My French Side.....
My mother was French and I grew up on both sides of the Atlantic.
Here
are a few pictures from my last trip, November 2005.
It was hot and sunny
the whole time. Wonderful weather for walking about.
This
is the face of the apartment building. My apartment is on the 4th floor directly
in the middle of this picture.
In France, the ground floor is called the rez de chaussee, and the first floor is the first floor above the ground level
and so on.
This is the view from the left side of the balcony of the apartment (much foreshortened.)
This is the quai along the river Saone along which is my apartment.
Barges use the river as a
highway. This is one of the 2 passerelles (footbridges) across the river
Saone.
Lyon is much like Portland in that there are a LOT of bridges
across the river.
Lyon has 2 rivers; the Rhone and the Saone (and some
like to say the 3rd is the Beaujolais. Wine joke.)
This
is the story of the footbridge in the above picture.
The retreating
Germans had blown up all the other bridges across the river except this one
footbridge.
The 1st Division of the Free French drove their armored cars
across this thing, and a company
of parachutists also crossed to help liberate
Lyon in 1944. This little bridge sways when people cross it,
so you know
driving heavy armored vehicles was scary.
This is where my family's
business was for years. 2 Place de la Bourse, which is kind of like Wall
Street.
It is a very nice address and a fabulously pretty building with
courtyards inside.
This is my dream apartment! Can you imagine living here?
Here is my bank's
vault! I dragged stuff in and out via my old lady shopping cart.
I
was cleverly disguised as a bag lady, which is my dress of choice anyway.
The tiny yellowy car you see is
quite popular in large cities in Europe.
The streets are very narrow and
parking is at a premium. These little guys really are handy.
They
are called Smart Cars and are being imported to NYC already.
France (and other European
countries) are now celebrating Halloween.
It is a triumph of
marketing. It is mostly bakeries and candy stores which really push
it.
The children go to stores for candy, as well as their neighborhoods.
This window belongs to a wine store.
Lyon is the gastronomical
center of France. This is a fabulous restaurant where I am going to go
next time I go.
My cousin and I both discovered we had never been there
and wanted to. It is about 3 blocks from my apartment.
This
is the neatest thing ever!!! Lyon has now a fleet of bicycles which are
part of the public transportation system.
Your monthly bus pass allows you
to ride these city bikes. There are stations all over town.
People
really do use them. It has been a huge success. They have a website
too: http://www.velov/grandlyon/com/.
The city of Amsterdam (the most bicycling city in Europe) has
sent out people to study this arrangement.
I want to contact Tri Met and
see what they think. I did not use them, but maybe next time.
This is my cousin Helene's
fabulous apartment. She is in the orange sweater on the left.
She
gave a Halloween get together at her place. Helene has the coolest kitchen
of anyone I know in France.
The man on the sofa is her brother Marc and
the man standing up is my uncle George, their father.
The woman on the
left is my Uncle George's wife and their daughter is on the right.
I found a costume place and decided that I would be a Moroccan man. Hee hee!
There was a huge equine
competition while I was there.
There was a free show in a large square to
drum up excitement for the show.
This is the Portuguese royal mounted
fanfare (band.)