Dave's birthday weekend.

Friday 14th Sept Dave's birthday weekend started.

Meal at the Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant

We got to eat frogs' legs,,,,,, and they do taste like chicken, once you have got over them looking like frogs legs. With the frog leg shape and feet. Which Dave held up and walked them on the table...

Saturday we went for lunch at Francois's parents, which started at 12 and finished at 5 with cake and coffee. No wonder I have put on extra pounds, we got to play boule, which was scary especially because the balls are made of metal and your team member is standing where they want your ball to land, and my throwing is not great. One time I hit my dad on the head when I was skimming stones on the beach, and I don't think my aim has improved much. The rules seemed to change every turn and we had to rely on our partners to point at what to do next. Dave and I think there was a bit of cheating going on, but our team players couldn't speak English so you couldn't be sure, so we just had to use hand gestures between us. But it was god fun and Francoise's father and I won. Gabby (Francois mother) found out it was Dave's birthday and how lucky that turned out to be, as it had been Francois father and he had been 54, so she swapped the numbers around and stuck them in a cake. The day was finished off with tequila slammers, using lemon juice out of a squeezy bottle. It was a good day and they are a great family.

Vieux Lyon (old Lyon)

Because we didn't see the old and the most interesting part of Lyon, Aline took us as part of Dave's birthday treat to old Lyon on the Sunday.

Lyon (Lugdunum) was originally founded as a Roman city in 43 BC; it was strategically located on top Fourvière Hill, with views across the Rhône and Saône rivers. Much of the origin city has been paved over.

The hill in the middle of old Lyon is called Fourvière, and on top of it stands an impressive cathedral, gleaming white and with a golden virgin Mary. The Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière, it is the symbol of the city and the most visited attraction, but we didn't climb the steep hill to have a look. But from where we stood it looked amazing.

Then opposite is the Cathedral St Jean, which is ancient, we went inside and the doors are huge. It has a wall of stain glass windows that were reflecting the different colours onto the opposite wall, even Dave thought it was good if you liked churches. The front of the church was begun in 1175 and completed in 1476,

Guignol.

We stood outside the shop where the man carves puppet heads, the famous puppet of Lyon Guignol. The creator of Guignol was a 'dentist' or a tooth puller and to attract patients he started his puppet show.

Traboules,

Traboules are the passage ways that link the different sides of the streets, in the 4th century these passage ways let the people get from their homes to the river quickly. To be considered a true Lyonnais it required a lot of knowledge to know where all these passage ways where. These vast amounts of passage ways helped during the war II with the hiding and escape of the resistance. Most are hidden by doors and locked off, but some are free and open to the public.

So we got to go and look in several of them,

We passed lots of curry houses and you could tell Dave was having withdrawal symptoms having not had a shop curry since leaving England. We had a drink in the 'The Smoking Dog', English pub and then walked to the kebab house and had a fantastic Nan wrap with chicken.

Musee des Beaux Arts

The art museum is inside 17th century palace designed for the Royal Abbess of the Dames de Saint Pierre, and it numerous Picassos, Renoir and some rare Asian ceramics, we didn't go in to look at the art work but for Dave to use the toilet, but it did look like it could have been very interesting.

I got to see what I came for, the painted buildings,

The murals of Lyon t they were started in the 70's by a group of students who had been discussing that art should not be just for galleries and museums. We crossed over the river to probably the most famous of the painted walls. As we walked up to it, it just looked like any other building.

But as you go around the building you realise that something is different, the side and the back are painted windows, but just a quick glance and they look real. Standing at each of the windows are 31 famous people (dead/alive) of Lyon. It was fantastic, and I wish we had time to find the others. But, it says there are 150 murals in Lyon city. They don't stand out they have been created to fit in with the area that the building is standing in. well worth the visit.

could have done with a few days holiday to explore,