Wed and Thurs in Lyon

We spent time on  Wed morning on admin stuff and wandering around streets. In the afternoon  we went on a walking tour of the old part of Lyon. We went into the Cathedral which has some interesting modern stained glass and an amazing clock. We were taken through some of the traboules, narrow covered  passageways between streets that seem part of the buildings. In the evening we had dinner in a local bouchon. In French a bouchon is a cork in a bottle  or a traffic jam. In Lyon it is also the name of a small local, no frills cafe, not fine dining  but delicious traditional home cooking.  Usually there is a fair bit of offal on the menu.

On Thursday we went first to a large park. We wandered around a lake and then through a zoo. We saw some animals we had never seen before, many of which are vulnerable or endangered. We saw a spectacled bear who normally lives in the high Andean forests, a Muellers Bornean gibbon, a L'Hoests monkey, a bat-eared fox and a radiated tortoise with a lovely pattern on its shell. Then we walked through a botanical garden, rows and rows of beds with all sorts of different shrubs and plants. The park was free and there were lots of school groups.

In the afternoon we went to a museum with all sorts of info about the Resistence history and activities in Lyon during WW II.

  Normally in train stations I can understand announcements  in French OK.  But not yesterday. We were on the Metro on our way home from the museum quite tired after all the walking of the morning. The train was stopped at the stop before we wanted to get off. Just before it started there was an announcement that I could not understand. People groaned and everyone started  getting off the train. Someone told us that a suspicious parcel had been found and everyone should leave. Righto, off we got.  So we walked for another 20 minutes or so but along a street we had not seen before and it was full of fancy clothes shops, so I was not rushing. We have often seen armed police or army people wandering around. Once I commented to Noel that the 2 guys who we saw wandering past carrying large guns looked about 15. He replied, No, more like 20. Hmm.