Escape to Lyon

I’ve escaped to Lyon, my second favourite city in France. In the old part of town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, or on one of the bridges of the snaking river Saone, I could be in a calmer, quieter version of Paris. At the same time, when viewed from an apartment on one of the surrounding hills, where I am at the moment, the Italian influence can be discerned in the pale pastel-coloured walls of some of the buildings, and the very idiosyncratic architecture of Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica perched on the Fourviere, the ‘hill that prays’. I am on the other hill, the Croix-Rousse, the ‘hill that works’, as many of the silk-workers, for which Lyon was world-famous, lived here. And indeed I am here to work, as I am giving a seminar tomorrow on the Australian press at Université Lyon 2.

Counting its suburbs, Lyon is the second largest city in France (although I’ve often heard people claim that Marseille is bigger!), and is a little smaller than my hometown of Melbourne. Lyon is the capital city of its department, Rhone, as well as of the region, Rhone-Alpes.

The Lumiere brothers, who invented cinema, lived here, and their house is now an excellent museum. One of my favourite things about Lyon is its famous mur peints, or painted walls, several with trompe l’oeil scenes.

We took the picture above at one of the walls a few months ago. See if you can work out which figures are me and my friends, and which are the painted people!