Boat Trip on the Soane

Last Wednesday we took a boat trip on the Soane river to see the city from a different viewpoint.  It was a glorious day, and while I left the apartment without my Nikon, my cell phone stepped in nicely for the photographs.

The Saone river goes between the old city (Vieux Lyon) and the Presque Isle (which I think means "almost an island").  The "almost island" is created by the land between the Saone and Rhone rivers.  They meet at the Confluence, which is an area of wonderful new architecture, and capped by the Confluence Museum.  Croix-Rousse, where we live, is either in the northern part of the Presque-Isle, or north of the Presque-Isle, but still between the two rivers.

This shows the Croix-Rousse plateau, well above the river, where we live.

We got a great view of the St. Jean Cathedral from the river side.

We sailed up the river as far as the Fort St. Jean, which goes from the level of the river all the way up to Croix-Rousse.

We turned around at the fort and headed downriver.  Along the way we passed ramparts that dated from as far back as when the Romans occupied the area, and the town they built was called Lugdunum.

The lower end of the boat trip, as we neared the confluence of the two rivers took us by the new architecture at the lower end of the Presque-Isle.  The orange and green cubes were designed by the same architect, obviously.

I think the holes in the buildings are fascinating. There are also other interesting buildings in the same area.

Look carefully at the last picture, above.  What looks like reflections in the glass side of the building isn't that at all.  It is a translucent painting of scenes from Lyon.  How innovative is that?

Finally we reach the Confluence Museum, which is in the park at the confluence of the two rivers.  It is said that the architect wanted the building to look like clouds.

My view is that it looks more like a "Star Wars" type of space ship.  Whatever, it is a very interesting building.

A bientot.

Lyon at night #1

I'll devote this short post just to show you some pictures of Lyon at night.  Lorraine and I went to an InterNations group wine tasting event at a new wine bar in town.  The event was very good, as Lorraine's blog, Lorraineinlyon.blogspot.com will show you.  My pictures were taken on our way home from that event.  We walked over the bridge in the first picture to get to the other side of the Rhone for the event.  These first pictures are taken from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which we crossed on the way home.  The weather was great, the air was clear and my Samsung S8 has a very nice camera, so here is what I got.

This shows the boats/restaurants lined up along the Rhone river.  The patrons spill over onto the quais.  They are very lively at night.  Lorraine and I resolve to check one of them out in the near future.

This is the Grand Hotel Dieu, beautifully lighted at night.

This is the Pont (Bridge) Woodrow Wilson, which we walked across to get to the easiest metro to our home in the Croix-Rousse.

This is the facade of the Eglise Saint-Bonaventure just across the street from the Palais du Commerce at the Cordeliers Metro stop.

The Palais du Commerce was most impressive as we approached it.

It is even more impressive from the front.

Lyon has a festival of lights in December when they do absolutely magical lighting on the famous buildings.  Given how beautifully they are lighted on a normal night, I think that the special lighting will be wonderful.  ... until next post...

Geneva

Last Saturday, Lorraine and I took a day trip to Switzerland, (Geneva).  That statement is pretty amazing to me!  I have done a similar thing, visiting Mexico - as far down as Ensenada - for a day from San Diego, but it still sort of blows my mind.  Our day was wonderful, but the transportation to and from Geneva was pretty much of a disaster.  Visit Lorraine's blog:  Lorraineinlyon.blogspot.com for more detail on that aspect of the trip.  We actually arrived in Geneva approximately an hour later than planned, and the trip home was about two hours longer than expected.

Geneva is a beautiful city, located on the lake by the same name and the Rhone river, which comes from the lake.  Given how many mountains and tunnels we went through to get there, it is not easy to visualize that the Rhone is the same river that flows through our new home city of Lyon.

Our first stop was La Durree - the same one that is on the Champs-Elysee in Paris - for coffee and croissants.  Delicious!

That gold stuff on the second row of Macarons is actually gold leaf.  I didn't ask how much they cost.

