I took a quick trip to Lyon in May because I hadn't seen it and train tickets were discounted. I had to get up early but it was a good trip and getting up early still gave me the full day ahead. I found another hotel right by the train station which was super convenient. It was the Hotel Athena Part-Dieu. The picture below (which is one of their promo pics) makes the hotel look much nicer than it is and the service was average, but being that close to the station is always nice!
First stop was to pick up my vélo'v ticket for the day! They have a pretty good website which allowed me to buy daily passes before I arrived. It worked like a champ! Above left is the rear tire of the first bike I used. Old number 10496. Their bikes are just like those in Paris except the baskets and the tire cover in the picture. Next I stopped at the tourism office and bought a OnlyLyon City Card. That was a pretty good deal since you can get in a bunch of places for free and ride public transportation. The public transportation turned out great since it takes you up a rather large hill in a tram so you can visit a nice church with a great view. And it was really handy when it was raining - which it did. Above right is in the dome of church which I surprisingly can't find on the web. I guess one can't take enough pics (of signs and the like).
Above left is the front of the church and on the right, looking up towards the alter. I'm glad I stopped here because there was one other person in the entire church. That's always a surreal deal. It is so quiet and feels like you're in an abandoned church. It helped me take that great shot of the dome because I was able to use a table. You can't really do that with a bunch of people around.
Next I rode on toward the Cathédrale Saint Jean Baptiste and the Musée Miniature et Cinéma.
As I crossed the bridge, Pont Bonaparte, I had to take a picture because it was such a nice day and the view really surprised me - simply because I had no idea about Lyon. Just right of the yellow building (or between the two yellow buildings) is the Cathédrale Saint Jean Baptiste (Wiki). And above the yellow building at the top of the hill is the Fourvière or La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. That's where the public transport was very nice to have.
As I crossed the bridge, there is a very nice street/area on Ave Adolphe Max. These are both shots of the La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. At the end of the Ave Adolphe Max, is a nice square and the Cathédrale Saint Jean Baptiste.
Two shots of the front of the cathedral.
This is an attempt at a panoramic of the nice arch work of the church. My pictures of the inside didn't turn out since the lighting wasn't good and I didn't have a tripod. Although I should have taken a pic of the giant screen inside. I was like a cinema church. There was construction so they made a big screen and played pictures of the services and the church. It was a pretty nice idea.
This pic (above left) is just to show that each pigeon had their own chair. Well organized church.
And on the right was on a crêpe stand just next to the church.
Just down the road was the Musée Miniature and Cinéma which had popular reviews and was free with the City Card! And I like models (if they're good) so I dropped by. The building was pretty cool and they had eight sections so in the end I took lots of pics.
This was a cool collection of face molds from eleven actors used for various reasons.
If you expand the picture, it's pretty easy to tell who is who.
This is the Lewis and Clark from Event Horizon (which I don't think I've seen). It was a well-done model and you can see how it would easily look real when filmed. Below left is the front of the ship which looks pretty cool. Especially with those light rods. Below right is another spaceship which I think was fro the same movie.
Above left is the Mach 5 from Speed Racer! Cool car. And on the right is a very nice model of DC's capitol building used in Independence Day. Horrible movie, but nice model.
Above left is a torn up city (forget the movie) and on the right is a fully automated head from a character in one of the Narnia movies.
A model from Top Gun and a different kind of flying machine from a movie I don't remember.
Above left is a Compsognathus used in Jurassic Park : The Lost World. It was used in the scene when Peter Stormare is attacked by hundreds of them. On the right is crow from a Harry Potter scene which needed hundreds of crows. I took it mainly because I like birds and crows are cool.
Above are just two of the dozens of miniature scenes.
I thought the room with beds was a little scary and almost too realistic.
Here are two life-size rooms used in the movie Perfume.
I took this picture of the moon from Le Voyage dans la Lune from a poster explaining how special effects have been used for quite a long time. I took the picture because that rocket in the moon is such a classic image and the movie is considered the first in the science fiction genre. Georges Méliès made in 1902.
Above left was s pretty cool alien and Arnold Schwarzenegger from one of the Terminator movies.
Above are two faces. One from a mummy movie and one of the
most realistic fake faces I think I've ever seen.
Above left is one of the many skeletons in a scene in one of the Pirate of the Caribbean movies.
