Caluire-et-Cuire

Today we spent in the largest park in Lyon, the Tête d'Or. This gigantic park is only just a few blocks away from our apartment. It includes a botanical garden, zoo, large open areas, large wooded areas, a lake bigger than most city parks, and lots of places to gather. The park is surrounded by grand old mansions and the Rhone River. Beautiful grounds included some water features with some striking water lilies. There is also a turtle refuge here, housing what they claim as rescued North American reptiles. I'm not sure what they were rescued from, but there were hundreds of them. We had lunch at an outdoor kiosk, which was really pleasant. Their small zoo houses a number of different monkeys, tropical birds and some larger mammals. The red panda was a bit drowsy, but cute. We watched a group of otters playing for a while, too. Lots of people enjoying this sunny, hot day, but the park is so big, it wasn't crowded at all.Read more