Where We See A Bit Of Lyon And Hear Some Good News For A Change
When you go on a cruise, you see snippets of many places. Today’s snippet was Lyon. We had our included Lyon city tour in the morning, then Andy, Susie, and Janet had an additional excursion to the medieval city of Perouges.
There were 3 buses – one was for the people going on both the city tour and Perouges excursion, the other two for the morning tour only. So which bus do *I* go on? Fortunately, the organizers and Program director had the correct answer – I stay with my group on the Perouges bus for the morning, and ride back to the hotel after lunch on one of the other buses.
Before we departed Lisette came on board and announced that Tuesday we would be heading to the ship in Avignon – program of the entire day in the works. Looking better for some sailing during the week. Yay!
Our tour guide Christian, early history of Lyon – the original Roman name of the city was Lugdunum, which eventually morphed into “Lyon”. It was a city of merchants, known for the silk trade. Over the centuries as the silk trade faded, the city transitioned into industry instead.
We drove to the top of Fourviere Hill, where the Basilica of Notre Dame resides. Here are views from the top of the hill:
The origin of the church is unique in France during <a war that I don’t remember>, the people of the town prayed that if the town was spared from the war, they would pay to build a church. The town was spared from the war, and the church was built with public funds – in only 30 years! To this day public funds support the basilica – the only church in France with public support.
Christian our tour guide told us the story of the origin of the croissant: originally from Vienna, hundreds of years ago bakers would bake the daily bread in bakeries outside the city to keep fire outside the city walls. The bakers saw the incoming Turkish invasion and warned the city officials in time to thwart the invasion. In celebration, the bakers created a new special treat in the shape of the Turkish symbol the crescent – and thus the croissant was born! The croissant was brought to France by Marie Antoinette. Whatever else she did, at least she got that right!
Obligatory bathroom story: in the bathroom located in the courtyard of the basilica, it took me way too long to figure out how to get water to flow from the faucet. The on/off mechanism was a lever on top of the spigot that I had to push all the way back over the top of the spigot and then let it go. I’ve never seen anything like that anywhere, and considering how many European bathrooms I’ve been in, that’s say A LOT.
It was time to get back on the bus and drive down the hill towards the old city. Christian pointed out the view of the basilica from down below – fondly referred to as the “upside down elephant”
Continuing our drive to the old city, Christian pointed out the decorative troupe-l’oeil paintings on the side of the buildings, depicting assorted moments in French history. We didn’t actually stop and get out, so I took the photo through the bus window. It’s hard to see what’s going on.
When we arrived in the old city, Christian lead us through the cobble stone streets to the entrance of the first of 3 “traboules” – 16the century tunnels hidden within the old city’s buildings.
cobblestones hard to walk on and lots of standing, historic puppet store front,
The cobblestone streets were extremely difficult to walk on, and it didn’t help that we stood still for 10 to 15 minutes at a time with no place to sit. With great relief, we arrived at the restaurant for lunch.
As Christian had described, we sat shoulder to shoulder and most of the food was sent out in bowls for people to pass around. The first course included 7 appetizers: two kinds of potato salads, pickled beets, charcuterie meats (not particularly attractive), and lentils. I’m missing a couple here, but you get the drift. We noticed that the bowls tended to stay at one end of the long table, and we had to constantly ask them to send them down our way.
The main course – described as “cheese with chicken” – proved to be accurate: grilled chicken nuggets drowning in a melted brie sauce. And cheesy potatoes. The main course was delivered already plated, so we didn’t have the “send the bowl, please!” problem.
Though it resurfaced with dessert: meringue, rice pudding, prunes in wine, pears in wine, BUT NO CHOCOLATE. What!
After lunch, I separated from our group and went back to the hotel on a different bus. I had a great conversation with this large family group, regaling them with stories about our Australian cruise debacle. I assured them that whatever nonsense we were going through now was nothing in comparison.
While I was taking a nap in the room, Andy, Susie, and Janet were walking on even more cobblestones in the medieval town of Perouges (peh-ROUGE). At the end of the visit, they were treated to a specialty of the town.
They arrived back right around 6:00ish. I was waiting for them in the lobby, reading the program for tomorrow. We agreed to meet for dinner at 7:00.
Due to the location of the hotel – several miles away from the town center – logistics made it basically impossible to go anywhere but the assigned restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately.
Knowing how quickly Viking put everything together, it was impressive that anything worked at all. But the restaurant was woefully unprepared for the large number of people showing up on their doorstep. We arrived shortly after 7:00 p.m. – I was chasing after a server to get us a menu 30 minutes later. I think we finally got our food some time after 8:30. We were disappointed in the meal – though the dessert was excellent. We are seriously looking forward to the ship on Tuesday!
Tomorrow: We board buses and head towards Avignon, first completing what would have been the included excursion for whatever port we would have docked at, if things had been “normal”. Then lunch, followed by a 2 hour drive to Avignon – and then, the ship!
Maryland Meshugas 