Happy Surprises in Lyon

July 16, 2013


When we were planning this trip we knew that we needed to get to the airport in Lyon to join our tour group to watch the Tour de France. We could either leave Beaune very early on Wednesday to get there on time or head down on Tuesday and spend the day in Lyon. Lyon won and what a great city. We actually caught an earlier train than we thought we would, caught the subway to downtown and came up in a plaza from where you could see the cathedral overlooking the city from the bluff.

After getting situated in our hotel and grabbing a snack we decided to head up to the bluff Lyon to see the cathedral and a roman theater also up there. The best way for tourists to get there is by the funicular (a gear driven train - too steep for wheels). As you leave the funicular station you are immediately in front of the cathedral and it was spectacular. The cathedral featured some beautiful mosaics and stained glass and, somehow, earned the nickname "the upside-down elephant".

After the cathedral we headed over to the ruins of the Roman theater and started exploring around there. It turns out that the theater is still used as a 3,000 seat venue and a band was finishing up their sound check from behind a sunscreen. Somebody says over the sound system 'let's wait for that until Stephen gets here'. Hmmmm. Who's Stephen?

Elane loves exploring these types of places so we spent quite a bit of time poking around. We're getting ready to leave when the band starts their practice and they lead off with 'Southern Cross'. Can't be. But, we look up at a billboard and, sure enough, Crosby, Stills and Nash is performing that evening. So we sat down in the 2000 year old theater and listened to excerpts from several CSN songs and about 30 of us were clapping and hooting after each hit.

Finally, they took a break so we headed back down on the funicular station. At the bottom of the bluff, as we get off the train, and while we're exiting the train on one side we see Stephen Stills getting on from the other side holding a sandwich. Now, to be truthful, there is no way that I would have recognized him without knowing that he was on his way. Even then, (Sorry, Stephen, if you're reading this) I had to Google him later to be sure.

After this excitement, we wandered around the narrow alleys of Vieux (Old) Lyon, seeing the ruins of one of the oldest churches in France, another great church, and some cool little plazas. Great places to cool off with a beer. All in all, we found Lyon to be hugely underrated as a place to pass a day in France.