France 2026 - Day 7 - Burrowing into Lyon

 My plan today is to dig into the history of Lyon as much as I can. I took advantage of my one-day pass for Lyon to use the metro and the tram to jump from one location to the other, and I even got to ride the funicular up the hill from Vieux Lyon to the top of the bluff to visit again the Roman museum and the two Roman forums.

 

Trying to remain historically chronologic I will mention first the Roman museum. When Julius Caesar conquered Gaulle, the area was divided into Belgian Gaulle to the north, Lyonnais Gaulle in the center, and Acquitaine Gaulle in the south. Lugdunum, on the east end of the Lyonnais Gaul became the most important hub of the whole of Gaulle because of its access to the Rhône. Lugdunum must have been very vast because they keep discovering Roman foundations all over the place, but most of it is covered by the modern city. Of note, emperor Claudius was born in Lugdunum (he followed Tiberius and Caligula).

 

The Roman museum is very cool, but the forums were a bit disappointing. Not because they were not magnificent in scale, but because they have been rehabilitated as concert venues, and the modernity of these installations clashes with the ancient architecture. Did I already mention that Lugdunum was founded in 43 BC? Claudius was emperor sometime around 45 AD).

 

The medieval Lyon was a small town at the foot of the bluff and probably inundated regularly by the Sôen, but enjoyed the luxury of a bridge over the Rhône and a bridge over the Sôen, so it was able to host first two and at the end four commercial fairs every year. Commercial fairs were the gate to prosperity of the medieval world, so Lyon grew to be a very prosperous town. In addition, the Rhône was the main venue for transporting wine (Beaujolais wine), olive oil, and fish meal down to Marseille, and Lyon had the distinction of being the place where bulk merchandise got divided into small barrels for direct trade.

The comment one hears here in Lyon is that the city has three rivers: the Rhône, the Sône, and the flow of Beaujolais wine. To celebrate the confluence of the two rivers the Rhône is represented as a young and powerful man, who shelters in his arms the delicate feminine form of the Sône.

Because the Vieux Lyon is long but not very deep, merchandise had to be brought to high ground in some efficient way, so the Lyonaise opened passages perpendicular to the long streets, called taboule. These passages, of which there must be at least a hundred, have regular doors so from the outside they look like the entrance to an apartment building, but if you know where they are you just open the door and walk in, getting to take a look at the rear portion of several apartment buildings. In fact, some of the apartments use the taboule as the regular way of reaching their homes.

I should mention here that Lyon was the place where the first book in French (La Légende Dorée by Jacobus de Voragine) was printed, following closely on the footsteps of Gutenberg in Germany.

Much later, in the 18th century, Lyon became the center of silk weaving, starting a long tradition of French carpets and tapestries. Unfortunately, that was one museum I didn't get to, so I cannot provide further details. On the same vein, I was not able to visit the home of Ampere because it is a few kilometers outside of Lyon, but I mention him here as one of the distinguished Lyonaise.

In the 1800's the Lumiere brothers (Louis and August) and their father, Antoine, became a prominent industrial family because of Louis' interest in optics, photography, and film. Their factory was the French equivalent of Eastman Kodak and produced cameras, films, and even medicines (August was a doctor). The big invention, however, was the movie camera, the strip film, and the projection of the film to create a movie! It was an exhilarating time for the visual arts.

The Resistance and Deportation Museum brought me to the bitter time of World War II. Lyon was within the area covered by the Vichy regime, which folded its hands to the pressure of Nazi Germany and became occupied territory. To its honor, Lyon became the birthplace of the Resistance, and there is a long list of names of the guérilla fighters who fought the Nazi advance by all means possible. The Nazis relocated many of the "undesirables" to concentration camps, and Lyon was one of the hubs for those deportations until, after the war, was able to welcome back the survivors of the Holocaust.

