Lyon, France: Arrival Day

We had an early train to catch today for Lyon and the hotel was very accommodating to make sure that we received breakfast a full half hour before it was to begin serving. We took the hotel transportation to the airport and arrived at the train station just a few minutes before the train pulled in. We had plenty of time to find our car and seats before the train pulled away from the station. We took a taxi from the train station to our hotel, The Hotel Carlton Lyon. Our room was not ready but we just left our bags and went next door to lunch. Lunch was more expensive than we anticipated, but really good! Danny ate a gourmet cheeseburger and I had Veal Schnitzel and fries. After lunch we walked into the old part of town and toured through a couple of old churches. The first one we happened upon and was named Saint Nizier. The outside of the building was very cool, very large and very asymmetrical.  It was pretty inside as well. There is something about these churches and cathedrals that intrigues me. They are beautiful works of art. The next one we went to was a Roman Catholic Cathedral that is the seat of the Archbishop  in Lyon. Cathedral Saint Jean Baptiste was also quite large and beautiful. It contains a beautiful astronomical clock dating from 1661. We waited along with several other people to hear it chime but discovered that an Iranian man broke it in 2013 by hitting it with an iron bar. He was arrested and claimed that the splendor of the clock prevented him from concentrating on prayer!! After our disappointing wait on the clock, we went to find the Amorino that we had passed. I was the only one who got gelato this time. The girl who dipped it was extra generous considering I bought the tiniest come. We then went up the funiculaire to the church on the hill, La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. This church was unbelievable inside. It was beautiful with extensive mosaics, carvings, painting and stained glass. It surprised us that it was built with private funds. It is a newer church as it was completed by 1884. After admiring the interior of the church we went back down the hill and found some Traboules. These are hidden passageways that were used by the silk traders to transport silk in bad weather and also by the Resistance against the Germans in WW II. The doors literally look like just and old door that would lead to someone's home but it leads to a corridor. Many of them go through people's private property and all passageways are locked at 7:30 for people's privacy. We hope to find more of them tomorrow. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. We ate dinner at Fiston and had a memorable meal. Danny had wanted to try something unique to the area ordered Quenelles which is a dumpling made with diced Pike fish. It is so finely diced that you never get a bite of fish. It is served on a sauce and he said it was delicious! He also ate an appetizer of foie gras with fig chutney. I abstained from both of those, no surprise there. I had my usual piece of steak but this was served with traditional Lyonnaise potatoes. They are stack, thinly sliced potatoes baked between layers of cream (and probably butter too). They were delicious. For dessert I ordered half cooked chocolate cake which was basically a melting cake. Danny had the winner, tiramisu with red fruits. This kind of tiramisu does not have coffee in it. The red fruits gave a unique tart flavor that mixed well with the ladyfingers and sweet cream. We are back at the hotel and anticipating a fun day tomorrow. Until then....