LYON

Few cities in the world display overlays of so many periods in history as Lyon.  In 43 B.C. a military colony called Lugdunum was founded there by the Romans whose civilization remnants  from more than ten centuries are constantly being revealed as the modern city digs up sites for new buildings. The confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers is described in legend and art as a marriage with the Rhone being male and the Saone female. The equestrian statue of Louis the Fourteenth in Lyon’s central urban park is flanked on the Rhone side by a bronze male sculpture and on the Saone by a bronze female sculpture.  Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere, the dominant visual element on the hill above the city, wasn’t built until three quarters of the way though the 19th Century. It sits up there just above a scattering of ruins from the Roman period. 

Modern Lyon presents itself as an international city with a conscience.  Today in the central park Handicap International held a fair to raise money for victims who have been injured by stepping on land mines. Lyon citizens created a great pile of shoes that will be given to war victims in poor countries.  Performers on the stage made their announcements in French but sang all their songs in English.

The people of Lyon are convinced that their city, not Paris, is the gastronomic capital of France.  The Market “Paul Bocuse” makes the point emphatically.  

In San Diego brides go to Balboa Park with a photographer in tow to make pictures for the wedding book.  In Lyon they go to the old town.