There were still streets I hadn't walked down, traboules I hadn't wandered through and buildings of interest I hadn't photographed, so I set off to do some last-minute sight seeing!
mercredi 29 decembre:
We had wanted to visit the Resistance Museum at the Centre d' Historie de la Resistance et de la Deportation, but it is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we made our way there, only to find that it was closed for the Christmas -New Year period - out of luck again it seems. We should have guessed that things would close for the holidays.
Below is an impressive staircase in the building next to the museum.
The museum is housed in the old Hospital .... which was actually occupied by the Nazis during WW2,
... so we walked back to the city centre along the Rhone and I enjoyed the views along the river, especially the reflections in the glassy river surface .....
and the most outstanding and famous landmark of Lyon , the huge white basilica on Fourvier Hill, comes into view......
This is one of Lyon's Universities, the Jean Moulin Universite Lyon 3 ....
Once on the Presqu'ile ( Presqu'île, literally the "peninsula", extending from the foot of the Croix Rousse hill to the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône rivers, is in the city centre of Lyon, France).
I wandered off on my own to photograph the graceful Chairty Church Tower sited on the NW corner of le place Bellecour ....
......the sun finally came out to illuminate the top half of the tower ....
The Charity Church Tower: The hospice d'Aumone generale ( General Alms house) or la Charite, built in 1626 with the facade facing the Rhone River, was demolished in 1934 to make way for the main post office designed by architect Roux-Spits.
On the wall of the adjacent Post Office, this memorial is for those killed during the Resistance and Deportation .....
Only the 1665 spire of la Charite, attributed to Italian craftsman Bernini, remains on this square which, since 1993, has been extended as far as landing stage on the Rhone.
I spotted a street full of interesting - looking resataurants full of people wining and dining ( I would have loved to have a meal at one), it is the famous rue des Marrronniers (street of the chestnut merchants, I think?) ......
.... Le Bon Bourgeois .....
...... their special Menu au Nouvel An., for the New Year celebration , 3 courses for 29 euro... and their cheaper Menu des Marroniers at 15 euro
... and next door at Comptoir des Marronniers, these huge roosters caught my eye ....
.... at closer inspection, you can see that it's decorated with images of graters, tongs, knives, forks and other kitchen utensils!
I loved the look of this seafood restaurant which would have been quite at home by the seaside!
.... selling fruits de mer et crustaces, et saumon, a la peche aux moules ....
On my way to have one last look at Eglise St Nizier ( which featured in my posts from 8-11 Decembre, during the Fete des Lumieres with the amazing light and sound display son et lumière), I went into Eglise Saint Bonaventure, a church in Place des Cordeliers - Lyon 2e, I had been past many times but never ventured into .......
Background information: Cardinal Bonaventure (formerly Jean Fidenza) , the General of the Francisan Order, came to take part in the ecumicical Council of Lyon.in 1274. The coming to Lyon of the disciples of Assisi, called Minors or Little brothers is certified as early as 1226. They are named cordeliers because of the rope girdling their gray robes. Hence the name Place des Cordeliers. Cardinal Bonaventure's popularity attrracted crowds of the faithful, therfore a church was built vast enough to receive them.
Consrtuction of the church took 150 years from1327 to 1471 then was restored in 1953.
While the church itself is suitably grand, it is the windows which really attract your eye - they are simply stunning! The windows are not old, as they werre nearly all broken in 1944 when the nearby Pont Lafayette ( just to the east) was blown up in WW2. A master glass worker in Lyon, Mrs Lamy-Pallet, remade the windows using designs by Louis Charrat.
This one is a real christmas scene - Mary holding baby Jesus, riding the donkey ......
Adoration of the magi ....
The 5-cornered apse is the most ancient part of the church with windows from the mid 1800's and beside the altar is a statue of Sir Francis of Assisi ....
At the far end, the huge rosette ( 1853) above the entrance is gorgeous ...
The 17.5m vaulted ceiling is wonderful, with its small high windows and the superb glass or crystal chandeliers which hang from it ...
In the Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy - here is my poor photo of Agrisetti's moving Pieta which is a copy of Michelangelo's "Pieta" in St Peter's, Vatican City ....
.. .the creche or nativity is so different from other ones I have seen ....
The pulpit is accessed via a small spiral staircase ....
The church boasts 4 superb tapestries, not well lit and no camera flash allowed, so poor photos.
This tapestry shows Bonaventure fait profession religieuse et recoit l'habit des Francisicans ...
I left the church and walked along rue Grenette past the Grand Cafe des Negociante where we met Ghislaine for a drink last week ....
You can see that the 2 spires are different - one is gothic, the other is ......
... there is a decorative half-dome above the main entrance ....
The famous clock on the LH spire ....
I caught the metro from Cordeliers to Vieux Lyon with the aim of getting a shot of the funiculaires crossing Rue tramassac on their way to St Just et Fourvier. As you can see there are 2 funiculaires, siude by side. I only had a to wait a minute or so, before the first one went past, returning from St Just ...
Then I turned around and waited for the Fourvier funiculaire - here it is!
..... there it goes .....
I continued along Rue Tramassar, past bouchons ( restaurants selling authentic Lyonnaise cuisine such as quinelles, saucisson de Lyonaisse, tripe dishes eg ............................)
This is the not so pretty view of the facade of Cathdrale Saint Jean, covered in scaffolding ....
I came to the start of the path that winds its way up Fourvier Hill to the basilica - it is called Montee des Chazeux ....
