The Prussians are Coming!

Day 3 in Lyon began with a scrumptious breakfast before our early morning bus ride to the city center for touring the old (medieval) part of Lyon.  On one of four buses from the ship, our guide (a small little French woman who added an extra syllable at the end of each word, and whose name escaped us) explained that we'd be going from the southeast part of Lyon across the peninsula to the western part up on one of the two large hills where the city was originally founded by the Romans in 43 BC.

I had a small flashback to French class in high school (where I was not one of Mrs. Brookie's best French speakers) when our guide mentioned that the peninsula separates Le Rhone and La Saone rivers . . . ."le" makes the following noun masculine and "la" makes it feminine.  The Rhone River is straight, wide, and apparently masculine while the Saone River is narrow, windy and apparently feminine.  I'd completely forgotten about le and la so it was a nice reminder and nearly doubles the number of French words I know.

The ruins of the two Roman theaters in Lyon.

Up the "praying hill" we went through some incredibly tight streets with hairpin turns on roads the Romans actually built.  One important intersection was for continuing on to Britain while another went south toward Rome. 

Our bus driver proved his driving skills to be without equal as he didn't crush a single car lining both sides of the street (as I would've).  I'm not quite sure how he did it but he certainly earned his gratuity today.  Near the top we saw two side-by-side ruins which were a large and small theater (again, Roman-built) but there was little left of them as successive wars saw them gradually dismantled for building elsewhere. 

After winding around on these roads which I'd be reluctant to drive on, we arrived at Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.  A beautiful church built in the 1870s, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who saved the city a number of times during its history - first from the bubonic plague, the Black Death, that swept Europe in 1643.  The most recent salvation of Lyon attributed to the Blessed Mother was her intervention in saving the city in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War from the dreaded Prussians who got as far in their invasion as Dijon. 

From the basilica, a view of the "Pencil" (right) and
"Eraser" (left) in Lyon's financial district.  On a clear day,
the Alps (including Mont Blanc) are visible
 in the far background.

There, according to the guide, they either got tired or drank too much beaujolais wine and stopped.  Meanwhile, the women of Lyon were at this site praying for the intervention of Mary.  In thanks to Her for sparing their city, the people of Lyon built this magnificant church on what was, in Roman times, the Forum.   From this position, it overlooks the city with spectacular views and has become the de facto symbol of Lyon.

Next our bus took us down to the city center to the medieval area which was gentrified in the 1960s from a slum to the hottest restaurants and shops in town.  The cobblestone streets are a bit rough to walk on, but certainly added to the charm.  Interestingly, the French resistance during World War II started in this area because the narrow passageways were conducive to the locals (provided there were two entrances/exits) because they were not known to the Gestapo.

"Nothing quite like a double espresso en Francais!"

We stopped at a local store and bought some wonderful chocolate and took it to a nearby coffee shop where we enjoyed espresso and cappucino while we ate chocolate.  Then, back on the bus and back to the ship for lunch. 

There are afternoon tours but one per day seems to be enough for us, so we'll likely spend the afternoon taking a nap and then sitting in the sunshine.   Tonight we leave to go south on the Rhone river and on to our next stop - Vienne, France, one of the oldest towns in all of France.