Driving further afield. ....

Thursday 24th September

Not to be restricted by modes of travel we decided to hire a car and see the sights further afield.
The first fly in the ointment was that a car booked for 9am was not able to be driven off until 10.30 am  because of the lack of one small item: the office person to actually give us the keys! Not happy Jan!

We headed south to the large city of Lyon, the new gastronomic capital of France and the up and coming capital of just about everything French, according to the ads.

Despite some navigational difficulties we managed to park and negotiate the wonders of the Metro.

At this point let me say that more than one navigational device per car is NOT a good idea: with contrasting Glorias giving contrasting instructions in a large unfamiliar city the driver is doomed.  At one point we ended up following instructions to do a U-turn in a car park, which cost us 60 cents!! Bring back the paper map I say!!

Anyway first stop was the old town and the Cathedral,  followed by a funicular ride up a sheer slope to the Mary Magladene Basilica perched on top overlooking the city.  Spectacular views and a very austere but impressive Basilica.  To our surprise when we climbed down the stairs within the Basilica there was another older church at a lower level,  almost the same size as  the one upstairs. It had some small altars from a range of different countries but the one I loved was the Italian contribution: very modern Madonna and Child and beautifully lit.  The intricate mosaics in this church were phenomenal: blues, greens and lots of gold in contrast to the plain stone arches and  building.

A croque monsieur for lunch - not a weight watchers delight!  - and we were off to the newest building in Lyon. This time on the tram which was very new. There was some confusion as to whether we were able to walk across the tracks from the raised station to get to the other side but we opted for the safe option and went up the stairs and down the other side, only to see lots of people tramping across the tracks! !

Our destination was the Musee des Confluences which is, as the name suggests, at the meeting point of two rivers which were large, (but whose names are totally forgettable). The whole area around the Musee is being redeveloped at a rapid rate so lots of brightly-coloured and very contemporary buildings are being built.

The Musee is ultra modern architecture with lots of light and shiny silver metal surfaces and a multitude of different shapes. The exhibitions were about the role of Museums and collectors, right through to the history of man and beyond death into infinity.  If that sounds rather weird it actually wasn't as the displays were really stunning, and included aboriginal art and culture. On entry to the gift shop the first items we spied were ceramics with aboriginal designs!

A drink on the terrace at the very top completed our visit, and we headed for home down the highway with Les Miserables playing at high volume to keep Ewan awake (and all Glorias turned off!!).

Your cultured correspondent

Dianne