We chose Lyon to spend a few days on our way to our house sitting assignment because we had not been here before and it was ‘on our way’. And, I must be honest and say neither of us knew anything about these two things before we considered a visit to Lyon.

We arrived just as a massive cold snap hit France and the temperatures fell below zero. This morning the city was covered in low fog.

I took this photo about midday as the sun was trying to shine. I like it because it shows the contrast of the old and the new Lyon.

Anyway, back to canuts and traboules.

Canut was the name given to a silk worker from Lyon. These canuts were primarily found in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood of Lyon, which was very near to where we are staying. So, we decided to walk there in order to visit La Maison des Canuts. Mick decided to take us on a little detour so we could set our eyes on the Rhône River, which sounded good to both of us (to start with).

But, then we spotted our way back up from the river (which by the way we could not get too close to because of busy roads) and wondered if it had been worth it.

Those steps were killers.

Once we were up quite a few of them, we did get a glimpse of the Rhône.

At the very top, it was only a few hundred metres to the Maison des Canuts – a building housing the history and a display of the silk industry in Lyon.

There was no English guided tour today, but we were able to develop an understanding of the significance of the silk industry to Lyon with the help of some English handouts. One thing I found fascinating (perhaps obvious) was that Jacquard fabric was named after the French man, (Joseph Marie Charles Jacquard) who invented the loom to make that type of fabric.

Following the visit we set off in search of the nearby traboules.

Mick is standing outside one here. There is a marker to the left of his face that indicated we were in the right spot. (That, and the fact we were following a paid-for-guided tour which is just out of view!).

Traboules are types of passageways, famously associated with Lyon. These were used originally by silk manufacturers and other merchants to transport their goods.

There are many of these in this area and also where we were yesterday in Vieux Lyon.

This is what we saw when we walked though that door.

And there was more. We just kept following those signs I mentioned  in the previous photo (and the guided tour). I read that it is thought that one reason why the Germans never fully occupied Lyon in WII was because of the traboules.

Later in the afternoon Mick wanted to see the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. So we purchased a one hour transport ticket and caught the metro and a tram to arrive at an amazing place.

The Rhöne River is on the left here. Those of you who know Mick can tell how cold it must have been today as he is usually dressed in shorts and an Hawaiian shirt.

The very modern tram we caught to get here is featured crossing a very modern bridge, with a fairly ancient house boat in the foreground.

What was behind this view, was the Musée de Confluence. A spectacular building that rivals the Sydney Opera House. We actually walked underneath it and entered the building through a back door. We did giggle as we headed towards the front door because there was a massive line-up of visitors being screened by security guards and scanning machines. Oops!! I think the back door had accidentally been left unlocked.

We walked past the Lyon Opera House many times while we were here on our way to our closest metro station. It is another landmark of the city.

Tomorrow we must be up very early to catch a bus to Perpignan. It departs at 7.30am and will take about 7 hours. Sounds pretty terrible, but we usually enjoy these trips. Let’s hope that is the case tomorrow.

Although we only had a relatively short stay in Lyon, we did get to see many of the city’s major attractions. And, who knows, we may be back again later as we have another house sit booked for April that is quite nearby.