The Painted City

Story by Nicole

We both liked Lyon immediately. It’s a decent sized city that is walkable, hilly, colorful, and has a few big, lovely parks. We arrived late morning and went to our Airbnb, where a very nice older French gentlemen showed us around his apartment and offered us refreshments before leaving for his country house. After we went to a pedestrian street full of restaurants for lunch, we headed off to explore.

It was hot, so we first went to the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon. It’s a really wonderful museum with a large room of sculptures and a very impressive Egypt collection.

The sculpture room (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A great dog statue (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Painting the paintings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very, very, very old wall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We then went to Le Quartier Saint-Jean, which is in the old city. It’s full of beautiful old buildings in varying shades of yellow, orange, and pink, and it was bustling with restaurants, gift shops, and random museums (we walked past the puppet museum and the museum of movies and miniatures). We stopped at a gelato shop with too many flavors to resist and then began the formidable climb up to La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière, which is a beautiful white cathedral on top of a very steep hill. Fortunately much of the hillside is shaded by a park of gardens and mature trees, which is beautiful enough to distract from the calf burn. From the top of the hill you get a great view of the city, and the day was clear enough that we could even see mountains behind the city’s few skyscrapers. The cathedral was under construction, like many of the monuments we’ve seen.

Le Quartier Saint-Jean (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up the hill at the Basilique (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the trails up through the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Skywriting next to the Basilique (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the top of the hill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the cathedral we walked down the hill slightly to find the old Roman amphitheater ruins. The amphitheater was being set up for a concert, which somewhat disrupted the view but was very interesting, especially since there was a musical accompaniment to the experience.

A lovely concert view (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Friday we took another all-day wine and medieval village tour, this time in a van. Our group consisted of five Americans and three women from Spain, so our very impressive guide, Olivier, spent all day explaining everything in both English and Spanish without even a pause to reset in between.

We were touring the Beaujolais region this time, which is said to be France’s Tuscany. I expected to be somewhat less impressed by the scenery because we had already spent a fair amount of time in French wine country, but it really was gorgeous. The grapes are Chardonnay and Gamay. Beaujolais produces a lot more regional and village appellation wine than borgeone, but they only have one cru level.

Us in front of a pigeon house (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beaujolais (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beaujolais vineyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we drove around and talked about wine, we went to a local producer in the town of Oingt. The vineyard owner, Dominique, did not speak English, so Olivier translated from French to English and Spanish as Dominique told us about the processes of growing, harvesting, and making wine from the grapes. He also made a half-joking request for us to come back in the fall and help harvest, because every year he needs about 30 people to harvest grapes for a few weeks. He feeds and lodges people and pays them 60 euro a day to pick grapes, and Olivier noted that he had harvested for one season in his youth. He recommended against it.

A view of the vineyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dominique showing us how to smell the vines (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A well-behaved vineyard dog who was told to lay down (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the afternoon we went to the tiny medieval commune of Pérouges. The town was dressed up for a medieval fair that weekend, and it was fun to see everything set up to look like the olden days.

Preparations for the medieval fair (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A street in Pérouges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heart shutters (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful well (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Old buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flowers and a butterfly in Pérouges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got back from our tour, we spent the evening walking around the city. When we walked through the Place des Jacobins, there appeared to be some sort of protest going on. We had noticed lots of police and security in all the cities in France, but the square was surrounded by local police and what looked like the French National Guard. They all seemed fairly relaxed, so after looking around for a minute and trying to figure out what was going on, we decided to avoid the area where some officers with shields were facing some citizens and move on.

The Place des Jacobins (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Officers in the square (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday we walked to the neighborhood of la Croix-Rousse, where we found the most massive farmers’ market that either of us had ever seen. It stretched on for at least 10 blocks of stands selling fruits and vegetables, cheese, meats, and various cooked foods. On the other side of the street there were dozens of people who had set up mini garage sales to sell clothes, toys, and household appliances. Around a corner we found a jazz band playing.

Typical farmer’s market fare (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Rotisserie chicken and fat-cooked vegetables (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We found this stand amusing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A surprise jazz band (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We headed next to the Parc de la Tête d'Or, which is one of the largest parks in France. As expected, the park is awesome. It features a large lake with rentable paddle boats. The lake also has an island, and Google Maps indicated that there was a way to reach the island without a boat. I was expecting a bridge, but as we drew closer a bridge did not appear. Once we got to the crossing area, though, we noticed an impressive tunnel under the lake to reach the island. On the island is the monument aux morts de l'île du Souvenir, a massive statue honoring the French individuals who died during World War I.

Geese in the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The tunnel under the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For lunch we went to YAAFA, a very good local fast food place that serves falafel sandwiches and salads. After lunch we did some more wandering around Lyon. One wonderful aspect of the city is the fact that everything is painted - there are full-wall murals on the sides of many buildings, and graffiti everywhere as well. In many areas the stairs are even painted.

Big cat mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The amazing book mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The mural of famous people from Lyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fancy fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another great thing is the passageways and stairways throughout the hilly city.

A stairway between buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An archway in the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After a lovely last meal at a French restaurant, we went home and packed up. In the morning, we took the train back to Paris and flew through Iceland to Denver. For those trying to spend some time in France outside of the top tourist destinations, I highly recommend Lyon.

A bridge over the Saône (Photo/Jason Rafal)