Hello everyone! The (20M) study abroad student here with Lyon! I’ll admit that Lyon was the city that I was most skeptical about visiting (if you check my posting history, you’ll note that I did make a post about whether it was worth visiting), but got some good tickets, so I decided to listen to all of your advice and head there despite my initial reservations. As always, mile counts listed below for reference to the amount of cover that I needed to cover.
Day 1: Lyon
After passing the large but under-construction Place Bellecour, I made my way towards Vieux Lyon, which I had planned on exploring on my first day. Of course, I got a bit distracted by the gorgeous riverfront views, both of the cathedral atop the hill (with some strange Eiffel Tower-esque metal tower next to it) and the churches by the riverside, like the more fairytale Saint Georges church with its thin, swooping spires or the more fortress-like appearance of the Saint-Jean Baptiste de Lyon Cathedral, with its chunky towers and a lovely, floral stained glass window in the center. From there, I ended up walking the entirety of the riverfront until I had reached the bend in the river, which was my favorite part because of the spectacular views. The multi-colored homes atop the slopes stacked up together, forming a vibrant mosaic of warm reds, pastel pinks, golden yellow, amongst many other colors. From there, as the weather began to become increasingly cloudy and the colors began to fade a bit, I decided to go and hike up to the Gallo-Roman theater, which was a larger version of the amphitheater I saw in Malaga. It’s too bad that preparation for some type of event ruined the atmosphere there since there was quite a bit of noise and infrastructure (lights, trucks, etc.) lying about, but it was quite fun just to briefly explore the grassy paths amongst the ruins around the well-preserved amphitheater and just relax after a bit of a steep climb up, especially compared to the Netherlands. After resting for a bit, I wandered the verdant gardens in front of the basilica for a bit and enjoyed the beautiful views of the city, not realizing that the path up from there to the cathedral was closed, before circling back around to the basilica.
Because it started pouring, I hurried myself into the church, which was one of those fortress-esque churches but made much more elegant, with strips of detailed sculptures carved into the stone and intricately decorated arches and columns (some of which are status of people). The interiors were also very pretty and had detailed white and gold insignia decorating the arches (plus a gorgeous one inspired by the sun and flowers near the front of the cathedral) along with tons of gorgeous paintings alongside the walls and one the underside of the ceiling, mixing together bright turquoises, shimmering cold, and a smattering of other colors. If there’s one thing that I’ve noticed about the French cathedrals that I have visited so far is that they really love the yellow and blue color scheme. The crypt was a bit disappointing though. It felt more like a storage room with half-hearted and spare displays. There was a pretty but chapel next to the cathedral that was so nice and toasty that I wanted to just hang there for the rest of the day, especially since the rain had persisted. But I had more of Lyon to explore, so I decided to circle back to the Gallo-Roman museum, which seemed pretty interesting. While there were some cool exhibits, it was a bit disappointing for me how children oriented the museum was since a good portion was just filled with children’s activities. After rushing through the museum a bit, I walked down to Vieux Lyon and just wandered through the narrow streets.