Just in front of La Durree was the beginning of the Rhone river to the right and Lake Geneva to the left.  It is a really beautiful spot.

One of Geneva's famous attractions is the Jet d'Eau, This is a man-made geyser - actually just a very strong pump that pushes water to 459 feet high.  (For referance, Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park rises to a maximum of 180 feet.)

This fountain was originally built to help equalize pressure for a local water company.  It has become a signature of the city.  I can tell you that when you approach the fountain in a boat, it is very impressive.

Geneva is a city that caters to the rich.  The signs on the tops of the buildings give you the idea.

We took a very nice boat tour into Lake Geneva, which showed us why this city/area has become a favorite for those who can afford the lifestyle.

We had a good lunch in an open Place then walked uphill (as usual) to the old city.  We soon arrived at the Cathedral St. Pierre, which is different from the cathedrals in France, in that it is the reformed church, not Catholic.

We walked around the nave of the church and found a smaller chapel where there were obvious preparations for a wedding.  As Lorraine says, it is always great to find a wedding in a foreign country, so we sat on a wall with a bunch of others waiting for the ceremony to happen.

The bride finally arrived - in a Mercedes Benz Maybach - the first I have ever seen.  We decided to have a refreshing drink in the adjacent cafe.  About the time we finished our drink, the wedding was over, and the bride and groom exited.

We left the wedding and went back down to the main shopping area and stopped in a bustling Chocolate store.

In addition to a chocolate bar, we picked up some small sandwiches to eat on the bus trip home.

On the way to the bus station (across the Rhone River again) we went by Geneva's famous flower clock.

After a really good day in Geneva, we got on the bus for our trip home.  Almost an hour after we boarded the bus, we had made it out of the parking lot, around the corner - blocking the street on multiple occasions - and stopped on the street adjacent to the bus station.  The bus wouldn't "marche".  See Lorraine's blog for the gory details:  Lorraineinlyon.blogspot.com.  We arrived home about two hours late, very happy with our international trip in spite of our transportation problems.

Auvergne #2

... Continuing from the previous post, Auvergne #1

After our visit to Le Puy-en-Velay, we drove back to Geert’s apartment, where she finished preparing yet another feast – this time for us as well as two of her long-term friends, Chris and Marietta Freeman, who were driving through on their way from Spain to their home in London.  The food and the conversation were both superb.

Our last day in Clermont-Ferrand was to be relaxed so that we could see the town itself, including its magnificent black cathedral and a totally different church, Notre Dame du Port.  These two churches are both beautiful but totally different.  The black cathedral is built with volcanic stone, which explains its color.  In spite of its color, it has a surprising delicacy to the stonework.  Notre Dame du Port, on the other hand, is built in the Romanesque style, more typical of churches in the Auvergne.  Both of them have exquisite stained glass windows.

Just around the corner from Geert's apartment is a large square (Place) surrounded by stores like Galeries-Lafayette and with fountains and statues in the center.

One of the statues is of a mounted warrior, whose name is obviously unpronouncable:

who is a hero who was from Clermont-Ferrand.  He led the Gaulois to a great victory over the Romans back a few centuries.

From the square we entered the narrow streets and smaller shops of the old city, and eventually the Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, the black cathedral.

The closer we got to the cathedral, the more it dominated the view.  It was awesome, in the real sense of the word, like looking an an ocean liner from right below it.

The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows, that were very hard to photograph in the very dark room.

There is also an impressive organ, which I didn't get to hear.  That will be for another trip.

After the cathedral, Geert took us to another ancient church, Notre-Dame-du-Port, in the Romanesque, rather than gothic style.

The stained glass in this church was also gorgeous, but equally hard to photograph.  I loved the way the light through the colored windows played across the walls of the church.

We climbed several floors up in a building behind the church to get a bird's-eye view of the roof.

The details and textures are amazing!

After a fabulous lunch of whole baked fish in a lovely park, we boarded the Flixbus for our return trip home to Lyon.  The level of hospitality that Geert demonstrated was spectacular and not one we will be able to duplicate.