Finally we come to the modern age, which is celebrated in the Musée des Confluences, an ultramodern building at the confluence of the two rivers, where the ancient collection of curiosities accumulated over centuries has been arranged in parallel with the scientific history of the Earth, the evolution of life, and the rise of ancient and modern cultures. A very innovative way of putting together a museum.

And that is it. I am exhausted after a day of playing hard tourism and tomorrow will hop on a plane to land in Frankfurt and visit my dear friends Chrissy and Gustav, together with the remainder of the Kobberger family and related friends.

France 2026 - Day 6 - Tourism in Lyon

I woke up with the intention of being a good tourist, using as my support the Hop Off- Hop On tourist bus that drives in a loop from one point of interest to the next. Lyon is of course a very large city that grew from a starting point at the confluence of the large Rhône river and the smaller Saône. The rivers run parallel to each other for a couple of kilometers before joining, and the land in between is called Presqu'ile (meaning "almost island", although in reality is a skinny peninsula). This is where the chic district of the city is located, with all the big and famous fashion stores. The Saône is deflected to parallel the Rhône by a tall bluff, at the foot of which is located Vieux Lyon, which is only three streets deep parallel to the river.

The bluff was the bastion where the Roman city of Lugdunum was founded, as the most important province of the territory called Gaulle. There are two Roman forums, the little and the big one, but I was unable to visit them because even though the day was hot and clear there was an advisory for a storm (the storm did happen at night, and it was a particularly intense one), although I couldn't see a relation between an open archaeologic site and a storm.

Anyway, I walked to the plaza named Bellecour, in Presqu'ile, where I found an equestrian statue of Louis XIV and friendly Anna of the Tourist Bureau. In perfect English she ran me over all sorts of things to do, and I bought from her two days in the tourist bus, a day pass for all the museums (which I will use tomorrow), and precise instructions on how to get to the airport on Saturday morning. Lyon is the birthplace of the famous aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the airport is named after him. Sadly, in very French fashion the name has been curtailed and everyone refers to the airport as Saint-X.

I was planning to make first a tour of the whole city, but because of the heat I decided to stop at the Roman forum (a bust since it was closed due to "la meteo"), and from there walk to the top of the bluff to visit the Basilica de Notre Dame Fourviére, which in my opinion is the most beautiful church of Lyon. It is as large as the cathedral, but is beautifully decorated with colorful glass windows and magnificent religious scenes made with small squares of Venetian glass, not unlike the ones one sees in Orthodox churches. Besides, the view of Lyon from its balcony is truly magnificent (in turn, looking up from Vieux Lyon or Presqu'ile, it looks like an imposing white fortress).

Speaking of churches, in Vieux Lyon there are three churches, narrow as it is: the cathedral St. Jean (i.e., St. John), St. George, and St. Paul, so the irreverent Lyonnaises believe a new one should be built to complete the set ... St. Ringo.

A curiosity worth mentioning is the Mur Peint, a fabulous mural painted on the windowless side of a building, which show prominent sons and daughters of Lyon, leaning out of their balconies to chat with each other. The only ones I recognized were Antoine de Saint-Euxpéry, dressed like an aviator and talking to Le Petit Prince, and the Lumiere Brothers, inventors of the movie camera.

Another claim to fame of Lyon is being home to the tradition of Guiñol theater, which is used the world over to entertain and moralize children, but which also was loaded with political and social commentary.

The grand event of the afternoon was meeting my former foreign exchange student Marié Joguet. She appeared out of nowhere in my Hydrogeology class and year and a half ago, and bravely stuck to it to the end. She is finishing her studies as an agronomist, and is currently in Lyon completing the internship that is such an important part of higher education here in France. She actually comes from the foothills of the Alps, in Savoy, and her dream is to get a position back in her hometown, where she can be close to agriculture and nature. She is a delightful young woman and I was very glad we managed to converge and have dinner together.

