Weekend in Lyon
Hey!
So, I decided on Saturday to spontaneously go to Lyon for 2 nights/3 days.
I've never really travelled all by myself, so it was a neat experience.
I realize that the advantage to travelling alone is that you don't have to wait around for anyone else, and no one has to wait around for you - I was entirely free to do as I pleased and make my own schedule. The disadvantage of course was that I had no one to bounce jokes off of, and my memories can't be shared with anyone else.
So, what did I do in Lyon?
I arrived on Saturday night, checked into a hostel, and just walked around for an hour or so to get a feel for the surroundings.
The next day I walked around a lot, went to the Musée des Tissus and the special LEONARD (Lyonnaise fashion designer reknown for floral patterns and silkscreening) exhibit they had there. OH! and in the Musée de Décoration Intérieure the friendly (and I think rather bored) security guard/historian (?) told me a lot about this piano-type instrument called a clavecin made in 1716 by a dude from Lyon... and then he let me PLAY IT! It was sweet.
Ummm, I went to the Musée des Marionettes (but unfortunately missed the puppet show) and then walked around the old downtown, then up to this huge church... le Basilique des Fourvières I think it's called, aaaaaand then to the two Roman theatre ruins. At night I went out and had duck for dinner and quietly laughed at the terrible pair of French couples sitting next to me in the restaurant, who did nothing but interrupt each other, gossip about all their friends and tell each other stories about the times they've vomited.... right as their meals came. Heh heh heh
So that was Sunday.
On Monday a lot of stuff was closed since it was a holiday, and the weather was kinda rainy so I didn't get to walk around the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood as much as I wanted. I did, however, get a chance to see the exhibits in the Centre de l'Histoire de la Résistance et Déportation, located at where the Gestapo did a whole bunch of torturing during World War Two. Now it's the site of the Centre and the Institut d'études politiques of Lyon. The exhibit was pretty grim stuff, but informative and moving. They had lots of timelines about resistance movements in Lyon and in France, about the Deportation process and the "Final Solution". Some things that touched me in particular were the following:
The story of Marianne Hohn, a girl who joined the Resistance at age 16, was eventually captured and brutally tortured, but who wrote a poem while in captivity saying how they could use all their means of torturing her, but that she would not betray her cause today, but tomorrow. Such incredible strength.
Another was a book listing a bunch of statistics of who was deported when and where. All those names just listed. There were lists of those who were deported and those who were executed. Flipping through the pages I came across a tiny note that said "In memory of Jules Weill, from his wife, Germaine Weill and son (something) Weill".... and there was his name, Jules Weill, listed on that page.
Then there was another book about the designs in Auschwitz and other concentration/death camps. They had documents indicating how the intake and exhaust pipes would be laid out in the gas chambers, and pictures drawn by the prisoners who survived depicting their tasks of dragging bodies from the chambers.
Then there were videos and pictures of the emaciated bodies collapsed or being carried away...
They had a video of the trial of Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo at Lyon, but unfortunately I couldn't see it as I had to catch my train home.
There's an incredible amount of stuff to see in Lyon, and it's too bad I didn't have more time, but in truth I was pretty tired by the end.
And now, back in Aix...
So, I decided on Saturday to spontaneously go to Lyon for 2 nights/3 days.
I've never really travelled all by myself, so it was a neat experience.
I realize that the advantage to travelling alone is that you don't have to wait around for anyone else, and no one has to wait around for you - I was entirely free to do as I pleased and make my own schedule. The disadvantage of course was that I had no one to bounce jokes off of, and my memories can't be shared with anyone else.
So, what did I do in Lyon?
I arrived on Saturday night, checked into a hostel, and just walked around for an hour or so to get a feel for the surroundings.
The next day I walked around a lot, went to the Musée des Tissus and the special LEONARD (Lyonnaise fashion designer reknown for floral patterns and silkscreening) exhibit they had there. OH! and in the Musée de Décoration Intérieure the friendly (and I think rather bored) security guard/historian (?) told me a lot about this piano-type instrument called a clavecin made in 1716 by a dude from Lyon... and then he let me PLAY IT! It was sweet.
Ummm, I went to the Musée des Marionettes (but unfortunately missed the puppet show) and then walked around the old downtown, then up to this huge church... le Basilique des Fourvières I think it's called, aaaaaand then to the two Roman theatre ruins. At night I went out and had duck for dinner and quietly laughed at the terrible pair of French couples sitting next to me in the restaurant, who did nothing but interrupt each other, gossip about all their friends and tell each other stories about the times they've vomited.... right as their meals came. Heh heh heh
So that was Sunday.
On Monday a lot of stuff was closed since it was a holiday, and the weather was kinda rainy so I didn't get to walk around the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood as much as I wanted. I did, however, get a chance to see the exhibits in the Centre de l'Histoire de la Résistance et Déportation, located at where the Gestapo did a whole bunch of torturing during World War Two. Now it's the site of the Centre and the Institut d'études politiques of Lyon. The exhibit was pretty grim stuff, but informative and moving. They had lots of timelines about resistance movements in Lyon and in France, about the Deportation process and the "Final Solution". Some things that touched me in particular were the following:
The story of Marianne Hohn, a girl who joined the Resistance at age 16, was eventually captured and brutally tortured, but who wrote a poem while in captivity saying how they could use all their means of torturing her, but that she would not betray her cause today, but tomorrow. Such incredible strength.
Another was a book listing a bunch of statistics of who was deported when and where. All those names just listed. There were lists of those who were deported and those who were executed. Flipping through the pages I came across a tiny note that said "In memory of Jules Weill, from his wife, Germaine Weill and son (something) Weill".... and there was his name, Jules Weill, listed on that page.
Then there was another book about the designs in Auschwitz and other concentration/death camps. They had documents indicating how the intake and exhaust pipes would be laid out in the gas chambers, and pictures drawn by the prisoners who survived depicting their tasks of dragging bodies from the chambers.
Then there were videos and pictures of the emaciated bodies collapsed or being carried away...
They had a video of the trial of Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo at Lyon, but unfortunately I couldn't see it as I had to catch my train home.
There's an incredible amount of stuff to see in Lyon, and it's too bad I didn't have more time, but in truth I was pretty tired by the end.
And now, back in Aix...
posted by Emily at 12:57 p.m.
1 Comments:
Did you ever see rat race? With teh Klaus Barbie museum?
You should see if you can find the movie "Sophie Scholl" somewhere... it's German, but prob easier to find there than here. Pretty recent, about a Jewish girl during the war. Won a lot of film festival awards...
Anyways, off to Ottawa to get peppersprayed at the pro-life rally. roto wants me to get on the news.
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