Le Parc de la Tete d'Or

Lyon has many parks throughout the city.  Most are small with maybe a few benches and trees for shade.  One, however, is more like Central Park in New York City.  It is the Parc de la Tete d’Or, or “Park of the Golden Head” – the translation is mine, therefore highly suspect.  We decided that the next adventure in our new city would be a trip to this large park with sandwiches for a picnic on Sunday afternoon.


Le Parc de la Tete d’Or has a large lake with lots of boats (paddle-, electric- and row-), many shaded trails, some wide paved avenues for walkers, runners, and bicycles, but no cars.  It also has a botanical garden and an impressive zoo.  


As the crow flies, the park isn’t too far from us, but we are way up on a hill and it is down close to the level of the rivers.  We figured that since it is downhill all the way to the park, it would be an easy walk.  It was definitely downhill, but after the first half-million steps it got less easy.  

It is hard to see, but the left part of the walkway is steps, small steps but lots of them, the right side is a slightly scouped area.  To the right at intervals in the wall are door to what I assume are pretty nice apartments.  We thought that this won't be too bad.  I have to tell you that this is steeper than it looks.  We went to the end of this first picture and continued around a few more corners.  It looked like this descent would never end. Here is the view as we continued down.  To take this next picture I had to step to the right on the drainage area.  I was very uncomfortable to get off the steps on the slope.  My point is that this is really steep.

We finally reached the last set of steps where we could actually see the bottom and the river below us.  These steps were more conventional, with banisters.  By this time our thighs were quite rubbery.  The feeling was that you might not be able to control the placement of your feet.  

There were a few people going up instead of down.  Some were carrying babies or toddlers and their scooters.  I felt for them.

We made it all the way down the hill on wobbly legs and crossed the Rhone to the entrance of the park.  The gates are quite impressive, as you can see.

  We quickly found a shaded bench by the lake and ate our delicious sandwiches. 

After lunch and a rest for our complaining upper thighs we walked toward the zoo.  Our first encounter was with a mother and her frolicsome youngster giraffe.  The “baby” was probably only about 20 feet tall. 

A stylish zebra was prancing back and forth and posing for the cameras.

Next we came upon a flock (herd, gaggle, group) of Flamingos.  These were not as pink as the ones we see at zoos in the states, but they are beautiful and amazing. 

If I could fold my neck around like that, I could probably sleep on an airplane.



We rounded a corner in the trail to see across the water two magnificent Water Buffalo, a male and a female.  Their horns are very impressive! 

There were a couple of antelope near the Water Buffalo.  The male antelope - with some impressive horns of his own, on a smaller scale, got up and ambled over to the female Buffalo.  He was clearly interested in her, and she was not interested in him.  She used her horns to push him away, but he fought back with gusto.  Meanwhile, the male Buffalo ignored it all.  

The Buffalo pair finally walked off into the bush, but the antelope, with obvious delusions of grandeur, was not deterred.  I was impressed!

I forgot to check out the female antelope, but I’m certain that she was mortified.


There were also Crocodiles, Marsupials, and Monkeys, but they were mostly in dark habitats and hard to photograph.  It was a very nice zoo!


As we left, we walked past some beautiful flower displays and impressive greenhouses. 

We left the park, as it turns out, by a different gate than the one we entered.  We therefore decided to ride a bus to get home.  The bus took us to Cuire, a neighborhood a couple of metro stops north of Croix Rousse.  We walked down the Grande rue du Croix Rousse to our street - no more than 3/4 of a mile.  On the way we past the actual Croix Rousse.

We had looked for this cross last week but had not found it.  Apparently it was somewhat rose colored in times past.

We also passed the entrance to the Croix Rousse Hospital, which is close to where we live - thank goodness.

We reached home as tired but happy puppies.  

We leave early tomorrow to go to Clermont Ferrand to visit my cousin's Mother in law.  We met her when she visited the US last year and we became fast friends.  Next blog will tell you about that trip to the Auvergne.

PS.  I apologize for the change in font size.  I can't explain it, but when it changed, my choices were "too large" or "too small".  I don't know why.  Maybe I'll figure it out, or maybe not!