Day Trip to Lyon

On yet another three day weekend in May (I'm not complaining), Max and I decided to head to Lyon on a Saturday morning. Although we'd flown into the airport there a couple of times, we hadn't yet visited the city. It's only a little over an hour from Chambery, and was much cheaper for us to drive (even with tolls and parking) then taking the train, as we discovered on our attempt visit Lyon. We wanted to visit this church overlooking the city.

The church is actually referred to as a basilica - a name given by the pope to a church that has important historical significance or influence. During the Franco-Prussian War, the citizens of Lyon prayed to the Virgin Mary and asked that she would protect the town, promising to build a sanctuary in her honor if their prayers were answered. The town was spared and the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière was built.

"Riiiicccccooooolllllaaaa!" There seemed to be a lot different things going on in the city that day. We came across this group of musicians playing their traditional alpine horns (or alphorns). Here is an audio clip of what these horns sounds like:

http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/listen2.aspx?type=preview&trackid=38374.

We walked down to the Place Bellecour, a large public square in the city between the Rhone and the Saone rivers. There was this statue of Louis XIV there called the Statue Équestre de Louis XIV but nicknamed "the bronze horse".

Lyon was definitely a more international city. We heard more English spoken, some cafes had English names and most important of all, they had a Ben & Jerry's! As with most imports, these things were more expensive; a foot long sub at Subway was not 5 dollars, more like 10. Even though we didn't stay for a meal, just seeing these things made up feel more at home.