Francee: Lyon Fri 26/10

Lyon is built around the confluence of the Rhone and Saone Rivers. Bob opted for the   bike expedition through part of the Old Town and down to the  Confluence. The peninsular area between the rivers is the newest part of the city  with some very innovative arhitecture. I am hoping we may get down there again because he enjoyed it and the Natural History Museum sounds like a "must do".
I went on a walking tour of the area that was historically developed as the silk weaving area. In the height of the industry there were 30,000 weavers working in a cottage industry development. Today there are 10. To get there we were taken through some traboules which are covered passages.They were sometimes between streets and in other examples actually wound through the gardens and courtyards of houses. They had two purposes. To save space as they used less land than roads and this is an area compressed between the Saone and the steep hillside bounding the river. But they also allowed the safe transport of silk products in wet weather. They were well used by the Resistance during WW2. There used to be 300 but some have been destroyed in the opening up of the area with real roads and others that are on private land have been locked for the owners use only. The ones we traversed were in social housing blocks where traverse is a condition of occupancy.
We then visited one of the weavers and saw him at work. They do most of their work now as special orders for buildings which are being restored. Given the fine nature of silk it takes one week to weave 1 metre of 1 metre wide cloth. We saw work on a piece which involved the more complex process of creating a velvet finish. The price was commensrate with the work so I will have to be satisfied with my Asian silk scarves even though I lusted after the exquisite patterns. From there we visited a silk screen printing premises. Today all of this is achieved with the aid of computers but they still had hefty price tags. We then had a coffee in the old town and made our way back to the ship for lunch.
After our after lunch relax we had missed the bus to the top of the cliff to visit the Basilica because Bob was snoozing. When we set off we decided to see if we could walk up there. The distance was not great but the approximately 300 steps were daunting.  We took it in easy stages resting at each landing. Thereafter the lower gardens were sloping paths which was a more gentle climb. When we arrived at the top the view across the city was worth the effort but so was the Basillica itself. While admiring individual aspects of the building when looking at the fascade we couldn't help feeling that it was a bit overdone. Construction commenced next to the original chapel in 1872 as the fulfillment of a promise to St Mary because she saved the town a 3rd time. The first two occasions were when the town was spared from the plague in 1643, the second was typhoid in 1832 and the third was from war in 1870.  The interior of the church has some magnificent mosaics on the ceiling and walls instead of paintings all highlighted with gold.
Walking back to the ship was easy but we did have a rest before going to dinner. There was entertainment in the bar after dinner. A very talented African American singer Julie King had everyone bopping and singing along. And so to bed.