Lyon 04

The canuts were Lyonnais silk workers, often working on Jacquard looms. They were primarily found in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood of Lyon in the 19th century. The Croix-Rousse area is a high point north of the city, between the Saone and Rhone rivers with some lovely views over Lyon, if you can manage the climb up a gazillion steps.

We cheated, we caught the metro which in this case is actually a funicular railway- too steep in places to maintain traction so has cogs to stop the train plummeting down the track to an abrupt end.

The main lure to this fascinating part of Lyon is another wall mural, one of many scattered across Lyon. In my opinion, this one takes the title as the best. A very large, very flat and near lifeless concrete wall of a building once sat prominently at a road junction, on display for all to see, it could not be missed. In the 1980s they saw this extremely bland wall as a canvas to display the fine art that this city possesses.

Over the 30 years since, it has gone through a few evolutions to the awesome piece it is today. As you walk from the Metro, you see a group of buildings with a massive stairway in the middle, a scene very typical of this area. As you get closer, you know it is a mural but the few small, real windows start to do your head in, trying to figure out what is real and what is paint.Read more