After our drive through the French Alps – I think that’s what the general area is called – our entry into Lyon was through Lyon’s industrial underbelly. It is not the entry I would suggest to an otherwise beautiful city. Lyon is a city Michele and I both wanted to revisit after first seeing it in July of 2018. It is France’s third-largest city, after Paris – which is Europe’s largest city, unless, of course, one wants to count Moscow as European, which I don’t – and Marseille. We arrived late on Sunday, and the two main places we wanted to see – or re-see, in one case – were closed on Monday.

We defaulted to a unique cathedral on a hill overlooking Lyon, the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, designed by Marie-Louis Jean Sainte-Marie Perrin. Marie-Louis Jean Sainte-Marie Perrin is a local guy, which is pretty unusual, but very welcome. The Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière is, to my eye, a strange building – its website says that it is a combination of “Byzantine, Gothic, and Romanesque styles – it shouldn’t, but it does seem to work. As an aside, I couldn’t find the Romanesque parts, and I would add Baroque to the list, especially in the interior.End aside.

Under the main cathedral, is a smaller church which I thought was more intimate and appealing.

Near the Basilique Notre-Dame, there is a Roman theater, probably built about 15 BC when Lyon was Lugdunum and Augustus was visiting (or in charge). At that time, Lyon was the capital of Roman Gaul, and the theater held, presumably, about 10,000 screaming fans.

We went to Lyon primarily to see the Musée des Confluences, but first we revisited Lyon’s Temple to food, Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. Lyon self-identifies as “the world capital of gastronomy,” and they are probably right. I liked the food here better than anywhere we have traveled (except, maybe, Tokyo). The city’s history has promoted and continues to promote the exchange of culinary products and cultural influences.. Lyon’s culinary history dates back to when it was a major Roman trading center 25 centuries ago, which has led to its distinctive and influential cuisine. That cuisine was also heavily formed by the influence of the “Mères Lyonnaises” -“female cooks” to us less fluent in Lyonese cooking history – who had their own restaurants especially during the 19th through the early 20th centuries. While it’s hard to believe that women were ever influential in anything, if you read most history books, you can look it up.  

We had planned to arrive early, spend a couple of hours at the Food Temple, and then go to the main event, the Musée des Confluences. That, it turns out, is impossible. Here are a couple of, almost random, photos from inside the Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse.

To be continued…