Friday morning in Lyon...

and I will try and get Thursday's report finished before bedtime tonight.  I AM going to have another day of visiting places today - the Roman museum and the Roman arenas.  At any rate, Thursday was a gorgeous day as the photos will attest, so I will get started (and this will follow my tradition of too many pictures and too much blah, blah) :)

Strange first photo I know but as I'm wandering the cities of Europe that I've wandered I'm always impressed and envious about their very clean streets.  I have yet to see one piece of trash on the sidewalks or streets of this city.  And as I started my walk this morning this scene reminded me of at least one reason for that:  each morning the shop people come out and sluice down their portion of the sidewalk!  So simple and so effective.  And when I'm home in Huntington looking at all the styrofoam cartons with food still in them, empty plastic bags, and all the other trash that litters our sidewalks I think what is wrong with us?  So that will be my sermon for this trip.  Now on to my actual tourist activities in Lyon.

Good grief!  I work and work on my pics and think I've got them straight, etc., and then when I post they end up embarrassing me.  But anyway, this is a lovely plaza with its big fountain.  I had a nice chat with a couple from Oregon because they were taking pictures of each other in front of it and I offered to do one with the two of them.  When we discovered we were all speaking the same language, we settled in for a bit of a visit.  I love when that happens.

And then (still going the right way to my destination) here was this big market and so of course, I had to walk from one end to the other of that.  I told one of the vendors that if anything would ever make me move to Europe, one of the main things would be the markets.  It just all looks so fresh and they have all kinds of cheeses and sausages that I have no idea what they taste like.  The one right below this picture I took because this is the kind of teeny-weeny tomato I talked about when I described the amuse-bouche I got at my very nice dinner.  Some of these are a little bigger but most were I'd say about 1/2"

Geese, maybe?  This vendor had birds of every description.  I saw one all trussed up that was no bigger than my clenched fish!

And that's where I'm headed.  That is the Basilica de Notre Dame and I mentioned it in my previous post.  Also up there are the Roman museum and the Roman arenas.

 So I had to do my first walk across a bridge (not this one obviously).  The one below is the one I went across.  And also in that picture is what the guidebook called "the Palace of Justice".  It informed that this is where "the butcher of Lyon" (Klaus Barbie) was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.  Seems a fairly light sentence....

 I decided since I was over there, before I went up to the heights, I would visit the St. Jean Cathedral which was also on my list.  Below, I've reached it and these are the excavations of the two other churches that stood here centuries ago.

I don't know why this portion has been enclosed in glass.  I was disappointed that the signs were only in French.  I was also sad to see that there were several breaks caused by what looks like was either a rifle shot or stones or whatever.

The big round circle below is I think maybe the foundation of a baptistry that was on site before the standing cathedral was built.  The whole area here has been a holy place for at least 1,000 years.

And the last pic below I made extra large because I think it is utterly amazing that it is still standing.

Moving on, above is my as usual crooked picture of the front of St. Jean Cathedral.  I have discovered now that it IS Jean but it's consecrated to St. John the Baptist and Jean is the French version.  In my own defense, I might have done a better job if they had not placed a biggish fountain smack dab in the middle of the plaza so in order to get the whole church I had to shoot from one side of it or the other... Later note:  I was up in this area again today (Friday) and thought to look up at the arches over the doors for some reason.  Each little block looking thing is a person and the majority of them have lost their heads.  I figured there had to be some reason and went inside to see if possibly there would be a person to ask (like Chris!) There wasn't a Chris but the treasury was open today which it had not been before so I went in there and there were to men intently working with a computer who didn't seem able to look at me but here came a woman.  So I told her I had noticed this and was there a reason for that.  And she explained that it happened during the French Revolution which is easy to believe because any thing I've read about that time is horrifying!  But now that's settled I can go on.  Oh and I'll post a picture of what I'm talking tomorrow on Friday's post.

 I love the pinkish color on the columns.  And from what I've read, all the stained glass remaining in the cathedral is the original.  The right side stained glass is all intact, but strangely enough on the left-hand side there is, I think, only one window that is still stained glass.  Made me wonder if a bomb fell on that side of the building, blasting the windows out.  If so, how very fortunate it didn't fall ON the church.

This is very pretty when you're looking at it and very different from most of the other windows. 

 This and the one below were part of a gorgeous platform type object.  I would guess it was used for special services or something?  The wood itself is beautiful, very dark and rosy and the carving is fantastic.

