Day 3: Palm Sunday & Vieux Lyon, part 2

We had just spent the afternoon exploring the hillside of the Fourvière (old forum), walking through the ancient Roman theater, and then lighting candles in the basilica dedicated to Mary in the 19th century.  Before we started our descent from the hill to the Renaissance neighborhood called "Vieux Lyon", we stopped to look at the Tour Métallique.  This is a radio tower just next to the basilica.  It is designed to look like the top third of the Eiffel Tower.  The tower opened in 1894 at the Universal Exhibition in Lyon.  Our hosts told us that the tower was a republican monument forced upon the city by secularists opposed to the large iconic Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.  It's difficult to know if this is true, but there's no doubt that one cannot see one structure without the other.  The tower certainly competes for the eye with the basilica.

We walked as a group down the steep slopes and stairways from the Fourvière hill to the riverside neighborhood called Vieux Lyon.  We had taken a funicular to the top of the hill, so it was surprising how steep the walk was downhill.  But that didn't stop some intrepid souls from walking, and even jogging, uphill.  We passed them on our way down. 

Empty bases showing where
statues of saints once stood

Vieux Lyon is largest Renaissance district in Lyon, and sits beside the Saône River.  The center of this neighborhood is the Place St-Jean, and from the plaza there is a fantastic view of the Fourvière Basilica and the Metallic Tower.  Cathédrale Saint Jean-Baptiste is a large church anchoring the plaza.  The facade is white, with large red doors, giving it an unusual appearance for a Catholic church.  And as we got closer, we saw something else interesting about the facade.  There were numerous spots for carvings of saints, as is typical for churches from this era, but the statues were either gone or damaged.  The reason is that during the revolution, the saints were interpreted as royalty and the statues were either beheaded or destroyed. 

We walked inside the church, which is a good example of Gothic architecture.  It was was very large, but had a warmth to it in spite of the size.  And in the back left corner of the church there is a beautiful astronomical clock from the 14th century.  It uses mechanical figures to depict scenes from the Annunciation every hour.  Unfortunately we had missed the animated display, but it is a big draw for sight-seers at this church.

In the Middle Ages, this area of the city was the focus of political and religious power. There is a small museum adjoining the cathedral, and it was originally a choir school.  It is one of Lyon's few Romanesque buildings.

As we left Saint Jean-Baptiste, we had a few more minutes of sight-seeing left in us before running out of steam.  We admired the view up the hill of the cathedral on the Fourvière hill, and then strolled through the Renaissance neighborhood of Vieux Lyon.  This is the city's oldest district, and became the first site in France protected under the Malraux law to protect France's cultural sites.  

We walked through the indoor corridors between houses  (called traboules) that kept the silk workers dry hundreds of years ago, and more recently were used to hide members of the French resistance during Nazi occupation in World War II.  Lyon was a hub for occupying German forces, and also a stronghold of resistance. The secret passages enabled the local people to escape Gestapo raids.  We were also intrigued by the renaissance version of the garage, which are the personal horse stables we found in these hidden corridors.  These hallways are private property, but the government of Lyon arranged for some of the remaining ones to be available to curious tourists, who are expected to respect the privacy of the owners.

Rain gutters in Renaissance Lyon
run through the center of the street

We finally returned to home base in the Croix-Rousse via metro, and prepared for the evening meal.  We fancied "corn on the cob" to be an American tradition, and it certainly is a staple of late summer barbecue parties.  Although we didn't have corn available at that time of year, we prepared cornbread muffins in cast iron corn-shaped muffin tins.   It was our humble contribution to a delicious meal that also included fresh pumpkin soup, bread and cheese, fresh fruit for dessert, as well as beer and wine to drink.  Another very full day in Lyon!