The Bac is a national test covering many subjects - math, French, sciences, psychology, foreign languages, with many of these done orally - taken at the end of the Lycee (high school) career.  About twenty percent do not pass at all.  This is not a year-end exam given by individual schools but is more similar to the SAT although it covers more subjects and is more rigorous.  The test is vital to being accepted into Universities and furthering one’s education.  For some it takes two or three times to pass with a high enough “note” (grade) to continue on.  Upon succeeding there is no huge “graduation” party celebration.  We had a quiet time at home that evening.  Patrice (father) opened a bottle of champagne (which exploded its cork nicely) and drank to Robin’s success and future.  Agnès (ah-nye) is the very proud mother.  Later Robin went out with his friends, probably as usual, for a picnic and to sit on the lawn near the Quai (the boardwalk/sidewalk/park area beside the Rhône), spending a social evening chatting, and enjoying each other’s company.

I went out on Friday night to have dinner with my two new friends from school:  Lisa, from Italy, and Sigrid, from Austria.  We browsed the streets  around the Opera House area as we searched for a good Brasserie (typical Lyonnaise food) before going to a Jazz show on the patio of the Opera.  We thought we had decided upon a place and entered to sit when we were informed that dinner does not even begin to be served until 7:30pm.  So ... off to a small bar where we enjoyed a small aperitif of some fruity liquor until it was time for the restaurants to open.  The tall thin glasses made the rounds amongst us so we could sample each.  Again we work to keep our French in use.  Once at the restaurant we shared wine and ordered dinner.  Lisa the beef, Sigrid the fish, and I the chicken - so we could taste each.  It was good, but not amazing.  The desserts we also sampled: a couple were amazing and the others good.  (The bathroom was amazing with paintings and special sinks and a glass wall looking into the wine cellar).  I have heard that Lyon is the center of France for gastronomy, but have not really experience that yet.  One dish of a wonderful cheese and glazed onion quiche-type pie, but beyond nothing extremely special. I am still looking!  The jazz band at the Opera patio was avant-guard: very creative, unique, experimental elements, but not what I would call true jazz.  Still, jazz seems to be the music that is preferred here in Lyon.

Terrilynn, Lisa & Sigrid - American, Italian, Austrian

It amazes me how large the city of Lyon is (eight times the size of Portland) and yet at night this area is very quiet. I can hear some cars in the distance and once in a while some slight noise, but basically it is quiet and peaceful.  Last night I took the subway home around midnight and walked down the main avenue near the home, and it was nearly abandoned - even very few cars for a city.  Tonight there is a gentle brightness to the sky … there must be something going on to reflect into the sky so. It is a soft salmon color layered over a grey-blue.  In the home, the ceilings are so high in this older building – about twelve feet I think.  The walls are over a foot thick of ochre limestone.  It makes the house peaceful.  The

floors are beautiful hardwood set in a herringbone pattern that has shifted slightly with the age of the building. They creak if you step in the right spot - so at night you want to avoid them.  

I love lying here in Lyon in my small bed every night and every morning and looking out the window.  The window opens to an area between buildings to a slice of sky that is framed by the angles of roofs and chimneys.  Hundreds of sparrows fly about, dawn and dusk,  looking like mingies in a summer Maine sky – only here the sparrows eat any bugs that would be bothersome.  The windows can be kept open, with no screens, and there are no mosquitoes left to enter.  Each window is about seven feet high and has inner wooden shutters to close during a warm day to keep the heat of a powerful sun out.  There is an interesting locking system to them also.  I explained how in Maine only older homes have true shutters and that was for protection from the American Indian during the colonial period.

It is so beautiful here!  Is it Lyon? Or is it France?  Perhaps I feel this way because it is summer?  Or is it the mix of all these ingredients together?  Whichever it may be, it is definitely beautiful and bewitching!

Lyon and the Rhône

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[apologies for the low resolution photos .. these were transferred from an old website and will be updated to high resolution ASAP]

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* Artwork Website: TravelingArtista.com