On the way back home I knew I had to get out at the Garibaldi metro station, but when I got out and reached for my phone to have Google Maps take me to my residence I found out that my phone was completely out of battery, dead, dead, dead. I was a victim of our total reliance on the electronic memory, not remembering the name of the street I had to get to, nor even the general direction to see if I could recognize a landmark. With deep shame I had to stop at a gym and ask for help. The nice woman there had to look for an old style charging cable, and I had to wait there for ten minutes for the phone to charge enough to release the information I needed. Turns out I was only a couple of blocks away but I had been walking in the wrong direction! I hope this teaches me to be more careful about the battery level of my phone :(

France 2026 - Day 5 - Paris to Lyon in the TGV

Today is a workday for Géraldine, so with blurry eyes we got up early and prepared for the day. I am heading south to Lyon, to say hello to my friend Marie, and visit a city that I have not seen before. Actually, I was in Lyon 38 years ago, and remember getting trapped in its toll peripheral road because I couldn't find a place to pay with cash (I don't remember how I escaped, but it was the start of my hate relation with automated toll roads).

Géraldine accompanied me to the light rail station, and gave me very precise instructions on getting out at the station Gare de Lyon (a bit obvious, isn't it), two stations past her own station. It was also time to say au revoir to my dear friend, but I will see her in about ten days for our joint trip to Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, so it was not a sad au revoir.

The Gare de Lyon is an enormous train station but is reasonably well provided with signs and electronic boards, so I had little trouble getting to the TGV to Lyon (TGV stands for Train de Grande Vitesse), which on good stretches can reach speeds of 300 km/hr). The trip to Lyon was thus less than 2 pm, which I spent looking at the beautiful French countryside.

Things started to go wrong when I arrived in Lyon at the height of la canicule at noon. My unfriendly lodging had specified that I could only get access to the apartment at 4 pm, and no, I could not come in earlier to drop off my backpack. Grr! Doing touristy things in the heat, carrying a backpack, was out of the questions. Géraldine had suggested going to a movie theater, and indeed right in front of the station was a huge shopping center with a movie theater. But so was also a very large public library, which is a traditional way to escape the heat. I went there and was welcome with open arms, so I sat in a quiet corner with access to the internet, until it was time to walk to my apartment. They were supposed to send me an access code and entrance instructions before 4 pm but they hadn't, so I sent them a reminder message and got something back as I was getting to the correct address.

I needed to post a deposit of 300 euros using my credit card and a secure website they directed me to. I sensed trouble, because my American credit cards want to confirm the expense by sending a text message to my American phone number, which of course doesn't work abroad. So the first attempt ended hanging in hyperspace. I tried a second card, without success. Finally I tried my ATM, which didn't ask for authentication, but again sent the payment app into hyperspace. So I called and it was a management company where the lady only spoke French. I explained the problem and she couldn't help me. Maybe I could have someone else with French credit card do the deposit?

In frustration I decided to look for a nearby hotel (expensive) and I was almost there when I got an email saying that my deposit had gone through! So I walked back to the original address and found myself in an old building, without elevator, trudging old stairs to the fourth floor, where I found a hot and tiny apartment that brought me to the France of the post-war years, where people lived in very reduced quarters. It was probably a single-occupant apartment that someone inherited, fitted it with a double bed (barely leaving enough space for anything else, and then put it in Booking.com to make a bit of money from it. I was not very happy, but at least I have a place for tonight and a quick visit to the supermarket provided me with the necessaries for dinner.

I am sure tomorrow will be a better day.

France 2026 - Day 4 - Bastille Day and the France vs Spain match

As expected, we woke up late and had no interest on going to the Champs Elysées to watch the military parade. But Géraldine has an enormous TV so we were able to see President Macrón arrive, review the troops, and then sit for two hours seeing the many different sections of the French armed forces march in perfect timing past the VIP area, where one of the main guests was President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

My personal favorites were the representatives of the Foreign Legion, who moved at a much slower pace than the marching pace of the other units, and had axes and aprons as opposed to sabers or automatic weapons. They looked like a tough bunch. Besides the units of the regular army, navy, and air force, the Gendarmerie, the police, the fire fighters, and the diverse number of military academies had a good representation.

