Matt and Lisa's Adventures

11 January 2025

Very early start this morning. Alarm was sent for ten to five but as is often the case with an early alarm we didn’t get a good night’s sleep and were awake even earlier. We had a Wizz air flight to Lyon which was very budget but effective. Luggage even came out quickly and then we caught the train into the city. We lost our streak for early check ins so it was a quick change in the hotel lobby toilet as the weather in Lyon is a lot colder than Rome. 

Lisa was very excited because there is a Westfield mall right next to us, it’s like she didn’t even appreciate it when we had Riccarton mall but now she is missing it. I had a hot chocolate and Lisa chose a popcorn yum for us to share, it was better than I had expected. Then Lisa discovered another Uniqlo, thankfully no purchases this time…

From there we wandered through town, across the river and down to the main downtown area. There were some nice buildings and pretty pedestrians streets. We had lunch at Pret a Manger, which Lisa is almost as obsessed with as Uniqlo! She was so very happy. The morning had been hard work for me, being very tired after the early start and the sleep drugs were doing a number on me. Thankfully I got my second wind after lunch and was feeling much better. 

We had a walking tour with Quentin who was very good and very French.

• Lyon was originally a Roman settlement and there is a large Roman amphitheater on top of the hill. Next to it is the large cathedral which has fantastic views of the city – we plan to go up there tomorrow. The cathedral is relatively new – only a hundred years old
• We started the tour in front of a cathedral for John the Baptist that was much older, started in the 11th century. It took three hundred years to build. Most of the statues had been removed from the cathedral facade and the few that remained that had their heads removed. This was because for one year the Protestants took over in Lyon. They didn’t like the statues and so destroyed them and damaged those they couldn’t. Thankfully it was only one year! 
• There was a gargoyle on the cathedral that was very new. It was a retirement gift for the custodian of the church and designed to look like him. He was a Muslim and both faiths came together to honour him with this. Apparently he wasn’t a big fan as the gargoyle is pretty ugly! 
• Lyon had lots of little walkthrough tunnels called traboules. These exist to make it easier to get around in the old town and in particular easier to get to the river. Some of traboules are marked but most aren’t and you just need to know where they are – or use trial and error. They were also used a lot by the resistance in the Second World War as a way of hiding from the police and as a location for secret meetings
• Lyon was part of Vichy France during the Second World War. An infamous person in Lyon’s history is Klaus Barbie known as the Butcher of Lyon. He was the head of the secret police and killed thousands of people. He was also a psychopath who personally enjoyed torturing people. After the war he fled to Bolivia. Eventually he was found and in the 1990’s he was returned to Lyon to stand trial in what became a massive court case. He was found guilty and sentenced to prison but never confessed or showed any remorse
• The resistance was very active in Lyon during the war. It was led by Jean Moulin who was influential in bringing together all of the different factions. He was eventually caught in Lyon and tortured. They broke his jaw and then gave him pen and paper to proved information. Instead he drew the guard as a pig. He died shortly after. After the war he was buried in the Pantheon in Paris. De Gaulle said Moulin was a hero because he knew all the secret but didn’t say any
• We ended at the statue of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who was the author of The Little Prince. He was also a pilot during the Second World War and died when flying over Marseille on a mission

I was very cold after the tour, but strangely Lisa was not, so we went to Starbucks for a hot chocolate which was fantastic and exactly what I needed. We then caught the metro back to our hotel. The public transport system in Lyon was the best one so far. You could use Apple Pay without having to unlock your phone and across all the different transport options. The metro was clean and efficient. A lot of cities could learn from this! 

After finally checking in we decided on an easy dinner in the Westfield next door. The mall was crazy busy, it felt like everyone in Lyon had turned up! On the third floor they had a massive food court with lots of options, despite this were still struggled to find something eventually setting on a California Mexican place for wraps which were delicious. 

12 January 2025

Slow start to the day with a bit of a lie in. When I was getting up I checked the forecast and it was -1 but the feels like temperature was -9. That was of concern so we added some extra layers but on the whole it wasn’t that bad unless you were in the exposed wind, then it was very cold. 

Quick Starbucks to get us going then we headed off to the big cathedral on top of the hill by old town. After a metro ride we caught the funicular up the hill at it would have been a very steep walk up! The view from the top was amazing and gave a great perspective across Lyon. Interestingly there are a few taller buildings away from the centre of town but not very many for the size of the city. It was very cold so we didn’t get to enjoy the view for long. We popped into the cathedral to warm up but couldn’t sight see or take photos as mass was underway. See mum – I do go to mass! We stuck around for ten minutes, the priest was doing a very long sermon but all in French so no idea what he was saying. 

We then walked to the old Roman amphitheater which is also on the top of the hill. It was very impressive and would have been an amazing area for seeing a play or a concert. Lisa said I should do some stand up there but she didn’t like my first joke about women from Papanui so I wasn’t allowed to do any more. 

We went back down the hill and into the old town for lunch. Unfortunately most of the eating places are old school Bouchons and that was more food (and weirder food) than what we were looking for. We ended up at a crappy cafe for a croque monsieur which was very nice. 

Our walking tour guide from yesterday had talked about the Croix-Rousse area so we caught the metro up there. As it is situated on a hill we got another good view of the city. We then slowly wandered our way down the hill and back to the city. I think this was a classic case of the area being interesting if we did a walking tour but without that context there wasn’t really much that we noted of interest. 

We then split up. Lisa went for a wander through the shopping area and found another mall along with (surprise, surprise) another Uniqlo. I went to the musee de confluences which was a very cool museum in an interesting building. 

• Fantastic exhibition about epidemics. Talked about the different epidemics and pandemics through history (plague, cholera, aids etc), what caused them, how people reacted and how they were ended. Lots of information on Louie Pasteur who as well as pastoring milk came up with lots of vaccinations and other health improvements. I guess being French they like to bang on about him
• An exhibition about evolution from the first life through to modern humans
• Lots of animal bones and dinosaur bones. I find these less interesting than the stories about people
• Great exhibit about death and how different cultures interpret it and their thoughts on the afterlife. This has some interesting videos with doctors and philosophers talking about the possibility of stopping death and what that might mean for humans – nothing good was the general consensus
• Had a model of Sputnik 2, which is unusual as I have seen a million models of Sputnik 1, but the second mission is often overlooked
• Some Egyptian mummies and a small sphinx. Always a fan of these

Overall it was a very good museum and I spent several hours there and probably could have spent a bit longer if I had the time. 

I met up with Lisa back at the hotel. We went to a bar in the Westfield for dinner. I had cordon bleau which felt French (Lisa had the vegetarian burger) and it was pretty yummy.