Day 5: Lyon, France

Awoke to a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and the sky was a brilliant light blue color. There were several types of clouds scattered throughout the sky: Cirrus and Cumulus. These clouds are considered fair weather clouds. The storm the night before blew out and the day was going to be a beautiful day.
We checked out and found this adorable little breakfast place called City Bagels. The decor is done like a NY city diner. At each table was a toaster for you to toast your bagel. Though it was a small place, it was really cute. We ordered breakfast and just relaxed while the sun continued to rise in the sky.
After breakfast we walked to Lyon centre. The night before we were on the wrong side of the Rhone River. This area had a lot going on. Of course the beautiful Saturday day brought out tons of people.

One of the bridges that span the Rhone River is called the Lafayette Bridge. The statues on the bridge are copies of the Rhone and Saone statues, which are currently located at the Place Bellecour. They were done by Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou.While walking around we came across the Palasi du Commerce. This beautiful building was several blocks up from the Opera house. We walked along the streets and found Place des Terreaux. This area houses an open market on certain days. In the middle of the area is the lovely Bartholdi fountain. This fountain was done in 1889 by Bartholdi (guy who did the Statue of Liberty). The cravings are amazing. The fountain represents rivers flowing into the ocean. You can feel all that power of the river depicted in the horses. A river moves faster than the ocean. When a river flows into another large body of way, say an ocean, it slows down dramatically. This can be seen where deltas are formed. All the sediments carried by the river drop out and start forming the delta at the mouth of the river. Sorry for the mini-science lesson...At the other end of the area is the Hotel de Ville. Of course I had to comment on the name. Every place I had been so far had a Hotel de Ville. Kind of funny if you think about it.A went in search of classical music and S and I went in search of whatever we could find. We did browse some clothing, shoe, and homegoods stores. I saw a lovely Teapot and tea cups set but decided that I didn't want to lug it back. Of course S and A were sneaky and purchased the lovely set while I was touring with M during my second week and surprised me at Christmas time. S stopped by a bike store and purchased a remarkable made Holland bike. It was a really nice bike and looks like it will last a very long time if taken care of. She had the experience of riding one while in Amsterdam and loved it. She got it in purple and was excited about its arrival in the following week. (We couldn't fit it in the car since I was sitting in the back seat and for the small fact that the car was small to begin with.) Since she normally walks to work in the morning, she thought she would join the other bikers and commute this way to work. Of course when she comes back to the states she'll use it around her hometown.


Eventually we decided to head back to Geneva. A was playing in the worship band the next morning at church so getting back early to relax was the plan. On the drive back, we munched on cheese and crackers and fruit bought the night before at the grocery store. If I'm every in the area again, I would like to see more of Lyon then was we saw. I'm sure there are some more amazing sites to see of the city. Arriving back in Geneva, I packed up my bag for Monday when I would meet up with my friend M and spend my last week in Switzerland going to other cities. It will be nice having a travel companion and M is a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to it.