Day 7 - Lyon
Monday, June 13th, 2016
Beauty
Everywhere we have been
on this trip we have been surrounded by beauty – the incredible beauty of the
scenery, flowers, valleys, vineyards and vistas to the art that you find everywhere.
Some of the art is a bit modern and I’m not really sure what to make of
it – but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
We
arrived in Lyon early this morning and enjoyed a great half day tour of this 2nd
largest city in France. We began with a drive to the top of Fourvière Hill for
marvelous views. It is said there are
two hills in Lyon, one that prays and one that works. This is the praying hill because on the top
of it sit the Basilica of Notre Dame with its lovely golden statue of the
Virgin Mary. She is much loved in this
city and the story is told that in the time of the plague the people prayed to
the virgin to protect them from the plague and as it happened the plague did
not besiege the city.
The
basilica is beautiful, almost overwhelming as you don’t know where to look.
Next we took a walking tour through the
cobbled streets of Vieux Lyon (Old Town), where we had free time to shop for
souvenirs, eat ice cream or buy delicious French pastries.
We
arrived back on board for a special lunch called “A taste of Provence” As
usual, it was fabulous. The afternoon is
free for folks to do whatever they like.
It is a cloudy and drizzly day so most folks seem to be taking the
chance to just enjoy a bit of down time.
Paul and I went for a walk and got caught in the rain.
The other
thing happening in Lyon today is a game between Brazil and Italy in the
European Soccer championships. There are
already hundreds of fans congregating in a local park with a big screen where
the match will be televised tonight. It
will be a raucous evening I’m sure.
Our itinerary
has been changed on the trip due to high water levels on the Sone River so we are
not going to be able to visit Macon although they assure us that our trip to
Beaujolais will still happen tomorrow.
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