Wow, it's a record!  3 decent pics of stained glass. The two rose windows face each other and the curved windows above are over the altar area.  The crucifix was very small and high up which I don't think I've ever seen in any other Catholic churches/cathedrals.  I thought the windows were maybe the disciples and maybe there are but there weren't 12 in that circle and then I noticed that the same type of panels, one individual in each panel, went around the corner to a flat wall facing the congregation, so there were way more than 12.  Anyway, it is certainly beautiful.

Ahh, and then we come to the clock.  I have copied the following from a site named thisislyon.fr

"Built by N. Lippius of Basle, this clock was finished in 1598. The mechanism is of sturdy wrought iron, and includes both a perpetual calendar and a religious calendar. 
This incredible clock can calculate the dates of all saints’ days up until 2019, as well as the position of the stars above Lyon. A new one is planned for 2020 by Charles Morat, and will work until 2084. As for the perpetual calendar, it will carry on ticking until 3008, believe it or not. Within the oval minute face, several moving figures ‘come to life’ at noon, two and three o’clock, with automatons in the form of different animals and a scene depicting the Annunciation. "

So unfortunately it wasn't working while I was there but there was a sign saying they were restoring it so it will work again.  I should try and keep track of the progress and maybe have another trip to Lyon. :)

 I have no idea what this part of the clock does or what any part of the clock does for that matter.  But it is quite a magnificent piece of work!

 In its entirety...

 and the tip-top fun part with the little rooster on top who crows!

And I just now noticed that the clock face down from 12 to 12 and then back up from 12 to 12.  I knew it looked like too many numbers!

 The rose window at the back of the sanctuary.  Very pretty but I don't think it's as impressive as the really gorgeous side one (I know there are two side ones but I mean the really gorgeous one. :) )

Another one - it is so hard to believe that these have survived for so very long.

 A dumb photo, I know, but that thing up by the window intrigued me especially with the blue part above it.  And this was one of those side "rooms" they have in cathedrals, usually small chapels, but this looked sort of like a spare parts room.  There was some random furniture, a pretty box, this statue, etc.

 Pretty day to eat outside and I had Quiche Lorraine for the first time ever.  It was quite nummy.

 So then it was on to the new guy on the block - new because it was started and finished in the 1800's.  I think maybe I posted information about it on yesterday's blog? Yes, I checked and I did. So now you can just look.

 This was my first sight of it and boy is it blurry.  I didn't notice that when editing them.  Anyway, I don't think there is an inch of empty space anywhere in this building.  And, yes, it was built with all private funds, but think what other uses those funds could have been put to.  Where you see gold, it's really gold and there's a lot of it.  I read somewhere and couldn't find it again that somewhere in here is Mary being crowned by two angels but the crown is still in their hands.  And it is an actual crown made of gold weighing 8 pounds!

 I did love the mosaic floor.  I've discovered over the past few years that I really like old mosaics.  And this one is very nice.

And these panels are totally mosaics except for the wood trim.  And the gold is sparkling gold.  I think there were either 3 on each side or maybe four...

These 2 little boys had one of those 1" hard balls that they were rolling back and forth every so quietly and it just seemed kind of dear to me.

 And this is the altar area of course.  I couldn't seem to get much light in it.

 Beautiful marble column supports.  Even they were decorated.  The all had the same birds around the top.

 And the ceiling areas were truly riotous.  It was pretty but a bit much.

 So that's it for the church.  It was incredible but I like the ancient St. Jean Cathedral way more.  Maybe in a 1000 years folks will feel some reverence here but for now, I think it's basically a show piece.  Even Wikipedia or somewhere on line called it a minor church in Lyon.  But as seen below, there is a beautiful view of the city on that side.

That red bridge is the bridge I crossed to get to the funicular that takes you up to where the 2 cathedrals are.

I think this picture (above) is a panorama that a man did for me on my iPhone.

That's pretty much it for Thursday.  I did fairly well at finding my way there because it was where I had done of my wandering around the first day or two so I recognized things a bit and knew that this street went to the street that went to my street, etc. 

I am dreading tomorrow (morning especially).  I leave on a train for Florence so there will be that horrible battle to find my way around at the train station plus which in order to have enough time to ask 25 people where I should go, I'm going to leave here at 7:45 (by taxi at least).  Then the train stops in Milan at their station which the only thing I know about it is that Chris and I wandered around in it for quite a while trying to figure out where in the world the trains were.  And that made me think just now, since I'll be on a train maybe I'll be on the right level when I arrive and won't have to wander around.  Lordy, I hope so!  Cause there it's kind of a tight connection...

Anyway au revoir for the last time. :)