Lyon 2025 Part 1

Lyon is the third largest city in France, and an easy 4 hour drive from Sète (the A9 freeway turns into the A7 freeway, and you're there!). It's known for its architecture and cuisine - we saw a lot of the former; we had to skip most of the lyonnaise specialties (dairy), but took advantage of the huge selection of Thai and Indian restaurants in our neighborhood 😋.

Our apartment is just up the street from the Place des Terreaux, which has a fabulous fountain by Bartholdi, and is bounded by the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and the Museum of Fine Arts.

The museum is great! We were able to borrow a wheelchair, and there was no line at all to get in. Right away, there were these two enormous statues, representing the two rivers

La Saône is feminine, since it's a rivière - a tributary

Le Rhône is masculin, since it's a fleuve - a river that flows into the sea

We started at the top - with an entire floor of paintings

A Scene of the Flood, Court

Good and Evil, Orsel
Detail of a Young Woman listening to Evil

Lucrezia, Cagnacci

Dancers on the Stage, Degas

Charing Cross Bridge, the Thames
Monet

Defeat of the Cimbri and the Teutons by Marius, Heim
Detail 

And sculptures

Tiger Attacking a Deer

Boy in Turban 

The Kiss

Harlequin 

We moved down to the Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts 

Another day, we returned for the sculpture garden 

See all my museum photos here - read the captions for more information. See the sculpture garden photos here.

We took a cruise along the Saône (see photos here), and saw a lot of *very* different architecture styles! There were buildings that you expect to see in medieval Europe 

And then...

Stay tuned for Part 2!