Lyon, France - March 3
No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.
~Cyril Connolly
I walked as long as possible from
the Parcours train/bus station to Abrial’s at 5:30am – but it didn’t take long enough. I took my suitcase and tired feet
around a couple more blocks – it was good to get moving after twelve hours of
not. Still … very tired. I stopped and had “un café” (for us: an
espresso) and on the way to the house I picked up a fresh baguette at the
corner bakery nearby where Pat gets one every day. I knew it would be eaten. Hugs, greetings, and they were off to work.
I passed out for a couple hours trying
to get adjusted. Up, laundry,
basic groceries a few blocks away, hang up laundry and out for a walk to Parc de la Tête d'Or. Its about 55 and sunny – not
what the weather forecast had said – I was expecting rain and 40s. I am still tired so I am “back home
working on photos and blog. Dinner
when they’re home and an early night for this one. Tomorrow: new adventures!
In 2010, my first experience in France (a
place I’d been long to visit since I was a teen and again, especially, when I
was about 25, but actually didn’t arrive until I was in my fifties) was here in
Lyon at this house. There are blog entries from this time with older
photos but you have to go into my Blog
Archives (at the end of the entries)
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| view from my room |
So warm and inviting is this
couple, I immediately felt at home, good friends, and rather like a distant
cousin. My French was a major
struggle then, and they had patience with me. It’s still not great, but is significantly improved. They brought me into their daily lives
and activities and we have become good friends. My third visit here.
The walk from the bus to the house was no problem. I know this city. In 2010 I spent hours and hours just
roaming, exploring, and discovering the streets. Sometimes alone.
Sometimes with my French class friends Sigrid and Lisa (Austrian and
Italian).
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| Parc de la Tête d'Or |
I ponder why I enjoy this city so
much – me who does not like big cities for the most part (and this vies for
second-largest in France with Marseilles). Today as I strolled back from the Parc de la Tête d'Or, I considered
this. One aspect is all the
smaller cities within the city: the
Center Presqu’île shopping district with Place Bellecour (public square), the
Vieux Lyon is the medieval section with Greco-Roman ruins, the Fourvière hill
with the beautiful Basilica crowning the city, the Croix Rousse on the opposite
hill with historic silk factory shops, the extensive Parc de la Tête d'Or with a full and
free zoo, the neighborhood of older residential buildings
(where we are) with barges along the river used as homes or restaurants, and the urban center Part-Dieu with newer buildings, shopping
areas, and a major train terminal (there are two in this city). A person can wander the various segments
of the city and feel like you are in a totally different city. It’s so easy to get around by walking
or bus or metro. And probably the
most beautiful aspects of this city for me, besides the white buildings and
often bright blue skies, are the two rivers that embrace the central section of
the city like loving arms: the Rhône
and the Saone. The waters bring
life and mountain air to refresh the city with their energy and then converge
at the lower end of the city to continue on as the Rhône.
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| Le Rhône River and the Croix Rousse neighborhood, Lyon |
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