The Walks

 

Lots of cool little courtyards in Lyon

I have a lot of projects going on right now, but I've decided my most important, top priority, is to walk around Lyon every morning.  Yesterday I walked along the river Saone far north of our apartment and today I walked to the Amphitheater of the 3 Gauls. 

I read that the amphitheater of the 3 Gauls was built in 12.  It's weird to think that something was built in 12, but there you go. It's in decent shape, surprisingly. 

The amphitheater of the 3 Gauls isn't as great as the other amphitheater up near the basilica, but it was pretty interesting to walk there and imagine the Gauls, and then the Romans, hanging out having meetings and festivals and such. 

I read on a plaque that a woman by the name of Blandina was martyred in this very amphitheater.  When I got home, I found out a bit more from Wikipedia.  Come to find out, St. Blandina had a pretty horrible death.  I don't know which heinous crime she committed, but she surely didn't deserve this:

She was bound to a stake and wild beasts were set on her. According to legend, they did not, however, touch her. After enduring this for a number of days, in an effort to persuade her to recant, she was led into the arena to see the sufferings of her companions. Finally, as the last of the martyrs, she was scourged, placed on a red-hot grate, enclosed in a net and thrown before a wild steer who tossed her into the air with his horns. In the end, she was killed with a dagger.^[6]

If I had to give a Fist of 5 for how bad St. Blandina's death was, I'd give it a solid 5. Why go to all this hassle when you're just going to eventually use a dagger?  Lyon has a bit of a checkered past, but most places do I suppose.

L' Arc de Triomphe - Wrapped

We had a bon weekend in Paris.  No shock there.  If you're in Paris, you're probably going to be in a good mood.  Let's face it.

We went to Paris to visit the Arc de Triumph, wrapped up by the team of the late great artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo. I've been desperate to see a wrapping since I missed the Saffron Gates in NYC years ago. I've learned more about JC & C with the Thirdlanders every year as part of one of our IB units. Serendipity brought us to France the very year of the wrapping of AdT.  Covid delayed us, but we made it.  

I laughed coming up out of the metro upon first seeing a section of AdT-Wrapped above me through the trees.  We stood with others along a barrier to view it from afar.  Volunteers were walking about handing out samples of the polypropylene fabric that wraps the monument.  I couldn't even spend a second to think of the French way to ask politely for a piece.  I just walked up and said, "I want one too!"  The volunteers were happy to oblige. 

We visited the AdT-W on Friday afternoon in broad daylight. To get close, we showed the passe sanitaire that allowed us to enter the inner circle.  We walked around and through, near and far, touched the ropes and the fabric, watched the wrapped monument sway and shimmer in the wind. We stood near the eternal flame, which burns for the unnamed people who died in the world wars.  It was surrounded by flowers. 

On Saturday, we continued with our AdT-W plan.  In the afternoon, we went to the Seine near Point Neuf to see a photo exhibit of Jeanne-Claude/Christo works over the years. Then we visited the Pompidou Center to get our Georgia O'Keefe on.  Later, we headed back to the AdT-W before dinner time.  Come to find out, there was a ceremony happening.  Soldiers, Veterans, Flags, Brass Band, Dignitaries.  We joined the crowd to see what we could and listened to the band play La Marseillaise.  Not sure what the ceremony was all about but from the solemnity, I could tell it had something to do with war being bad news bears. The music of the ceremony was a little bonus moment. Unfortunately, we didn't see President Macron.

Next we landed at our restaurant, which was very near the AdT-W, but our view was blocked by its awning.  We could only see the lower quarter of the monument as we ate, but that was better than nothing. The Lebanese Restaurant had many security and video people for AdT-Wrapped eating outside with us.  I wanted to somehow steal one of their identity lanyards, but it would have been tricky.  After dinner, we walked back to the AdT-W to admire it in its nighttime glory.  

It was hard to say goodbye to AdT-W.  Our visit with this "circumstantial beauty" exceeded our expectations and will probably rank as one of our top ten memories of our time here in France.

 

The Cheese Report

Looking north along the Saone.  

St. Martin d'Ainay.  Husbandman has been to Mass here a few times.

The doors are great here.  We're having these doors shipped back to Indiana for our shoe room. 

The Beaux Arts Museum has a beautiful garden, with some sculptures.  

 In the morning, Husbandman and I ventured out on a few errands, including picking up the quotidian baguette et fromage.  