On the right is a crazy piranha from Piranha 3D.
Above left is the animated head of the alien newborn from Alien : Resurrection. This was an incredibly detailed model and it was interesting when I saw the movie (after this visit). The full body is over eight feet long. Above right is some of the makeup used in Hellboy. They really do some amazing work with make up.
The mast from Vendetta and one of Batman's masks - in particular Batman Forever. Similar to Alien : Resurrection, but in reverse order, by chance I had seen Batman Forever (and this mask) just a few days before visiting Lyon.
This is a full-scale model from one of the Alien movies and the museum is in the process
of restoring its animation. I think they are quite proud to have this model.
Two more miniature rooms. I thought the room on the right would be a nice bedroom/bathroom.
A miniature bedroom (looks comfortable) and a cool sitting room.
A cool walkway and some sort of train yard.
This little building was a cool Japanese hut. The note read "The good old day's scenes in Japan" made by Ichiyoh HAGA. On the right is an abandoned opera house.
I thought this was a very nice room in an art gallery. I liked all the wood and the bench.
The cafeteria on the right was incredibly detailed. Looks very realistic.
This was a cool hallway and very Pink Floyd-ish.
The lighting makes such a big difference in these models.
A museum of natural history and an apartment from the 80s.
An abandoned prison and a crazy thing which was used to maintain a giant chandelier.
Next stop was to take the tram up to the Fourvière or La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. Other than having an impressive church, the view was fantastic.
Now the top picture is not so great, but I think the middle (above) and immediately above show what I was trying to show. Of all the churches I've seen, this is probably the most decorated and colorful one I've seen. It was quite impressive. The decorations wouldn't quit. They were everywhere and as you can see, it makes an impressive sight.
I thought the outside was equally impressive. The largest spire (on the right immediately above) really dominated the scene and it actually sat on a separate church which was connected to the main church. As it's a Catholic church the gold statue is Mary and the dot in the upper right picture is a street light. The upper left and pic immediately above are both panoramic shots.
This was a cool bronze model of downtown Lyon. The above right is kind of the perspective I had at the time of the pic. You can see the La Basilique Notre Dame just right of the number 8.
I chose to walk down the hill (vice taking the tram) and it was very nice because you can walk through the Parc des Hauteurs (wiki). It is very well maintained and has great foliage. Above left was one of many perfect irises and above right is looking up the hill at the church through the perfectly green trees. Just above is a cool plant and I thought it looked great against the french rooftops.
One of the staircases taking you out of the park takes you through a cool alley way (above left) and as I approached the town square, I took this picture (above right) of the tower of Lyon. It was raining and everything was so green, it was just a perfect day - the tower looked so great against the trees.
I was hungry so I used my map to find a street with several restaurants. I saw the Paulaner Brasserie and asked them if they had hefeweizen. They said they did so I sat down.Now I've said many times I haven't had bad food in France, but this place was definitely average. The weizen was great! The salad (below left) was okay but it was all iceberg lettuce. As it was a salade lyonnaise, it made me think Lyon had been hurting for food in the past. Below right is my main dish which looks great and the potatoes were great, but the sausage was less than average. But it was my fault and the lesson is to ready the menu carefully. It was full of tripe. Like I said, the potatoes were good!
The next day I visited the Parc aux Daims and Parc de la Tête d'Or (wiki) with the intent of visiting the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (the park took me right to it). Sadly the musée was closed for changing the collection but the park had some good surprises. Here are some pics...
The first thing I came across was the Jardin Botannique de Lyon. They had greenhouses and great plants around the exterior. Above left is a koi in one of the ponds inside a greenhouse. I always love it when there's stuff inside ponds (stuff being something beyond plants). It's so disappointing to see a body of water with nothing in it - unless it's a swimming pool. Above right was a cool cactus.
I was impressed with the cacti to say the least. Here are two more shots of cacti in bloom. It's pretty cool that cacti exist and can exist in their habitat, but it's even cooler that they bloom.
Two more shots of blooming cacti. You know who doesn't care about those needles? Bees. They still get right in there and get that pollen. Which is exactly what that cactus wants. And, yes, there was a bee in this greenhouse but I didn't catch him with the camera.
A couple shots of the greenhouses from the outside. These were nice buildings and the flowers around them were fantastic. Their contrast against the green grass and the grayish buildings was impressive.
