OCTOBER. 08, 2019
Day 2 – Friday 4th October -Lyon and the Vieux Lyon.
After a good nights sleep we started our second day with a walk north and up and over the station at Perrache to go to Place Bellecour to pick up our Lyon cards which we had all pre-ordered. A 3 day card for €43 gets you free local travel and free entry into museums plus a river boat trip which was great value.
We met up with Elaine and Steve who had joined us as they were staying fairly locally in their camper van. At this point it had started to rain a bit.
We then continued up along the River Saone to get the funicular to travel up to the the Old City. Before travelling up to the top though we stopped at a small cafe called Café de La Ficelle just to the right of the funicular entrance and had some lunch.
At the top we visited the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere, a fantastic cathedral.
Returning down the funicular we then had a walk south along the west side of the river and visited the Cathedral Saint Jean Baptiste and walked through the old town streets.
Returning back over the river we caught our boat to take us on the river tour. It was a very pleasant tour but was getting a bit cold, especially as we chose seats on the top of the boat for a better view. We had some great views of the area called the Confluence which is where the Rhone and the Saone rivers meet in the south of Lyon.
At the meeting point of the two rivers is the post-industrial La Confluence. It is the site of an urban renewal project, with upscale apartments, offices, and parks like the Jardin Aquatique Jean Couty, built overlooking the River Saône.
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