When we got to the fromagerie, there was a big sign outside that said, "Le Mont D'Or est arrivee."  Which as you know means, The Mont D'Or has arrived.  We had no idea why everyone was so pleased that the Mont D'Or finally showed up, but we grabbed some and figured we'd do some investigating. We enjoyed it at lunch and believe it deserves two thumbs up for its goopy goodness.  

 After lunch, I did some googling, and come to find out, baking the Mont D'Or is the road most French people wander down with this cheese.  Next time, we'll get the job done properly. But calm down if you think we really screwed up big time.  You don't HAVE to bake it!

Other ways this cheese is special:  Only 11 cheese makers produce Mont D'Or in France. It's available for a few months in fall and winter.  The little boxy band around it is actual spruce wood.  People often eat it with a spoon.  Monks started making this cheese in the 1300s. The Swiss have their own version, but it's not as good.

Voila!  I hope you enjoyed learning about Mont D'Or from today's cheese report.

Les Journees du Patrimoine (Heritage Days)

I would like to walk inside that skinny red building.

I overheard a tour guide tell people that they used to have puppet shows where these two streets meet.

The archaeological garden sits near St. Jean Cathedral.  Some of the ruins of past churches come from the 4th century. Building of St. Jean Cathedral began around 1200.  Took about 200 years to build.

The weekend was top notch.  All over France, people were celebrating Heritage Days, where people can enter important places that are normally not open to the public.  Also, museums are free.  We went in 2 museums and wandered through the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). We were going to tour the Opera House, but the line was too long.

We also ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant called L'Est.  It's in an old train station. The late great Paul Bocuse has 4 restaurants in Lyon --- North, South, East and West.  Mari Homme and I have now eaten in South and East.  Both super great. I got my act together and ordered dessert and an additional glass of wine, using my French language skills.  After my requests, I asked the waitress, "What do you think?  That was good, right?"

She said, "It was perfect.  Very perfect."  

After she left our area, I said to Mari Homme, "Did you hear that?  She said my French was perfect!"

Mari Homme replied, "What was she going to say, Lee?" Though Mari Homme was unconvinced, I feel I'm making slight progress with my language skills and clearly, the waitress confirmed my view on this. 

Musee des Beaux Arts has a new Matisse painting they just purchased for 5 million Euro.  It's called Katia with the Yellow Shirt. It's v. beautiful and some say it's his last painting. Remember how he got pretty ill late in life and started making collages with cut paper? It was fun to stand in front of Katia and imagine if Matisse knew this was the final one or not?

Matisse is probably my favorite artist, so I decided to do a little reading about him today.  I wasn't too pleased to read that he had an affair with a young Russian gal named Lydia, effectively ending a 41 year marriage to Madame Matisse. He stayed in France during WWII, and that was admirable in some ways, because many artists bailed out, but he didn't help with the Resistance movement at all, which is disappointing.  His ex-wife did.  So did his daughter.  His ex-wife, Amelie, ended up in jail for 6 months.  His daughter, Marguerite, was tortured, escaped from a nazi camp-bound train and ended up hiding out in the woods for the remainder of the war, which believe me, was no picnic. There are tributes to the Resistance Fighters all over Lyon, so I'll tell you more about those in the future.  Right now, I just want you to know about the Matisse painting and know that I still love the man's work, despite my discovery of a few pretty serious shortcomings. 

 

The Reviews

Last night we watched a top notch movie on Netflix called Outside In with Edie Falco and Jay Duplass.  We very much enjoy these 2 actors.  We firmly believe that you can't go wrong when Edie Falco is involved. 

I was feeling pretty lazy today, which is okay, because I don't have a job and I can do what I want. I spent the day in the apartment reading a quite awesome book called Ill Will by Dan Chaon.  It's a little scary and a lot suspenseful.  Super creative presentation of story structure as well.  It's about a man named Dustin and his son Aaron. They get into some antics. Crazy good. 

If you feel like seeing this film or reading this book, you should go ahead and do it.

While I was absorbed in Chaon's terrific tome, Mari Homme ventured over to the fromagerie down the street and mentioned to the femme de fromage that he would like some cheeses from the region.  I benefitted greatly from this action in that we had 3 amazing cheeses with our baguette for our luncheon.  Mari Homme finished lunch with a coffee eclair. I opted for a tasty pomme from the market.

This evening we might venture out and have some wine on Place Carnot. Everyone else is doing it.  Why shouldn't we?

