A Tour of the City with The University of Lyon

A Tour of Lyon

Saturday 8th September 2012

Saturday was a bit like Friday in that I had to get up early and walk around a lot in the sun. Once again I was like a tourist with my photo equipment and a T-shirt which says 'I Love New York', even though I have never even been to New York! To welcome the international students at University of Lyon 2, they offered us a guided tour of the city of Lyon. Me and my friends from Roehampton thought it would be a good idea and a good opportunity to get to know the town better without the risk of getting lost. Also, there was the possibility of meeting some of the other foreign students at Lyon 2.

We chose the session at 10am instead of 2pm so I had to get up early. However, I knew that it would be cooler during the morning from the previous days where it was very hot. Nonetheless, it was quite hot when we arrived at Bellecour square, under the horse statue. As I was with a large group of people and my friends, I had decided to wear my shorts so that I would be more comfortable.

Bellecour Square

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The group was quite large and it was sometimes difficult to hear everything the woman, who was our guide, was saying. The noise of the traffic did not help this situation. She also spoke very fast so I couldn't understand everything.

I alredy knew Bellecour square and the surrounding streets from the day when I got very lost when looking for green trousers. I liked having the chance to see the town without the anxiety I felt when I was lost!

Saint-Jean square

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Saint Jean Cathedral

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Although I had already seen Saint Jean square and the outside of the Saint Jean cathedral, I had not seen the old part of Lyon. It is a very charming part of the city, full of character, colour, food, smells and people. It was lively and often difficult to follow the group amongst the throngs of people and other tour groups. The buildings are a spectrum of colours like yellow, orange, red and pink and the cobbled streets are narrow. There were a lot of restaurants in the street, serving typical Lyonese dishes, which use meats such as beef, pork and other things that I don't eat. Although I am not really religious, red meat is something which just does not appeal to me. The most shocking thing was that in this historical and traditional neighbourhod it was also possible to find a Subway shop!

Lyon old town

We saw the secret passages and found the more traditional, yet bizarre buildings. Everything was really pretty and there was a lot to discover. There are a lot of English and Irish pubs in Lyon old town. One is called the Smoking Dog. I went there later on with my friends from Roehampton and found it to be quite a nice place, but very popular. It was difficult to find a table for the group. Although the Smoking Dog bar is not a very Lyonese place, it's very well integrated into the neighbourhood thanks to the traditional and old-fashioned decor. It's dark and with a lot od character. You can find souvenirs from various travels and there's a wall of old French books. There were tickets for foreign football matches as well as different monetary currencies on the walls. It is possible to watch English premier league football matches and other sports here. I have to find a group of friends who are interested in football so I can follow my team, Manchester United.

The Smoking Dog

The streets of Lyon

From Lyon old town, we carried on until we got close to the bottom of the Croix Rousse hill. The streets were quiet and there weren't a lot of people there. But there was a lot of graffiti and to me, it seems best to avoid the streets at night. But there was also a building with a big facade of famous people from Lyon. Also, our tour guide told us that there is a square close to that street which sells delicious ice cream. An exceptional tour guide would have given us the chance to buy some ice cream in the heat we had that day! It also could have been because the students were starting to become more tired and less interested by this point.

From the bottom of the Croix-Rousse, we went to Terreux square where the town hall, museum of fine arts and a magnificent fountain are situated.

Terreux square

Opéra

We then entered Rue de la République where the guide explained to us the story of the Opera in Lyon, which is a very modern building around the old, more traditional building. It's like a marriage of modern ideas, mixed with tradition. We went down Rue de la République towards Bellecour looking at some of the small side streets but it seemed that the guide herself was a bit lost! At the end of Bellecour we were left to do what we wanted. Most of the group dispersed in different directions, me me and my Roehampton friends, two students from Ireland, a Polish guy and an English girl decided to find something to eat in one of the small cafés on Rue de la République.

Rue de la République

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On our way back to the residence with the Roehampton girls, we stopped for some time in Lyon old town near the square to have a look at the pottery market which was there. We had wanted to take photos earlier during the tour but the guide did not leave us enough time to do so. It was a pain because my camera is sometimes slow to respond when using the manual mode.

I did not touch anything though because I knew exactly what could happen! The stuff here in the market was very elaborate and detailed and unique too and some pieces were really expensive!

My photos of the pottery market

Photo gallery