She seated us, gave us the menus and directed our eyes to the chalk board on the wall. Soon the Francotte opened, and we were welcomed by the hostess. Moving outside, we had an outstanding view of the city from the terrace with Mont Blanc (the highest point in Europe) in sight. (I guess they had photos from which to work.) Taking the funicular (a railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable and having counterbalancing ascending and descending cars), we did the tour and ended with the French omnipresent tribute to Ste. It’s dedicated to the Virgin Mary, hence the moniker, and Mary is everywhere in tribute to her with walls and floors covered in gold leaf and with mosaics depicting her and Jesus. Consulting the map, we decided that our first destination would be Fourvière Hill where Notre-Dame Basilica is situated. There are three different Lyons: the historic Vieux Lyon, Fourvière Hill and the Presqu’île. Lyon is France’s second-largest metropolitan area and considered the gastronomical capital of France (have I mentioned how good the food and wine is in France?), but even though it is larger than Grenoble, it has more pedestrian-friendly areas that made it a delight to navigate. At 20 € each for our cards – one of us used his student ID and got a 20% discount- we had access to all the mass transportation possibilities and a host of exhibits and museums for the day – outstanding! Lots of cool gadgets and transports, so we browsed around some, and then we stopped in the TI and purchased a Lyon City Card. We had mapped out where the Tourist Information (TI) Center was, and when we arrived, we found that Place Bellecour was alive with an eco-festival.
#Pronounce the name francotte how to#
Using an old Rick Steves’ France guide book that I had picked up at the Bookworm Café, a café/anglo bookstore run by a British expat in Grenoble, we had figured out how to navigate from the train station to the center of town. The ride was comfortable, and we pulled into Lyon’s Part-Dieu on-time. The evening before we had booked the 8:11 train out of Grenoble, arriving in Lyon at 9:20 (imagine a Sam Spade voice in a Dashiell Hammett novel). So a trip for the day to Lyon (pronounced Lee-ohn) was a simple matter of purchasing some train tickets at the Gare and showing up to board the train. Not having used the mass transport system in NC, I can’t speak to its qualities, but in France if the schedule says the train will leave at 7:13, you can almost bet that it will. The rail system in Europe is notorious for being efficient – save Italy, easy to navigate and relatively inexpensive.
Steve likes driving more than I do, but we have not driven a car in almost 4 months, and I couldn’t be happier! – Steve still wants his Aston Martin, but I’m keeping an eye on his “men and their toys” syndrome! We love the french transportation system being car-less has been a freeing experience. Wolfgang at Place de Terreaux, Lyon, France, a Bertholdi fountain-he also designed the Statue of Liberty