I now know that Lyon is not French for Lion, even though the Lyon Tourism Council has adopted a giant red lion as its logo. Is that just to confuse non-French speaking Americans?
Lyon is beautiful on a chilly, sunny Monday morning. The city bills itself as an island between the Rhone and Saone rivers. I really think it’s a peninsula, but I am reluctant to tell them.
To be there on the day The Artist won top honors at the Oscars is to be reminded of the tremendous pull of hometown loyalty and the regard in which the US is seen. Their version of CNN showed a non-stop loop of the Academy Award speeches by the various French victors and everyone was talking about what a great day it was to be French. “This has never happened before, five awards.” On this day they were all French, but usually they are Lyonnaise.
The inhabitants are fiercely loyal. When I mentioned that Lyon was the third largest city in France, showing off my Wikipedia knowledge, they snapped back that you can’t trust anyone from Marseille. “Marseille is only bigger because they include the suburbs.”
They are quick to characterize everything as either very American or very French. It’s an hour flight from London to Lyon. I could have taken the Eurostar train to Lille and then on to Lyon, a four-hour journey, but instead I flew. “America is a flying culture, not a train culture like us,” they told me.
Coffee in Lyon is espresso. If you ask for an Americano they point to the Starbucks down the street. If you ask for an Americano after telling them you are allergic to dairy, everything you say is discounted and you are met with a harrumph, in French.
The old part of town is filled with narrow streets with openings on two sides so you can move from street to street via the open doors. These are relics from the days when Lyon was known for its silk trade and they carried the long pieces of silk through the streets and had speedy access to indoors when the rains came.
The French revolution destroyed the industry when many were sent to the guillotine and most of the skilled labor fled.
Lyon, like much of Europe, is another town filled with religious artifacts, and non-religious people. Although the 8th of December is their festival of lights when everyone puts a candle in their window to thank the Virgin Mary for saving the city from a deadly plague in the Middle Ages, Churches have as much meaning as museums.
Lyon, like much of Europe, is another town filled with religious artifacts, and non-religious people. Although the 8th of December is their festival of lights when everyone puts a candle in their window to thank the Virgin Mary for saving the city from a deadly plague in the Middle Ages, Churches have as much meaning as museums.
On a lunch tour between meetings they proudly show off the churches and religious landmarks. When I ask about Church attendance, they ask, “Why go to Church?”
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