I continhed on past this doorway with a sign saying prive, the owners must get sick of people trying to enter their private doorway thinking it is one of the many accessible traboules in this district ...
You can tell that it;s accessible by the brass Memoirs de Lyon information sign beside it ....
... out of one and into another .....
Deep and dark within the traboule, there is a private locked gate to provide access to the people who actually live here!
the exit doorway takes you out onto Rue St Jean .....
Infronmt of Pylones gift shop, a crepe stand was doing a roaring trade ......
Options include chocolat ( Nutella - Sam would have this!), sucre et citron ( I would have this!) ...
And for the adults, vin chaud et chocolat chaud were on offer, 2 euro for a small cup and very popular on a cold afternoon / evening ....
This bouchon gets a lot of attention from passing tourists due to its brightly decorated Christmas window .....
In Place Neuve St-Jean , there areva few bouchns, this has an unusual name, les ventres jaunes, The Yellow Bellies!
Then at 16 Rue du Boeuf I spotted the interesting doorway into the 17th century Maison du Crible .....
In the courtyard, the pink painted walls and circular tower, I think, reflect the influence of the Italian merchants who lived here.....
and the grand Annexe Seme Mairie ,,,,,,
This is the former location of an annex of the Jesuit college de la Trinite ( now the Ampere High School) which was established in 1630 thanks to an endowment from the Gadagne family who lived in the neighbourhood. Father la Chaise, later to be Louis XIV's confessor, was rector of the Petit College. The present building, constructed in 1730 around a vast four-newel winding staircase, is now an annexe of the fifth district's Mayor's office.
... which goes up and up, winding its way up the traboule-like internal courtyard ...
It pays to look up out into the street too, there's always an interesting view .....
further along the street is the Gadagne Musees ....
...... but instead went out into the Grande Cour, the large courtyard , but it ws late in the afternoon so the lkight was fading .....
The facades, the well and bathroom, as well as the northern galleries linking the two main parts of the building date from the 16th century. The 2 shades of coating chosen for the restoration reflect parallel changes in the different sections throughout history.
Also, I read on a sign outside that there were originally two separate homes, owned by the two Gadagne brothers, which were later joined to form the mueum.
The" baathroom" beneath a decorative window .....
An original doorway off the street .....
Listed buildings like this one, and the traboules for example, are distinguished by virtue of their materials: Baked eaerth, whitewash ans painted ceilings.
The well ......
It was getting late and darker, so it was time to head back to the apartment to cook dinner - I had home-made ratatouie and a boiled potato! Not neatly served up!
jeudi 31 Decembre
I had a quiet morning doing washing and emails, I had a delicious salad of thinly sliced endive with la marche and the dressing Fabienne showed me ( balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a snmall amount of finely chopped shallot and Dijon mustard) and, a small piece of camembert ( saved from ther breakfast spread0 and some stale bagette revitalised by cooking it in some olive oil ...........
I was curious to see what St-Just is like as I had not stayed on the funiculaire to St-Just before, I had previously got off at Minimes to see the Roman Ruins ..........
.. but Saint-Just is nothing to write home about .........
.... so I headed up the hill with the aim of walking up to the cemetary that I had seen on the map and then to Fourvier and down to Vieux Lyon ....
I saw this sign - a rememberance garden for a Resistance.victim.
I passed a what looked like a small community garden, fairly empty in winter ...
Then I spotted the cardon, that Fanbienne had showed me a picture of and we had eaten at her parent's house ....
This house is bult right up against the side of the aqueduct!!
Only a fragment of this huge water system remains, the largest outside Rome, it spanned 75 km, bringing water from the Pilat to Lyon ....
Then I walked back to the huge cemetary, Cimetiere de Loyesse
Edouard Herriot, the mayor of Lyon from 1905 to 1957, is buried there ...
Then I walked up to Fourvier Basilica, whuich I have included in earlier blog spots, so I just took a few photos of soem of the details I had previously missed ....
At the front are the Stations of the Cross - here is Station X ...
Some details on the facade ....
One last look at the view from the observation point. It was a misty day, not clear enough for a good photo....
You can just make out the brown Radisson Hotel in new Lyon, near Gare Part Dieu, the tallest and one of the4 ugliest building in Lyon, looms over the old city - the buildings and apartments are mostly only 5 or 6 storeys high.......
The radio tower next to Fourvier : If it looks familiar, it's because it is actually a copy of ther top tier of the Eiffel Tower!
The path down Fourvier Hill to Vieux Lyon, winds its way past a number of gardens ....
.. and eventually leads to Montee de Chazeaux, the steep steps which connect Montee Saint-Barthelemy and Rue de Boeuf .....
I love thios view over the Medieval rooftops of Vieux Lyon, to the north wall of Saint-Jean Cathedrale and in the background, the ferris wheel of Place Bellecour on the Presqu'ile ...
Near the base of the steps, you can look up into the side of the traboule that you enter from Rue de Boeuf ....
I made a bee-line for the Marquise Patisserie on the corner of Rue de la Bombarde and Rue St-Jean for afternoon tea. I had walked past it many times over the last 5 weeks but never beenentered before ....
I had a cappucino and a florentine ..... very decadent!
The pink meringues in the window .....
Afterwards, further along Rue St -Jean, I spotted the crepe stall doing a roaring trade ....
I popped back into this traboule for one last look ....
A couple of restaurants open for New Year's Eve dinner trade .... they look inviting!
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