Lyon, France: A day of discovery

Today we ate breakfast here at the hotel around 8:30. We set out walking in a different direction and found ourselves in the "art district" quite by accident. This was really fun for me because I enjoy looking for street art. I saw one that I recognize from Paris, Space Invader. He does tile mosaics that he applies high on walls. While looking for graffiti, I stepped off of the short curb, twisted my ankle and fell onto my knee. I wasn't injured other than a torn pair of blue jeans and a scraped and bloody knee. I picked myself up, got a big hug from Danny and we went on our way. I will pay more attention to what my feet are doing now! We saw the Hotel de Ville which is their City Hall. We went to the Voisin chocolate shop which is the oldest in Lyon. We think it rivals if not tops Maison du Chocolat! We found another Traboule and climbed stairs to a park named Croix Mousse. We heard a group of little children singing Old McDonald in French. It was adorable! Just like Montmartre in Paris, this area had lots and lots of stairs!! We then wandered and found a very interesting, abandoned church named Eglise Bon Pasteur. It was interesting because it was never used! The front door was 10 feet above the street! There was supposed to be a stairway built to it but it would have involved demolishing the military barracks across the street and the Lyon people would not have that! You would think they would have figured that out before they built the thing! The art school is now in those barracks and the beautiful stone church is completely abandoned. It was completed in the late 1800's. From there we went down more steps and looked out over the ruins  of a Roman Amphitheater said to be the first to use wild animals to martyr Christians. We were quite hungry with all of our walking and settled on pizza for lunch. We sampled some of our chocolates for dessert and determined that they were delicious and that we needed more. We walked back to Voisin and bought chocolates for gifts and ourselves! We then went on a walk across the Rhone River to another part of Lyon to find the Chocolatier, Berthillon. He is a bean to bar chocolatier and I am a fan of his large tablets of chocolate. After visiting his shop, we walked back over the river a different way to go back to the hotel for a rest and to drop off our chocolate so it wouldn't melt! On the way we found a beautiful old church, Eglise Saint Bonaventure. The interior was dark which made the light coming through the stained glass all the more beautiful. We were very impressed with the wall of stone carvings in the chapel for Mary and also the Chapel for Jesus. The organ was behind the altar instead of over the front entrance. It was just beautiful and we are so glad we stopped in. After taking a good rest at the hotel, we walked a different direction to find a sculpture I had read about. We also stopped at Starbucks! We go to Starbucks because we are pretty certain that if we order decaf we will receive that. In French coffee shops there is no decaf so we can't go there, as much as we would like to. We found Place Antonin Placet which is where a Belltower stands that is the only remaining part of the Charity Hospital that was once there. This was also where there is a sculpture of a giant bunch of flowers, and I am serious about giant! This sculpture is created by a Korean artist, Jeong-Hwa-Choi and is named appropriately, The Flower Tree. We wandered our way back to the hotel, always choosing different streets simply out of curiosity. For dinner we went to Le Maison Marie. The owner met us, seated us, discussed the all in French menu with us and served us! She was delightful. Danny had an appetizer of peppers and zucchini purée. He had pork belly for his meal but didn't expect as much fat on his pieces. It was supposed to be slow cooked, but I would have liked it cooked longer. I had a chicken breast with chorizo stuffed under the skin. It was delicious! For dessert we both had the chocolate mousse which was served over a thin praline cookie. The dessert was dark and yummy! We are back at the hotel, packing and preparing for a very early morning. We will catch the 7:00 train for Bordeaux tomorrow as the wedding weekend is about to begin! Until tomorrow...,