Franck had big plans for us for our sightseeing visit to Lyon. It did involve quite a bit of good food and wine.
The first order of the day in France is get the bread for dinner!!
We did spend one day touring Lyon, but on the way we stopped in Trevoux to admire the Saone River.
Near the city center is the Michelin rated Paul Bocuse restaurant. The interesting thing is to look at the flood level markings on the wall.
We started in Lyon with the Roman ruins of Lyon-Fourviere.
A short walk away is the Basilica.
There is an incredible view of the city from the church yard.
After this we visited the old city down below with its cobbled street and several more large churches.
There are hundreds of hidden passageways weaving thru the old quarters of Lyon. They are public rights of way and so as long as you respect the residents you are free to traverse the Traboules.
We then went for a traditional lunch of cassolet.
We took the metro to the Place Bellecour and to see the Fontaine Bartholdi, which was created by the builder of the Statue of Liberty. We had several views of the Rhone and Soane!
After a long day of sightseeing we were treated to home cooked beef bourguignon!
For the start of day two of our Franck’s tour we took in some panoramic views of the countryside and a 13 th century castle.
From the top of the hill at Pommiers you can see a vista of 360 degrees.
We visited the medieval walled city of Perouges situated 30 km north of Lyon. This place is like a living museum.
The next stop was to visit the pilgrimage church at Ars. This is the home of Saint John Vianney the “universal patron saint for all the parish priests” of the Catholic faith. People came from around the world as early as 1827 and he was seeing 20,000 pilgrims a year in 1855 and working 16-18 hours a day hearing confessions.
You can also view his private quarters next door.
Traveling thru the countryside we saw our first real “Gypsy camp”. This was a collection of caravans parked on an empty patch of dirt beside a round about. It looked a bit like an episode of trailer park boys.
Today’s dinner was another French specialty potatoes au gratin and andouille sausage prepared by Franck. We had a great visit with our friends here!! They really went all out to host us.
