July 25 – Day Trip to Lyon

We used the first day of our France rail pass to journey south to Lyon. Lyon is in south central France, yet only a 2 hour train ride on their high speed TGV trains which travel up to 180 kph. The scenery can be almost dizzying at this speed! Nonetheless, it was a beautiful trip through Burgundy to arrive at Lyon – what many consider to be the most renaissance city in France.

The sites did no disappoint us. In the late 19th century Lyon built a Notre Dame cathedral. Given that it is “new” as cathedrals go, the stonework, windows, and artwork were all very bright and vivid – time and pollution have not had much of an impact yet. There was a considerable amount of artwork done with mosaic in the interior.

From the cathedral we stepped back in time two millennia to the site of two Roman arenas. An impressive amount of these original arenas are still in tact and they have also done a partial restoration of the larger arena such that it now hosts performances in the summer today. We could see them setting up for one during our visit. The views of Lyon from the arena were great from here.

We relaxed through the hottest part of the day with one of our best meals of the trip. The girls shared a great chicken beurre blanc dish and I had the best cheese and spinach soufflé of my life.

The old part of town is full of quaint and beautiful buildings. We had a nice time taking them in from square to square. A highlight for the girls was this double decker carousel. Meanwhile, I stumbled into a rare sweet from the south of France – sugared clementines dipped in dark chocolate – tres bon!