After the botanical garden there is a zoo which had some cool animals. As I crossed the lake to get to the museum I passed a vélodrome. I hadn't seen a vélodrome before and to my surprise it was being used! This was cool to see since these bikes only have one gear, can't coast and don't have brakes.
This was another nice pond/sitting area. A good idea for a covered area. Maybe over a back patio.
Really liked how this bridge shot turned out - almost a perfect reflection.
On the right, a couple of mallards just enjoying the day.
This was the last thing I visited in the park. It's actually on a little island, Île du Souvenir, which you get to by walking through a tunnel under the lake. It is a monument honoring those lost in combat.
My last visit was to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (MBA-Lyon). This place was great and with the City Card entry was free and the audio guides were free! Of note, one thing I've learned visiting several museums is bring earphones! They will change your life with an audio guide. Just hang the guide around your neck, plug in the earphones and you don't have to hold it up to your ear. That matters after a couple hours! The MBA had free vestiaires (which was nice) and I actually went back to get my earphones.
I had to take a panoramic of this. It was is Le Jugement dernier. It is linden wood from around 1520. The detail and colors were incredible aside from the fact that it's 500 years old.
This was a cool, large, 3-panel work by Albert GLEIZES. At first glance you might miss it but it is La Crucifixion, Le Christ en gloire, La Transfiguration painted in 1943.
A very art deco sculpture above left by Michel ZADOUNAISKY in 1935; Tête de cheval in forged iron. On the right is Stańczyk pendant le bal à la cour de la reine Bona après la perte de Smoleńsk by Jan MATEJKO in 1862. I really liked how the joker shows his real emotion which is in complete contrast to the life of a joker.
Above left is Métaphysique by Robert POUYAUD in 1946. I liked the bold lines and colors and it's cool to see that in works from the 40s. On the right is Tête de femme "Méduse", Lumière et Ombre, 1923 by Alexej von JAWLENSKY. These bold lines and rather flat dimensions are typical of his portraits.
Here are a couple of cool bronze statues. On the left, Roger et Angélique also said Persée et Andromède, a bronze from 1879. I liked how the horse was actually suspended above the lower part of the statue. On the right was a nice sculpture which great facial details. Sadly, I didn't get the name or artist.
The museum faces the Place des Terreaux and this is Fontaine Bartholdi.
I liked how the horses had webbed hooves.
Above left was one of the first things I saw. It the plaster model for Gustave Geoffroy (an art critique) by Auguste RODIN in 1905. Since bronze sculptures can be repeated (i.e., you might never be looking at the original) it's cool to see a plaster version. "Often a plaster master will be made ... for further refinement. Such a plaster
is a means of preserving the artwork until a patron may be found to
finance a bronze casting, either from the original molds or from a new
mold made from the refined plaster positive" (wiki). On the right was a pretty awesome painting of some fish. It's on a plate which can be quite boring, but this was a nice, detailed painting. It was from the service aux trophées de poissons et de fruits, around 1770-1775. Well preserved for a 240+ year old dish.
I thought this marble sculpture was awesome by Antoine ÉTEX in 1832/1839. It is Caïn et sa race maudits de Dieu. The emotion and rustic hair of Cain really captured the feeling of the first murderer and his family.
This plaster sculpture was great to see as I had seen the marble version in the Petite Palais in Paris. It is Les premières funérailles (1883) by Louis-Ernest BARRIAS. I think this was a great idea for a sculpture.
Above left is a statue I had seen in Paris, and like many bronze statues it can still be considered original even though there are multiple casts. On the right is a Lion and Serpent (1832) in plaster by Antoine-Louis BARYE. This caught my attention as it is the same style as many lions along the Seine, particularly near Pont Alexandre III and the Louvre.
This is Picasso's Woman Seated on the Beach (1937). I don't think I had seen this Picasso and I appreciated the curves, softness and abstract qualities. And I liked how you could see her concentrating on her foot.
En fin, here are some other works I liked:
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, Pietà, 1842
Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis, ver 1659
Jusepe de RIBERA, Le Repentir de saint Pierre
Francis BACON, Étude pour une corrida, no 2, 1969
Lyon is a great town and I'm really glad I took the trip. If you get the chance, I definitely recommend a visit and would recommend the City Card (and of course the bicycles).
- mm -
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