Tour of Vieux Lyon

Lyon was originally a Roman city built upon the ruins of ancient Gall. The original Lyon is situated upon one of the high hills of the city and is now referred to as Vieux Lyon, or Old Lyon. The Lyon Tourist Office holds regular tours, so of course we HAD to go (and insisted the girls attend as well!)

Our tour of started at Place Bellecour, called so as it was once a beautiful garden. It is now the largest open city square in Europe. As we began, our tour guide (a woman whom we were to soon discover is very passionate about the history of Lyon) asked us all why the figures of the man and woman at the base of the of Louis VIX, the Sun King, are facing the way they are. We were all clueless, so she explained that, since Lyon is situated between two rivers, Le Rhone and La Saone, statues of men are pointed toward Le Rhone, which is masculine, and that female statues are pointed toward La Saone, which is feminine. This little tidbit was to give us an indication of the detail we were going to get for the next two hours…..

After a quick stop on a bridge to point out the three villages of Vieux Lyon (St. Georges, St. Jean and St. John the Baptist), we headed to the Cathedral of St. Jean to see a quite remarkable clock. (By of the way, of the twenty-eight bridges that cross the Rhone and Saone, twenty-seven were destroyed by the fleeing Nazis in 1944 and had to be rebuilt.)

The Clock in the Cathedral of St. Jean was built in the 13th century and is a sight to see. It is an astronomical clock giving not only the time, but dates and associated religious holidays. It has multiple mechanical figures that perform various functions on the hour (a rooster waves its wings and God waves his hands relative to the hour) a guard circles the top, cherubs move about and various other movements. The minute hand is on the side and is set in an oval, instead of a circle. This requires the minute hands to shrink and stretch (I’m not kidding) depending on the time to meet the edges of the oval.

After a few more stops, we entered the core of Vieux Lyon and the traboules (from the Latin “to cross”). These are famous in Lyon and are small passage-ways between the streets. Their origin is one of pure function. The original streets of Lyon were long and narrow allowing for small courtyards in the back of the buildings. Eventually, additional buildings were built behind the ones facing the street to accommodate the growing population, so passage-ways had to be constructed to allow residents to get to these interior buildings. Also, since the streets were long, it was a matter of convenience to have a way to get between parallel streets without having to go all the way to the corner. During WWII, French Resistance fighters used the traboules to escape and hide from the Nazis. Many were caught and killed in the very traboules we were standing. The traboules still remain open to all travelers during the day and are maintained by the city of Lyon.

We ended our tour at our favorite ice cream spot Nardone, with treats for all!

God and the rooster waving three times at 3 o'clock.

Finger pointing to the date. Note the list of religious holidays and their corresponding dates.

The minute hands that strech to fit the oval.

Our tour group traversing a traboule.

The circular staircases that connect the buildings along the traboules.

The traboules even have wells to serve the inner buildings!