Wednesday 6th March
It was an early start today travelling to Avignon. The route of the buses to get there take us through Lyon, and didn't line up very well so we've ended up with 5 hours to explore Lyon! It worked out very well in the end, because we wanted to come to Lyon but didn't really have the time to stay, so this is perfect!
We arrived in Lyon a bit after 10am, and immediately our day started off well. We found 10 euro on the ground!
We left the station and headed to a hotel near the station that participates in a service called "Nannybag". It is such a brilliant idea. Sam found it last night when we were debating what to do for the day because of our bags. Essentially we paid 6 euro for the day for the hotel to keep our packs in a secure room so we can explore without them! Amazing! We were free to make the most of our time in the city!
Free from our bags, we headed out to explore!
Our walk into the city was beautiful and I have to say I like Lyon already.
First stop, a bakery for breakfast! Yum Yum Yum!!! We stopped in at a cute little bakery and got a couple of quiche lorraine's for brekkie. The cash register was so cool. It was basically a "self pay" so the lady got everything for us and we ordered through her, but then you put your money into this machine that just looks like a money counter and it spits out the change, and the lady doesn't have to touch the money, so she can keep handling the food. So cool.
After brekkie we had a wander down the streets and into the main square, before starting another "Emily and Sam Self Guided Walking Tour Thanks to Google Trips".
We started off by wandering the streets and ending up in a square "Place des Terreaux". The architecture of the buildings is breathtaking, it is just beautiful. In this square there was also a really cool fountain "Fontaine Bartholdi" from the 1800's.
And lining the square was this amazing historic building "Hôtel de Ville", which is now Lyon's City Hall. The only thing that slightly broke the amazing architecture and feeling as if we were in another world, was the massive amounts of construction taking place in the square!
We then found our way down to the water and walked along the river, just taking in the city. Lyon is beautiful. It has brilliant spaces, gorgeous old colourful buildings, and it's clean. The buildings are just so beautiful, the way they are preserved, the french architecture, and the colours of pastel yellows and pinks, just gorgeous.
On the way we started seeing some amazing paintings on the sides of buildings, so we detoured to have a look, and I'm glad we did! Once we walked around the back of one of the buildings we found the "Fresque des Lyonnais" which is absolutely amazing! Such a work of art. It is an oil painting on an entire side of a building, depicting 30 well known people from Lyon!! It is incredible!
After spending a good while admiring the artwork we made our way out of the city and up a hill (I know, this is becoming a thing with us). This hill was much longer and steeper than we anticipated, but a good deal of sweat later, we made it to the top and were rewarded with the most beautiful basilica I've ever seen, "La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière". It was an absolute work of art inside and out!
We were very lucky with our timing and midday mass had just started, so we sat in on French mass. It was beautiful listening to the echoes in French, and the artwork and building itself was beautiful inside. The echoes of the French language, and the singing is what was most special though.
At the top of the hill there was also a stunning view over Lyon!
We started to get quite hungry and so made our way back down to the city and treated ourselves to a big burger lunch along the river after all our walking and used the money we found this morning, making it free! It also turned into a crazy windy day!
From lunch we visited "Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste".
We then ended up down by the river again and had found a really amazing shopping centre. The design was really cool, sort of indoor/outdoor, and instead of music it had calming sounds and bird noises. There were also little green garden areas with super peaceful sounds to chill in. It was really really cool. We used the bathrooms there as well, and they were so fancy! So clean, with a big red carpet in front of the super modern all automated trough sink, and all the toilets were numbered and cleaned by a cleaner every time someone came out!
It was then time to go and pick our bags up from our bag nanny and hop on the next bus to Avignon!
What a great time in Lyon, and the perfect amount of time too.
The bus dropped us off outside the city walls of Avignon, and it was already getting dark when we arrived. Oh. My. Goodness. Avignon is sooooo COOL! It is a fully fortified city, completely surrounded by a city wall.
We found an entrance in the wall to walk through and it was like entering a bubble from the past. The streets were all cobblestone and there was no one about, it felt like we were wandering the streets after curfew. The buildings were all beautiful and old, but well kept, and there was minimal light. There were no cars driving around, just us, and occasionally we would pass someone speaking French. It was amazing.
We weaved our way through the streets to the other side of the city, passed water turners in the canal and found a little hole in the wall which was the exit! We entered into the wall, down a few steps, over a tiny platform that had water below it, and then popped out the other side! Suddenly we were back in 2019! We emerged and suddenly there were street lights, cars and people! It was incredible!
We made it to our accommodation and after a kerfuffle with getting the right code for the door, we flopped into bed after a big day!
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