Happy weekend, Friends!

ps Today I also discovered kotke.org --- a very great blog.  That's where I learned about the drone photo awards of the year.  Check out this link to see some amazing drone photos if you want. 

The Dice

Today I made a long numbered list of interesting tasks and inclinations that I've been muddling with over here. Then I opened up a website called Roll the Dice.  I rolled the dice every 30 minutes or so and worked on the tasks in random order.  It was fun.  Highly recommend adding the Roll the Dice web page to your daily routine.

In the afternoon, we learned quite a lot about the history of printing at the Musee de Imprimerie. Lyon used to be the European printing capital in the 1500s and 1600s.  I didn't realize that paper was invented in China around the year 100 and much later was brought to Europe via the Silk Road. Too bad we didn't have access to the Silk Road in North America.  Lots of great stuff arrived in Europe thanks to that trade route.

We had walked to the museum, but when we were done with our visit, we encountered a significant thunder storm.  No worries.  We hopped on the metro. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey. Lyon is helping me develop a true devil-may-care attitude. 

The Bells

Nous sommes lundi. The longer I'm here in Lyon, the more surreal it feels.  In the immortal words of David Byrne,  "How did I get here? 

Nous avons passe un bon weekend.  We wandered through the market at Croix-Rousse, bought some lunch items from a woman at a table labeled "Mondes Persians" and lunched in a little park.  We found some more traboules and looked out at the city from scenic viewpoints.  We had our first official dinner out at Le Sud, which is quite a good restaurant. Yesterday we walked through Vieux Lyon and, come to find out,  there was a massive contemporary ceramic art fair happening there. Friend to the Blog, CB, premier American potter representing the state of California, would have been in her glory.  

When we got home last night, we relaxed and listened to church bells ringing like crazy for about ten minutes.  I am curious about this recent bell hubbub.  They were not ringing on the hour and we haven't before heard them pealing so insistently.  Perhaps it was a little way for the people of Place Carnot to welcome us to the neighborhood.  Merci beaucoup, Les Voisins.  (Thanks, Neighbors). 

I'm always curious about what's going on here in Lyon, but don't forget that I miss all of you, too!

 

The Mandates

Pulley = Simple Machine

What are these holes all about?  

Found when renovating St. Paul's church.  From the 1400s.

I was so happy to read that President B is putting the hammer down on the mask situation.  We have been patient and our patience is wearing thin.  And also, show some respect, people! Twitter is loving President B's comments and likening them to a dad saying, "I'll turn this car around right now if you kids don't knock it off!" It's definitely past time for tough love in the covid department, imho.

A French friend told us that they have mandates in all work spaces here now.  If you don't want to get vaccinated, that's fine, but you can no longer enter your job space.  You are not fired, but you will not get paid.  If you want to go the testing route, no worries.  But you must be tested every 3 days and you must pay for it yourself and the cost could be around 50 euros. 

Mari Homme and I show our covid passport whenever we're having a glass of wine or a cup of coffee out and about.  Last night, we told our waitress that we appreciate the French way.  She was ambivalent and told us, "We've lost business because of this."

So obviously it's not all bread and roses over here, but the honest truth is that the covid passport is a WIN in my livre.  When I go into a place and know that everyone is vaccinated, I feel downright gleeful.

I wish France could work on doing something about the second hand smoke that's putting a damper on my glee, but they're probably doing their best and I'm going to work on forgetting the rest. 

 

Les Traboules

 Les Traboules are passageways through old parts of Lyon.  Some were built in the 4th century and people used them for quicker access to the rivers to get water.  Then in the 1800s the silk workers used the traboules for carrying silk.  And in WWII, Resistance Fighters used the traboules to organize secretly. 

I took a walk to find some traboules and I did find 3.  I followed a small group of people into one of the traboules on Rue St. Jean in Old Lyon.  I lagged behind them to take pictures.  When I got to the end of the passage and tried to exit onto Rue Le Boeuf, it was quite dark and I could not find the door handle.  I wasn't panicked because I knew I could turn around and get back to Rue St. Jean, but it was somewhat annoying to be twisting the lock latch over and over again, without being able to pull or push the heavy door.  After awhile the people I had followed, now outside, opened the door for me. They were laughing a little, but not too much and I thanked them for their help and went on my way. When you're traveling in Lyon, you have to have a hard shell about this kind of thing.

