Keeping it Light

Pages From Jan's Travel Journal: Sunday, Dec. 30 2018

We slept late, and I know it was something we all needed. Desmond had rested very little the night before, but managed to slip out of the apartment and return with pastries before Craig and I were finished with our first coffee of the morning. 

The weather was damp and cold when we left the AirBnB, but we made the decision to take the double-decker bus tour of Lyon. The huge vehicle was very crowded and we had to sit on the top level which was open to the weather. It was absolutely freezing up there! I was very grateful for my warm hat and gloves. About halfway into the tour, we were able to move to the lower deck and were much more comfortable. The views of Lyon, along with the commentary, held our attention. It’s a lovely old city with many modern touches and we would love to return someday for further exploration. 

A view of Lyon, France

When we made it back to our starting point, it was lunchtime. We found a cozy restaurant where we ordered pizza. I don’t think we have ever been disappointed when ordering pizza in France, and this place was no exception. 

There really are no windows or wildcats on that building.
 It's all a mural. There are many in Lyon.

Our next stop was the automaton museum. We love just about anything quirky, and were delighted with the place! In the entrance lobby was an entire automated circus scene, complete with acrobats, jugglers, and high-wire acts. A clown was feeding seals from a bucket of fish. The figures were only about eight to ten inches high and were painted in vivid detail. As we continued into the interior of the museum, we saw many animated dioramas, most with figures twelve to eighteen inches high, recreating scenes of medieval life, art, fairy tales, and so on. 

A lively circus scene at the automaton museum in Lyon, Fr

This automaton certainly looked familiar!

The museum is on the ground floor of an ancient building in old Lyon. As we progressed through it, we were walking on a downward slope and I noticed that we were literally in a cave with the walls and arched ceiling carved out of rock. The jointed wooden people and animals created a cacophony of clicking and whirring as they picked grapes, wove silk, baked bread, and washed clothes. One huge scene depicted Nôtre Dame de Paris, complete with Quasimodo and music. Guignol, a popular puppet character in France, was also present. There was much to see and it was charmingly quaint. This would be an enchanting place for children, and since we’re just kids at heart we enjoyed it.

Quasimodo atop Notre Dame

Automatons using a loom to weave silk

I’m old enough to remember when automatons were used in advertising displays and delightful Christmas scenes in shop windows. Some are still in use today. I have seen a cobbler recently, in the window of a shoe repair shop in Orléans.

We strolled along the river for a while, where a huge outdoor market was taking place. It was tempting to linger, but we were on our way to another museum. It was all about the history of Lyon and was very interesting. It’s simply amazing to think that this area has been inhabited since the year 43 bce when the Romans established a military colony. The museum also had a huge exhibition of marionettes that was fun to view. 

Garlic at an outdoor market in Lyon, France

An enticing display of cheese at the outdoor market

We were very tired and cold from walking in the brisk winter chill. On our way home, we stopped at a lovely tea shop for a hot drink. The hot chocolate we ordered was unlike any we had ever tasted. It was made with rich bars of chocolate melted and frothed into fresh, hot milk. Before serving it, our waitress piled each of our enormous cups with whipped cream. She then slowly poured the frothy chocolate carefully over and around the billowing cream and left us to enjoy our decadent treat. We lingered for quite some time over that delicious beverage and left the shop feeling content and almost happy. Keeping ourselves busy had helped to distract us from our grief over losing mom. It had been a pretty good day, all things considered. 

Incredible chocolat chaud in Lyon, France

Desmond and Craig heading home to
our apartment up the hill in Old Lyon, France