28/08/2022
The French language has grammatical genders. And it seems like it is quite the toss-up as to whether something happens to be male or female. Apart from the obvious things, of course. To make it worst for the poor kids at school, rivers in France are also not all the same gender. And so just about all you can do is to try and memorise it.
We are in Lyon. We arrived yesterday, taking the train from Mulhouse to Dijon, and then further to Lyon. And we arrived in a city that seemed to burst at the seams. It was Saturday, after all, and the city was claustrophobically busy. And because a train journey with suitcases can be tiring, we decided to just get a quick bite, and then get some good rest. We found a table (a challenge to start with), at one of the restaurants in a very busy street near the river. The food was exactly what you would expect from a city that claims to be the gastronomical city of the world.
Lyon is located at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. And for the record – the Rhône is a he, and the Saône is a she. And the life of the city mostly happens on the peninsula between the two rivers. And so, today, we decided to just take the hop-on-hop-off bus, and sit back and enjoy the views. And there are some exquisite views. From the eastern banks of the Saône, the views of the imposing 19th century Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière are just beautiful. But further south, at the confluence of the two rivers, the Musée des Confluences, (or the Pencil Sharpener, as the people of Lyon like to call it) is a very impressive modern building.
That’s just it with Lyon, for me. The city has a history of around 2000 years, with an amphitheater, the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière, built around 15 BC. And yet it has some of the most modern buildings I have seen. And it all seems to blend perfectly.
