September 15 – Leaving the Cruise ship and walking through Lyon

Today is the end of our cruise.  We chose to get off the ship late today (they let us stay until 11:00) because we can’t check in to our hotel until late.  The taxi was right on time and took us directly to our hotel.  The hotel is just a block from the Rhone’s right bank.   

When we got to the hotel there were three other couples from the boat hanging out in the hotel’s bar, just off the lobby.  Had a nice chat and then we headed out to find some lunch.  We ate at a sidewalk café on a square just a couple of blocks from the hotel.

Then it was off to do some touring of town on our own.  We quickly found one of the
Triomp l'œil.  Trompe-l'œil is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface.  One thing we have noticed is the large trompe l’oeil on a nearby building.  We have heard there is a lot of street art in Lyon so we will need to be on the lookout for it. 

Paul wanted more photos of the buildings on the Rhone with the morning light.  The hope was that the light would be better in the morning.

Then we headed across the river to old Lyon and spent some time wandering the narrow streets...  

lots of shops

interesting buildings,

and cafes.  

We had lunch at an Indian restaurant (one of our favorite cuisines)...

on a tree shaded plaza.  Nice ambiance. 

We walked by the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist but it was closed.

We eventually found one of the Traboules…passageways that lead from one street to another.  So we walked through this one.

It put us back on another street right by the Amorino’s ice cream shop.  We had seen it earlier and decided to not get ice cream.  However, since the traboule had put is right back by the shop we decided the travel gods were sending us a message so we had some ice cream. 

One of the other things we saw was a lovely, very large clock.  It chimed on the 3/4 hour with some activity by the characters on the clock to ring the bells.  Also know as the Charvet clock, after Louis Charvet, who made the clock in 1864.

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Video of Guignols Clock

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