Monday, September 7, Parc de la Tete d'Or

It is always so nice when visiting a new place to feel that the pressure is off; you have seen the main sights, but yet you have one more day to see things a little off the beaten path.  That was how we felt today in Lyon.  Our plan for today is to visit a large public park, one of the largest in all of Europe called Le Parc de la Tete d'Or.  It is northeast of the city center and can be reached by walking up along the east bank of the Rhone River.  The forecast for today is warm and perfectly clear, but as we set out it was quite brisk near the river -- not uncomfortably cold, but a fleece would have come in handy!  A word about the name of the park:  la tete d'or means Golden Head, so why is this park named that?  A legend states that a golden head of Jesus is buried somewhere here.  Do you believe this?  Me neither!  Anyway ... it is a lovely park!

We walked up from the river and are greeted with a grand entrance to the park: a gorgeous metal gate with a beautiful lake that one can see through it, as photographed below:

Inside that gate the lake is lovely and we headed to the right where there was a large meadow.  Today was a Monday, so there were not so many people, but I bet this would be packed on a weekend day.

Other features of the park include a zoo with African animals among others.  We did not explore the zoo extensively, but did happen upon a zebra scratching his back!

We also saw a rose garden, the palm house, the botanical garden (which was mostly a flower garden), and a deer park.  At lunch time, we found a restaurant, but passed (who wants fatty sausages for lunch), but then located a more casual place by the lake where we had tuna sandwiches (surrounded by aggressive pigeons and ducks -- ugh!)  But it was okay:  the ducks kept their distances (kind of), and the sandwiches were enormous.  We really liked our time here, and the weather was just perfect, even though it did feel quite autumnal.

Our next objective was to find the train station on this side of the Rhone River to retrieve our rental car (we are getting today so that we can have a relatively early start tomorrow).  We had a little trouble, but we got to the station and secured our car with very little trouble (even though we forgot our passports -- oops!).  We drove to the hotel with only one mistake and handed our car to the valet; that's enough driving for today, thank you.

With a little time to spare, and since it was such a gorgeous day, we elected to walk back to the Old Town to ride the funicular up to the Basilica and admire the view of Lyon from on high.  When we were here two days ago, the weather was overcast, so the view was not at its best.  Today, it was unbelievable.  However, it is said that on a clear day, one can see Mount Blanc in the Alps, but we did not see that, even though it was pretty clear.

After taking the funicular back down to the old town, we crossed the Bonaparte bridge over the Saone River, and stopped at our favorite watering hole (Diplomatico) for a glass of chablis.  There was a large party of loud British people there annoying us, but otherwise, a perfect late afternoon treat on a sunny day.  We returned to the hotel to change into long pants, then had dinner on the Rue Merciere at the Italian place where we had eaten before:  Lolo.  Rob had the same meal:  fusilli with eggplant, etc.. but I ordered something new, gnocci with arugula and ham.  We enjoyed them both -- however, since we chose to eat early tonight (at 7pm), we were the only diners in the restaurant.  Oh my, they like to eat late!

Final picture from Lyon:  a view of the elevator in out hotel in Lyon (Hotel Carlton), which has a lovely bench for sitting while you ride!