Mon, Tues in Lyon

Yesterday we left the boat, got to the apartment, met the owners, got information on local coffee shops, cafes, markets and on the apartment,  sorted ourselves out and went to lunch at one of the suggested local places, about 100m away.  It was delicious.

Lyon has 2 hills. One is Fourviere with the Basilica and Roman ruins and the other is the Croix Rousse.   In the afternoon we went on a little ' tram' . It is called a tram but it is more like a little narrow bus pulling several carriages. Near the top of the Croix Rouse is a huge wall of several apartment buildings which has been made into a huge detailed mural of life in the area.

We mastered frencH  supermarket shopping , almost. Despite me using my best French, as always I must have thrown in a few Italian words. After i paid she said Buongiorno to me with a big smile, much to the amusement of everyone in the queue who would have heard me and Noel  talking in  English.

This morning we had our coffee and croissant at the cafe one shop away from our front door. Very convenient.   Next to the river near us, near as in 200m away, every morning except Monday there are is a market where  fruit and veg and cheese and meats and flowers are sold. We took a while to work out the country of origin code on the f and v. We bought some camembert , the 1 name we recognised, and asked for some sheep's milk cheese. We bought some of one of the 3 he had. , That is assuming he understood my pronunciation  of mouton.  Who knows. We looked at the range of game birds at one stall and had no clues what most of them were. A few still had head and necks attached. We bought some fruit which we have started on. It is quite delicious.

We caught the funicular to the top of Fourviere and went to the Basilica . It was amazing inside. Very ornate, but the colours, predominantly pale blue, grey and light brown all seemed to make it OK not grossly over the top. So we liked it. There were lots of scenes on the walls all done in mosaics.

Then we went to a museum of the Gallo Roman times of Lyon. It was an interesting building, set into the hillside, with views out to the remains of a Roman ampitheatre and odeon. In Roman times Lyon , or Lugdunum as it was called was the principal town in Gaul and the citizens has rights equal to those in Rome. This was not the norm in Roman colonies.

Then we had lunch in one of the little cafes called bouchons in the old town.

We visited the textile and decorative arts museum, but were underwhelmed.

Now its time for dinner - salad and more of the local viognier  that our host left for us.