At that time the demonstration jets flew overhead, painting the sky on the colors of the French flag, which opened the parade of the jets, radar airplanes, strategic planes, and helicopters. In the meantime, the mechanized units got going and rumbled through Champs Elysées. The planes and mechanized units included other members of the European Union, so together they showed a significant defense force.

After hearing a rousing version of the Marseillese the parade finished at about noon, we had lunch, and then made plans to join Jean-Michel and his daughter Emma for a metro trip to Les Invalides, because in the past some of the tanks and helicopters had been in display there. Alas, this year cuts to the budget nixed that part of the celebration, so after moving like true Parisians through the Paris metro we arrived to the lively gay district, where we stopped to have a drink.

Once we were back at the home of Fabién and Jean-Michel we met Rasmus, Emma's pug, who was naturally enchanted to see people and in particular his favorite person, Géraldine. We had gathered there to see the match between France and Spain, and naturally we all hoped that France would win. But any gathering is a good excuse to eat, so our gracious hosts had prepared some delicious appetizers of cheese, salmon, Arab bread, and a large amount of pizza of every sort you can imagine. The French have embraced the American style of pizza and are not shy to pile several ingredients on one pizza (e.g., chorizo and onions, ham and gorgonzola cheese, or hashed roast beef and bell peppers - but I didn't see any pizza with pineapple, so they have not committed the ultimate sin). It was a great, amiable afternoon, marred only by the two goals scored by the Spanish team, whose defense Les Bleus were unable to crack. Quel dommage!

France 2026 - Day 3 - A look into French royal history at Vaux-Le-Vicomte

If you go to bed late you inevitably start the following day late and with considerable sluggishness. So we did start slow, closed the house to keep the heat out, and eventually had to go shopping for food. I love going shopping while I am abroad, and happily wander through the aisles looking at the wonderful choices one has for constructing a meal. Géraldine tells me that food inflation has not been as alarming at what we have had back home, and that even fuel costs have not increased as crazily as we have seen (probably because fuel cost is high in Europe to begin with).

The plan today is to take it easy during the heat of the day, and in the afternoon to go visit the Chateaux of Vaux-Le-Vicomte, 60 km away from us to the southeast. By now I have been in Paris several times, so this was my chance to see something new and to learn some more about French history during the long reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King. He was king of France from 1643 to 1715 (72 years!) and defines an age of absolutism, war, and expansion of the French colonial empire. I am sure one or two of the current world leaders have his biography by their bedside tables, because many of the geopolitical moves we have seen during the last two years seem designed after what Louis XIV did through his many executive orders, broken treaties, vindictiveness toward his political adversaries, tax protection for the nobility, and undertaking of many costly wars.

Vaux-Le-Vicomte plays a small but important role in this story, because it was the blueprint for the Palace of Versailles that Louis XIV built as the seat of his court. It was built by the Superintendent of Finances of the kingdom, Nicholas Fouquet, who made the great mistake of creating a residence fit for a king, and a magnificent garden second only to that of Versailles. Building such a place did not come cheap, so Fouquet probably took advantage of his position to divert public funds to his home project. Louis XIV came with his court, was lavishly entertained, and Fouquet even offered to gift the whole place to Louis, who refused arguing that it would be bad optics for him to accept such gift. A few weeks later Fouquet was detained, rapidly judged by a court assembled with considerable haste, and condemned to exile (which Louis promptly modified to life imprisonment). Quite a nice guy, the Sun King.

For our visit we met with two of Géraldine's friends, Jean-Michel and his wife Fabién. Jean-Michel went to university with Géraldine, so they have known each other for a long time. Both of them speak good English, so we were able to chat in Frenglish all along during the visit.