I'm looking forward to walking about with Mari Homme this weekend to look at more traboules.  I wish we had traboules in Bloomington.  They're pretty neat. I love all the history here in Lyon.  Did I tell you that a large section of Lyon is a Unesco World Heritage Site???? C'est vrai.  

Le Cadeau

Le cadeau means the gift.  When we bought these flowers at the market, I asked the vendor, "Pouvez vous l'emballer?" Which probably indicated that I would like the flowers wrapped up.  All went well.  The vendor added colorful wrap and ribbon.  As we walked away from the market, Mari Homme enthusiastically complimented my use of the correct phrase to get something done in the world.  "This is a miracle!" he exclaimed, which I thought was a bit over the top as I had looked up the line in a french book and practiced it several times that morning.

After our alleged victory, we began the short but steep walk to Rue des Tourelles, or Turret Street, to visit our friends P et E.  The steepness was tough but we trudged along.  We live in a section of Lyon called Le Presqu'ile, which means peninsula.  Le Presqu'ile is flat, sits between 2 rivers, and has many parks, shops, plazas and restaurants.  Two famous hills are nearby.  To the north is La Croix-Rousse, which is called the "hill that works" because that's where the silk workshops were situated in the 1700s.  The other hill, Le Fourviere, is where we were heading with our floral offering.  It's known as the "hill that prays" because the basilica sits up at the top.  

At one point, Mari Homme ventured off the sidewalk.  I told him to be careful.  "Don't get hit by a car. I don't know what I'd do without you."

He hopped back to the sidewalk and said, "You'd do better without me than I would without you.  At least you could get things gift wrapped." 

This made me laugh and was a good break from the sweaty climb.  It was dispiriting to arrive for lunch all sweaty and gross feeling.  It was only a 20 minute walk, but the 100 degree incline had taken a severe toll.  After a bit, I was able to regroup and enjoy a lovely lunch with cheese, bread, quiche, wine and cake.  Conversation was engaging as well because, unlike us, P and E are multilingual, which is the greatest gift of all. 

 

Le Decalage Horaire

 

Le Decalage Horaire means The Jet Lag.  I am struggling avec le decalage horaire today.  Beaucoup! I don't know why I would have jet lag on my 3rd day here when I was pretty much okay on the first two days, but there you go.  I was wide awake until 430am last night.  Bleh. It really cheesed me off.  I told Mari Homme that I could either be upset all day about le DH or accept it and try to be pleasant.  Mari Homme suggested I should opt for the latter, and so I have. 

Stoically, I pulled it together and went for a long walk with Mari Homme this afternoon.  There were so many people walking along Rue Victor Hugo, milling about in Place Bellecour and enjoying beverages on various sidewalk cafes.We walked through the beautiful courtyards of the Grand Hotel-Dieu.  Lyon is hopping. 

Tomorrow we are invited to lunch at a friend's home.  I need sleep tonight so I can be somewhat charming on our visit.  The good news is --- there will be a market across the street at Place Carnot tomorrow and I've been practicing my statements for buying flowers to bring with us to the luncheon.  All is well.

ps.  Here are a couple of pix of our apartment. And a pleasant intersection near Place des Jacobins.

Le Premier Jour

 

We are in Lyon.  I want to say desolee (sorry) to everyone who had to listen to me kvetching for the past year about my constant trip worries and woes.  Because look what's happening now.  We are, in fact, in Lyon, and our trip was, in fact, smooth sailing from beginning to end.

Probably the only thing wrong right now is we have some phone and internet issues, but in time these will get worked out.  See the two identical pictures above?  I couldn't delete one without deleting all the photos, so I just left both.  But the good news is... that's where we live, on the sixth floor.  We got here about 6:15 yesterday evening and met our landlady, who lives in the building and is super kind.  She suggested we walk across the street to Place Carnot by 7 because that's when the weekly market would be closing up.  So after getting her apartment deets, we walked across to Place Carnot and bought cheese and eggs and apples.  Also Queen Claude Plums.  These are special right now.  All the rave.  Our French is quite bad, but people seem to understand the nutty things we say. Transactions have been made to all parties' liking. 

Today we walked around and got the lay of the land.  Lyon is a super walkable city and we live between two rivers --- the Rhone and the Saone.  We checked out the basilica with its beautiful mosaics, the Nespresso store for coffee pods, and the Roman theater which was built in 15 BC.  Think about that for a moment if you will.  15 BC. 

C'est très bien a Lyon.