Time to get back to Nature

After spending a couple of hours indoors, albeit looking at fabulous art, it was time to head outside. We headed to Parc de la Tête d’Or, which translates to Park of the Head of Gold. The name is the result of a legend that a treasure with Christ’s head could be buried somewhere in the park. It is the largest urban park in France, is located in the 6th arrondissement, and is about 117 hectares in size. It incorporates the Lyon Botanical Gardens, a huge lake, a small free public zoo, a velodrome, boules courts, mini-golf, an equestrian facility, and a miniature railway.

On our way up to the park we stopped at a boulangerie to buy some lunch. We entered the park and found a seat in a lovely shady spot where we settled in to have lunch and people watch. There seemed to be a lot of kids around, and it turns out French kids are on a two week break; it’s called the all saints break. After finishing our chicken and salad baguette, and our little treat of a tiny fig tart, we headed off towards the zoo. On the way we met a friendly goose.

When we arrived at the zoo we saw an enclosure with flamingoes and other wildlife, including monkeys and lemurs. The flamingoes (well a few of them) were quite noisy. We saw more flamingoes here than we did in the Camargue! We walked around a little more and saw Pelicans, Turtles sunning themselves on a rock, Blue Cranes, White Herons and, in the distance, a couple of Giraffes. We also saw Red Pandas and some deer. We walked back around to the Giraffe enclosure and saw five of them up close.

We planned to go up to the hill of Fourvière, which has great views back over the city of Lyon, so we left the park and started walking back towards our place to make a quick pit stop before catching the funicular for the journey up the hill. It was a lovely walk back from the park and, as we crossed a bridge, I noticed some random mosaics around a concrete block. It turns out that there is someone in Lyon who is filling potholes and other unsightly cracks and gaps with mosaics. It is called “flacking” and is being done by a Lyon-based artist Ememem, who refers to himself as “the pothole knight”.

We headed to the funicular to get up to Fourvière. After purchasing our tickets we were confronted by a huge line of people also waiting to get up to the top of the hill. It took us about 30 minutes to get on and I was lucky enough to get a seat at the front. It is a very quick ride, about 5 minutes. We went to the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière and got some lovely snaps across Lyon. We then walked down to the Roman ruins in the Jardin Romain. They are very impressive. Excavation of the theatre started in 1934 and in 1946 it was inaugurated. In 1973, the construction of the museum started and the site was used for concerts and other performances, and still is to this day. We spent a bit of time walking through the site, which is very well preserved.

We then headed back down to the city on foot through the Rosary Garden and the final descent was about 200 steps. We definitely got our steps up today and the day wasn’t over, as we were going out for dinner.Meer informatie