The 9.00 am TER service from Beaune arrived in Lyon right on time at 10.44 this morning and disgorged its passengers into the hustle and bustle of France's 3rd largest city and immediately our world was turned on its ear!
Having been in far smaller cities since arriving in France where there may have been no more than 50 streets making up the central city to walk out of the station into a teeming mass of people and with an information map far bigger than we were used to and with the street names in such small type due to their number it was rather daunting.
Nevertheless we left the station area and made our way to the River Rhone which together with the River Saone run through the city.
The Rhone like most rivers of substance was pleasant on the eye with the numerous bridges crossing over it towards the old town
High above the city the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere sat looking down
so we went to the Tourism Office situated on the "place Bellecour" to find the easy way to get up to it
A €2.80 return trip on the funicular did the trick and we were soon at the top taking in the views from the lookout area....
...in the company of a one-legged John Paul II
I may have said it before about a previous church/cathedral but this Basilique is simply stunning internally with "decorations" that are very pleasant on the eye and give a very clean look to the interior - the ceilings are gorgeous
With only 6 hours in town we could do no more than give Lyon a cursory once over (however the pedometer shows that so far today we have walked 17.78kms!) but in doing so saw the only reference we have seen on our trip to Auckland
Mid afternoon we made our way back towards the railway station spending sometime in the Part Dieu shopping complex which is a very modern complex of at least 3 storeys with shops and shoppers shoulder to shoulder!
I write this blog on a stifling hot train as we return back to Beaune and wonder if it too will be run on the honesty system that our morning trip was - at no time during the trip were our tickets checked!
Tomorrow is Bastille Day here in France and we hope to join the locals in the evening at their celebrations but try as I might since we arrived in France I have been unable to purchase a full sized French flag.
P.S. The train home was run on the same honesty system. It got into Beaune 1.5 hours late due to a fire on the line. The pedometer ended at 19.73 kms for the day so it is no wonder this old body feels a little lethargic!
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