France continued: Lyon and Paris

Lyon, the second city of France, is a gem as well, and a more laid back place to visit than Paris. We saw the sights with our excellent guide Joseph, an American expatriate who made Lyon his home after studying there for his master’s. He was such a pleasure to be with that we invited him to lunch, and thank goodness we did. We learned so many things about what it’s like to live among the French people, and quite by accident, we learned that he played violin in Old Lyon. When we visited that part of the city the next day, we happened to run into him and hear him play. Touring the lovely city, we could see why Napoleon had wanted to make Lyon the capital. Our favorite areas were Vieux Lyon and La Croix Rousse where the Canut silk weavers worked and moved from place to place through traboules or covered passageways—to protect their silks. The hundreds of traboules there and in Vieux Lyon would later be used as secret passageways for the Resistance in France. Mark and I, loving that history, asked Joseph to take us through some of them. Maybe the last highlight in Lyon was seeing the young people in Croix Rousse sitting on the bank of the Rhone as they watched the sunset. We took the TGV (high speed train) to Paris our final day in Lyon, and it took us by complete surprise that it was the final day of the Tour de France.