We Googled the top 10 things to do in Lyon and picked which ones were close to us and then set off. First stop was the church at the top of the hill, Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. There are three things to like about this church. First it is a fabulous old church built in 1872 -1884 (which is not

Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere

very old by French church standards). Secondly, it is accessed by a funicular which is quite good fun for the kids and lessens the whinging. Thirdly, there are magnificent views of Lyon to be had from the top. The whinging started as soon as they realised that we were dragging them into another church, but stopped for a while we took on the views. Lyon is the most beautiful French city we have visited. It seems to be quite prosperous and is clean, full of history and is at the junction of two rivers.

View from Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere

After the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere we wandered down hill towards another of the top 10 things to do in Lyon, the theaters Romains de Fourviere. These are remnants from the era of dominance of the Roman Empire, the ruins of these two amphitheaters are over 2,000 years old. We had also hoped to go to an adjoining Roman museum but since it was Monday it was closed. It is amazing wandering around the ruins and realizing that they are two thousand years old.

Roman ruins in Lyon

Next we caught we caught the funicular down to the bottom of the hill and looked at our list of things to do and the closest things was a Museum of Miniatures. This museum was quite interesting. It was a combination of ole movie props and sets as well as a comprehensive set of miniatures of building and the inside of buildings that had been created for film clips. The details of some of the recreations were amazing someone with extraordinary patience and an eye for detail had put these together. Not only was the museum fascinating, the building It was in was also fascinating because it must have been 300 years old and was part of a square of old buildings.

Film set from the house of minitures

The interesting thing about the top 10 things to do in Lyon is that the strong number one was a park. I have been to a lot of parks but I would not recommend them as tourist attractions so this had to be something special. We decided to hire bikes to ride to the park. Chris and Sophie on one bike and Di and Matthew on their own bikes. Sophie is a natural daredevil and loved standing on the frame of Chris’ bike as he hurtled down busy city streets with no helmet on. Matthew struggled with the bike because he has not done much cycling and found the bike to heavy. So Matthew decided to jog along with Di who cycled. Sophie had declared that she needed to go to the toilet so Chris and Sophie headed off towards the park and hopefully a toilet.

Chris and Sophie and their bike

Chris and Sophie found the park and found the toilets and then headed back to wait for Matthew and Di who eventually arrived. We tried to pursued Matthew to try to ride a bike again and hired on for him, but he fell over and decided not to try again. So Matthew sat and played his iPod touch while Chris, Di and Sophie rode around the park. The park included a lake and a free zoo. It was flat so it was good fun to cycle around. We cycled for about 30 mins only as it was getting late. It was now about 7:30pm so time to get some dinner and go back to the motel for some sleep. We were planning to catch a taxi back to our motel but since none arrived to started walking. After about 5 mins of walking (with Sophie on Chris’ back) we came across a metro station and decided to catch the train back instead. Three stops late we emerged at Bellecour Place next to our Pizza restaurant from the previous night. We had a pizza for dinner walked back to our motel and went to bed after a long day.

Statue in Bellecour Place