Lyon, France (Day 2) - 1st Feb. 2008

Friday 1st Feb. 2008

This morning, Kavin and I walked up the hill for a close-up look
at the Notre Dame de Fourvière.

View of Notre Dame de Fourvière as one walks up the hill


Notre Dame de Fourvière


It was a long walk up the hill,
but the view from the top of the hill overlooking the town
of Lyon, bathed in the morning light was simply spectacular.

View of Vieux Lyon


By the Sacred Heart


The church itself was beautiful within, with the walls
and ceilings made up mostly of bluish-green mosaic.











A priest who could speak a bit of Mandarin came by to chat
with us. Apparently, there are quite a number of Chinese
students in the area. We had noticed the Chinese word
for love featured in a poster on the bulletin board of the
church.

We went down to the crypt later and it was interesting to see
the different ways that various cultures have chosen to
portray Mary. The various statues of Mary holding the child
Jesus took on different cultural references in their dress and make-up.

A lovely mosaic of one of the disciples


After this, we strolled down the hill to see the ruins of the Gallo-Roman
amphitheatre. Kavin was pretty happy to see the ruins and awed
at being able to see a part of the Roman civilization up close.



Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go to Italy on another occasion
to see the Colosseum. Kavin would love seeing that.

Following this, we took the Funiculaire train down the hill. The
trip was much shorter than we thought it’d be, so we sat on
another trip up and down the hill before feeling a little more
satisfied with the whole experience.





Then, we walked around the cobblestoned streets, taking in the
sights. There were many cute stores and mouth-watering pastries
displayed ever so enticingly in the windows of some stores.



There was also a museum featuring miniatures. On hindsight , I should
have gone in to take a look. Well, hopefully next time.





We were a little hungry by now, and so stopped by a shop
to have some food. Kavin had his beloved saucisson (sausage)
and I had a Roquefort crepe, thinking that I’d be adventurous
in trying the Roquefort cheese. Now I know I don’t like Roquefort
cheese. It was stinky and strong like blue cheese. Ewwww.



So after the meal, we walked around a bit more, and walked into
St. Jean the Baptist Cathedral Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon
where a really old, 14th century astronomical clock stood to the
left of the altar.





We also stepped into St. George’s church for a brief moment,
then we waited to get a lift from my friend Eugene Soh
who recently moved to Lyon from Singapore.

Eugene soon picked us up in his SUV. I can’t believe that it’s
been 20 odd years since we last met or spoke to each other.
We knew each other back when we were both singing in the same
children’s church choir at Holy Cross Church in Singapore.
Strange how time seems to move along so fast sometimes.

It was very gracious of Jasmin, Eugene’s wife to cook
dinner at their apartment for Kavin and I and we all had
a wonderful time, catching up, chatting and getting
to know their 4 year old daughter Stacey and their
newborn, Jeremy who was adorably cute and charming.



More pics from the day are here.