Friday 7 April – a particular funicular, a breathtaking basilica, a magical museum and a thespians’ theatre.

 Today is Good Friday, although you would never notice here in Lyons.  Good Friday is not really acknowledged in France; it is a normal weekday in terms of transport, attractions and businesses.  Which made Good Friday in Lyon Good For Us.

We spent the day in the old town (Vielle Lyon).  We walked to our nearest Metro Station and boarded the train for the old town (OK, so we went the wrong way first up, but we quickly realised, got off at the next station and reversed our direction). On arrival we boarded the funicular for the quick trip up and through the mountain, alighting directly outside the Basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière.  And what a sight that greeted us!  It is absolutely huge, perched on top of Fourvière hill, overlooking Lyon.  And in the courtyard stood a statue of Pope Paul John II, who John met when he (John) did the planning of the policing arrangements for the pope’s visit to Sydney in 1986.  Pope John Paul II has since been canonised, so John can legitimately claim that even if he is not a saint at least he has shaken hands with a saint.

When we entered the basilica it literally took our breath away.  It was constructed as recently as the late 19^th century by the architect Pierre Bossan, who incorporated neo-Byzantine styles in the design.  But it is a thoroughly modern building.  Light streams through the scores of beautiful stained-glassed windows that run down either side of the nave, in contrast to the semi-darkness that you expect in medieval or dark ages churches – before glass.  The main seven-metre high columns have been cut in one piece and lifted into place rather than comprising a multitude of “slices” that make up the column in earlier churches.  There are two three-metre-high statues of saints sitting on the capital of each column.  And there is colour everywhere, in the giant frescoes that adorn all the walls of the nave, in the vaulted ceilings and arches, and the glittering gold around the chancel.  Truly bedazzling.  We also visited the crypt and other, separate chapels, all equally opulent and colourful.

We then had a light lunch at the side of the basilica, with the Saône, the Rhône and all of Lyon spread out before us.

A short stroll took us to the Gallo-Roman Museum, which adjoins and overlooks the 25BCE Roman theatres (that’s not a typo; there are two of them).  We spent almost two hours in the museum, it is so engrossing.  It comprises a number of different levels, but they are not individual floors; you just gradually work your way down gently sloping floors in a spiral formation.  An architectural and engineering masterpiece.  An amazing collection of pillars, tablets (stone and bronze), statues, sarcophagi, weapons, pottery (large and small), coins, artefacts and mosaics – undoubtedly the best-preserved mosaics we have even seen (and we’ve seen plenty).  And it was all laid out with comprehensive descriptions, in French and English, and in many cases diagrams were included to provide better context for what we were looking at.  There were also a number of small cinemas where you could watch a very short animated reconstruction of the relevant topic – chariot races around the old hippodrome, or dramas or mime presented in the theatre.

We then exited the museum at the Roman theatres (officially known as the Lugdunum Theatres of Lyon, to acknowledge the original name of this area), one larger than the other, both with well- preserved semi-circular seating, although what would have been the buildings where the actors assembled and from which they emerged onto the semi-circular stage had, over time, been stripped back to its stone base, with just the remnants of a few columns.  The stage of the smaller theatre is interesting; it is constructed of marble and stone sourced from countries all around the Mediterranean, including Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia, making it unique among the multitude of extant Roman theatres across Europe and northern Africa.

We then wandered down, down and further down cobbled roads, noting an ancient retaining wall on the way, and back on the Metro (right direction this time) for the short journey home.  A mind-boggling day (and our minds don’t boggle easily!).