The Dog Days of Summer – August 1st to 5th

It was high time for us to try out the funicular and visit the Basilica up on the Fourvière Hill. On the way to the Vieux-Lyon Metro station we encountered this repair shop for stringed instruments, not something one sees often.

Crossing the passerelle du Palais-de-Justice, the neoclassical Cour d’Appel with its 24 columns was a truly majestic sight!

The funicular runs through a tunnel, so no sightseeing along the way. Our first sight upon arrival on the “Hill of Prayer” was the basilica itself.

[Just a reminder: most of the pics are clickable for better viewing]

Returning to the main steps, we paid homage to the mighty lion, aka Saint Mark the Evangelist whom we also encountered in Venice recently.

The interior of la Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière was reminiscent of another Italian town, Ravenna, and its world famous Byzantine mosaïcs.

The return trip in the funicular was pretty crowded. Many seats were taken by families with young children. I was flabbergast to see how many, mostly German, parents let their healthy kids sit, while limping Krückstock-Omas, like this mid-seventy grandma with a walking stick, stood on wobbly legs. I was ever so tempted to make some scathing remarks in German … but the trip was too short to compose a proper tirade.

And speaking of buildings, one of Lyon’s best known tourist attractions was just down the block from us, La Fresque de Lyonnais. Twenty-odd years ago the city decided to follow Barcelona’s example and have a building decorated with a full-size trompe-l’œil mural showcasing local celebrities.

Meanwhile, the pharmacy across the famous frescoed building displayed some beautifully decorated windows.

But back to our illustrious Lyonnais,

Actually, the whole quartier de Saint-Vincent was very charming.

The above balcony scenes include the mural (!) painter Chavannes on the left, next to Jean de Verrazane, better known as the Florentine explorer and navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano who in the 1520s explored the US Atlantic coast on behalf of king François 1e, our very own Cognacais hometown hero. On the top balcony, naturally, we find Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, my namesake and most adorably limping and stuttering Roman emperor, who was born on August 1st, 10 BCE, in Lugdunum. Emperor Claudius was brilliantly portrait by Derek Jacobi in the mini-series “I, Claudius” after Robert Graves historical novels of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

As long as we’re hanging out in the neighbourhood, let’s wander about a bit here and there, and find out, what else we might discover.

The “Canut” radio station, styling itself as the biggest rebel of radio, drove me to distraction earlier in the morning. Some annoying humming, reminiscent of Tuvan overtone throat singing was wafting through our apartment from an undetectable source. The Tuva are a nomadic people of the High Altai, and like many other indigenous peoples, they produce a kind of humming-singing deep in their throats that reverberates in unique ways. In the video link, the most typical portion of traditional throat singing runs from second 0.35 to 1.10. The rest is a more contemporary interpretation. I learned about Tuvan traditions through the books of Galsan Tschinag, a Tuvan Elder, Shaman, and poet, who, amazingly, writes in German. When I lingered at the intersection to shoot the graffiti pictures above, I heard that humming again and I traced it easily to the radio station. It seemed that our building and the station’s, which are in streets nearly parallel to each other, might share connected courtyards. A demonstration of the secret Lyonnais traboules? A canut, btw, is the traditional Lyonnais nickname for a silk worker.

In case you’re interested, the all-knowing internet answered my question: What is jungle therapy?? -> Hankō is the first French monthly box of indoor plants but it is also an online store of rare plants and cuttings accessible to everyone. WoW, I feel so much better now, knowing this important information!

Instead of bio-vegetables or mail-order plants, we did splurge on one very special dinner of traditional Lyonnaise cuisine at a restaurant bearing our name, the Léon de Lyon.

It was delicious and great fun, and being practically cousins, the Léons de Lyon allowed the Léons de Cognac to “steal” two of their embroidered and stiffly starched cloth napkins 😎

Bonne nuit à tous et toutes ❣️