We started with a tour of the chateaux, which was both opulent and oppressive because all the windows were shuttered to keep out the heat. The furniture was heavy and of rococo style, and the beds were very short (we joked that both Lucas and Theo would have had their feet dangling at the end). One of Fouquet's friends was the fabulist and poet Jean del la Fontaine, who should have written for him a fable whose final lesson was not to trust the hungry wolf he had welcomed as his king in his home.

The gardens are a slightly smaller version of those in Versailles, which is no surprise because they were designed by the same landscape architect. We took a walk from one end to the other, which apparently represents a distance of 2 km each way, and I couldn't help but thinking that Cooper would have been a happy dog making this promenade. I wonder if Fouquet or any other of the nobles of France ever walked their dogs this way (my guess is no, but instead rode a horse or drove a carriage to a suitable place to have a pique-nique (French spelling). We took advantage of one of the restaurants now located inside the park to have our own pique-nique, surrounded by a dense cloud of non-stinging wasps.

We waited until 11 pm for the drone light display, which was to replace the traditional fireworks to open the festivities of July 14, the Day of the Bastille and national holiday of France. I believe the fireworks got nixed because of the high risk of forest fires (in fact, there is a forest fire in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 20 km from us). The drone light spectacle was interesting, in that nearly 200 drones were in the air (computer controlled I presume), and wove in an out making geometric shapes of different colors, clustering to form a big ring or the flag of France, and then "exploding" into what could be expected from regular fireworks. It was an impressive display of technology!

But of course we had to start for home at midnight, and it was not until 2 am that we got there, navigating through a maze of highways (Paris has the most complicated road network of any other city in the world). Bless Géraldine for being such a good driver, and for not falling asleep at the wheel! She may just be the perfect woman (smart, attractive, good driver) but she sure extends her waking hours way past mine!

France 2026 - Day 2 - Big birthday celebration in Orléans

We had a slow morning because Géraldine came back home late from her university reunion (not High School as I had initially thought). However, by 11:15 am we headed toward the birthday party, which was to take place in a bistro owned by one of the cousins in a small town near Orléans. It was a big affair because Aunt Dany was celebrating her 75th birthday, and her husband Uncle Michel was celebrating his 80th birthday. This is Géraldine's mom side of the family, and just by chance when Maya and I were in France, in 2015, we had attended the Father's Day celebration with the same large family! There were lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandchildren, and many of them remembered me from 11 years ago and welcomed me warmly. They also remembered Maya, to whom they send many greetings.

Turns out there were 50 guests, plus the celebrating couple, and the voices of so many people chatting and laughing loudly in French was a sort of impromptu concert about French life.

After a suitable coming together time, out came the punch and the hors d'oeuvres and it became pretty apparent that the AC of the bistro was going to have to work extra hard to keep the temperature comfortable. The main dining area had been fitted with three long rows of tables, cleverly decorated with grape leaves and photographs of the celebrating couple from the time they were babies, through adolescence, courtship, and many years of happy marriage.

We then sat down for the first course. Me and Marcel sat together because I can understand much of what he says. This astounded Lucas, who tells me his grandfather speaks very fast. Maybe it is because we are both older and share a lot of the same ideas and concerns. The first course was fruit, salad, and a seafood and cream dish. Very yummy. Then came the main course of roasted piglet (a specialty of the area) with a side of roasted finger potatoes and zucchinis. I had a piece of the head, with an ear attached, and enjoyed it very much. Needless to say, there was good wine and lots of cool water to keep the party in good spirits.

Then Dany and Michel distributed presents, but in a very interesting way. They had looked carefully at the list of guests (me included), and had gotten a present to suit everyone's peculiarities. They then attached a clue to every present to indicate to who it belonged, and wrapped it in newspaper so there was no outside indication of the intended person. The presents were then distributed among the 52 people present, and everyone had to guess from the clue to whom it had to be delivered. For example, Marcel likes to go to the dances organized by the city on weekends, and has the reputation of being a good dancer, so he got a couple of CD's of tangos and other ballroom dancing music. Géraldine got a graphic novel about Finance Secrets because she works as a Finance Adviser. I got a mat of Orléans and a jar of the local specialty of chocolate-covered berries, on the clue of "having recently debarked in the region as a visitor".  It was great fun and tested the knowledge the family had on each of its numerous members.

