Day 15: Old World Lyon

We started the day late again. Simi has a bit of a cold and I'm just plain tired so we are taking advantage of sleep ins. 

We headed out from the apartment and back up the cobble stoned streets of rue de Boeuf. 

We stumble across the La Tour Rose, a renaissance alleyway and watchtower with a spiral staircase. This is one of the notable old Les Traboules (cut thru alleyways and stairways) in the city. These were used to connect people from Old Lyon & up on the hill to the river quickly.

Our apartment has a steep spiral stair very similar.

We then made our way up the Funicular St-Just to Minimes, where there is ruins of an old Roman stone theatre, the Theatres Gallo-Romains. It's pretty breathtaking up here. The view is incredible. The theatres date back to 40BC. It's incredible to think they were this advanced in construction. Very cool!

There was a large enclosed theatre, incredibly it had a second upper elevated terrace , as well as a smaller theatre and thermal baths!

A short walk further up the hill to Fourviere, and we reach the Basillica of Notre Dame. It's a beacon in the City, standing proud on the hill looking out over the city below. As such the views from up here are magic. It's also very beautiful inside. It never ceases to amaze how elaborate and detailed these buildings are. This sort of thing just doesn't happen now. It's amazing!

We then made our way down past the Tour Metalique, a comms tower that was designed as a mini version of the Eiffel Tower (very weird). We walked down the montee Nicolas de Lange which must have had 500 steps or more.

Sim was cursing me by the end for going this way. At the bottom we arrived at St-Paul, where it's a quick walk over the river and into the Presquile quarter. We wander into the city, looking for a rest and a drink. There's some cool old buildings with large murals on the sides of them. This seems to be an artsy part of town!

We stumble into the place de Terreaux, a large open plaza with the Hotel de Ville at one end, and the famous Bartholdi Fountain in the middle. It's a beautiful fountain, reminiscent of those in Rome or Florence you see in movies.

It's now 11:30 or so and we still havnt had breakfast, but we struggle to find a place for coffee and something for breakie. The cafés here, the ones that say Caffe, arnt like our cafés, they purely sell coffee and do lunch style food, more like a bistro. We end up at Starbucks, oh well .

We then meander our way through the streets and up to the Croux-Rousse quarter. It's one of the UNESCO heritage regions of the city, with old Laneways and stepped hillside streets. We find ourselves on the montee de la Grande Cote, a remaining old world hill town street. It's quite interesting how the buildings and streets step with the topography.

We walk past a random Ayers Rock Australian Cafe, although it's not open yet !

Bizarre!

We wander back down and past the Opera House, which has a rather simple arched roof addition by Jean Nouvel, and then onto the shopping streets of rue de la Republique and it's mall. 

We head south down towards Bellecour and poke our heads into a few upmarket designer shops. Simi is still on the hunt for a handbag!!! We also find the 2 euro shop (the 2 dollar shop here... Naturally) quite funny!

After a good few hours of walking and shopping we cross back over the river and into old Lyon to Saint-Jean where we are staying.

All the shops are closed now for a few hours and reopen about 3:30 or so. I love the Europeans, always resting. We decided to take a break ourselves back in the apartment.

In the late afternoon we were feeling peckish so I went down to one of the chocolatiers and the bakery to get us some afternoon tea treats. We tried the Lyonaise favourite, praline Tart as well as some sweet bread.

We chilled out watching some Olympics in the apartment, the Aussie male aerial skier was doing well. Simi was getting sick again with the cold night air approaching, so I headed out to do some laundry for us. This was a much more straightforward experience than in Paris. I'm getting good at this now! Haha

I got chatting with a local guy who moved to Lyon 20 years ago from Sri Lanka. He was a nice fella and spoke a little English so we could talk a bit whole we both waited for our washing.

I headed back to the apartment to the good news the Aussie skier had won Silver. Wooh!

We headed out for a late dinner at about 8:45. We were initially going to go to another Bouchon style restaurant, typical in Lyon, however simi wanted a soup or something a little different. 

Bouchons are quite interesting, traditionally very meat based, lots if offal, trotters, sausage and cheaper cuts of meat at a cheap price. It's not fine dining more about local, friendly vibe.

Further down the road was a lively Moroccan place. The food was great. First the soup and then the Tajines. Both of ours were lovely, although sims was the better one. Preserved lemon - yummo! They were very aromatic and flavoursome. 

It was now well after 10 and Simis cold want great so we headed home for a much needed rest for her. 

Back to Paris tomorrow for our last leg!