Visiting l'le Barbe

Vendredi 10 Decembre
Another cold but sunny morning, we set off to catch the #40 bus to Montanay to visit a student, north of Lyon. As we walked along the river, Cathy spotted this painted building - can you see the painting of people doing everyday chores?


Lyon is famous for their painted walls - there are more than 200 of these throughout the city, mostly completed since the 1800's. But earlier paintings can be seen on a number of churches, government buildings, the main post office and the walls of the staircase in the Museum of fine Arts at Palais Saint Pierre, painted by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, the master of Symbolism - I will see this next week when we visit the gallery.

Even without paintings, the facades of buildings are gorgeous - see below!

This is the view of the Saone that we enjoyed as we walked North to get to the start of the #40 bus route.

                   On the way we stopped to explore one of the tiny captivating islands in the Saone, I'le Barbe.

 Once on the island, I looked back at the bridge we had crossed.

We walked into the small, almost deserted village on the island, .....
 the only people we saw were the men pruning the trees in the village square, infront of this rather exclusive restaurant Auberge de I'lle....

We came to the 12th century Saint Martin and Saint Loup's Abbey, the oldest Lyon monastery , founded in the 5th century.







Then we walked up the steps to this farmhouse with tools waiting at the front door.....

The crimson shutters so old and worn, as were the stone walls.....

It's a very long story, but we ended up back in Lyon to collect Claire from Gare de la Part Dieu then much later that afternoon, we went out by bus to Montanay to this idyllic rural setting near Neuville - bucolic tranqulity with birds chirping, glorious views over the river valley below and trees all around, so different from the city! The house reminded me of a swiss chalet!

 This is Claire with the family and a friend of one of the girls....

That evening, we went out again to see more of the Fete Des Lumieres, and marvelled at the exquisite  Fourvier Basilica in its evening splendour!

especially inside where the gilt decorations and paintings simply glowed ..........

Outside, we went to the viewing balcony to see the lights all over Lyon.....

.... and the apse of the basilica was superb in its rich blue light!









Below: part of the huge Merci Marie (Thank you Mary) sign which can be easily seen from Place Bellecour.....

we caught the furnicular back down to Vieux Lyon and walked across the bridge, catching this view north up the River Saone of the light show on the walking bridge.





Then on the east bank, we looked up at Fourvier Hill and the light display Sun Meets Moon, without the moon as it was not lifted up at this time, althoug we did see it briefly on our way home from dinner in the historic Rue Mercier, where we ate dinner at the street stalls - I had a local dish Quinelles - a cross between gnocchi and an omelette in a rich creamy, cheesy sauce - yum! Cathy had a local pork sausage dish of course!- the sausages were cooked in a huge wok-type pan and cut up with vegetables in a bagette.


See the changing colours of the apses of St-Jean and the Fourvier Basilica below, very beautiful.

                                                                          That's all for today!