In very French fashion the next course was a big round of Brie cheese and another of the local firm cheese. I believe the idea is that a bit of cheese at the end helps with the digestion.

Then came the start of the birthday ceremony, with a game where Dany and Michel had to guess what the common denominator was between different people. For example, the lead of the game asked the crowd to look at clue number 5 (all grandparents), and stand up if it applied to you. Dany was really good at figuring things out, which gave the crowd an opportunity to rib Michel for letting Dany do all the work. Other clues included having a beard, or being over 50, or having been in Martinique, or being under 1.70 meters in height.

After much laughter came time for the cake, the blowing of the candles, and the singing of Happy Birthday, followed by photographs on the patio (it was hot!), and back to the inside to partake of cake and enjoy one last toast with champagne to the everlasting happiness of the celebrating couple. During the many hugs and kisses with which the family said goodbye, one of the aunts said to me “Goodbye Horacio. I will see you at the next family reunion.”

Altogether it was a 5-hour celebration, and after dropping Marcel off at his house in Orléans, we still had the drive to Paris, where we arrived around 9 pm, still with the sun shining and the heat shimmering off the streets. But what a good time we had!

France 2026 - Day 1 - From the cool of the Alps to the inferno of Paris

Last night in Champoluc we had a storm and the night was rather cool. I started down the mountain at 5:00 am, with the goal of reaching the Milano Linate airport by 7:30 am, to give me enough time to return the rental car and go through the boarding process. The trip was uneventful but I wasted some time finding the car rental return because of poor signaling. Checking in was a breeze, and I had to cool my heels in the waiting area for a good hour or so before it was time to board.

I landed in Paris CDG a little before noon and promptly found my way to the light rail RER. Géraldine had given me very clear instructions on taking the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, and from there transfer to the RER A to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, for a total travel time of about half an hour. In the way I met a nice couple of expats who made sure I made the right transfer, so pretty soon I was waving hello at my dear friend Géraldine. She had brought the car to pick me up, so I had a nice driving tour of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a city on the western outskirts of Paris (not to be confused with the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quartiers of central Paris). She recently bought a condo here, attracted by the attractive residential areas and the green spaces around the Laye river.

It was hot! Apparently, this is the third hear wave they have had this spring and summer, with temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius (about 100 degrees Farenheit), which doesn't sound as high as what we can get in the Central Valley, but is a killer in a place that isn't really used to air conditioning. The strategy is to keep the house closed with the thermal blinds, to keep the heat out at the expense of living a life of darkness.

This is going to be a busy weekend because tonight Géraldine needs to attend a High School reunion in Orleans (south of Paris), so we will spend the night at her Dad Marcel's house, and tomorrow Sunday there is a birthday party for her great aunt and great uncle, who are in their late 70's. Marcel is a gracious host, but my French is too hesitant for me to hold a good conversation. Fortunately, Lucas, Géraldine's youngest son (20 years old) is with us and he likes practicing his English with me.

Like a good grandfather Marcel loves to have Lucas around, and since he is young he has to do all sorts of high-tech jobs like trying to figure out why the remote control of the TV is not working. Rattle, rattle, rattle. Obviously, something was broken inside, so the diagnose was that it was dead. Then he had to order one online for him, and a small discussion erupted because Lucas had ordered it under his family name, Marchand, but Marcel wanted it delivered it at his home under his family name, Carminatti. It was really funny watching those two interact.

While Géraldine went off to her reunion, Marcel cooked for us guys a delicious spaghetti al ragú in industrial quantities. The old concern that you don't want your guests to go hungry! Afterward we watched the news, which are not very encouraging about the Iran or Ukraine wars, and with those gloomy thoughts I said goodnight and retired for the day.