Welcome in Lyon

The most typical method to discover Lyon, is “trabouler”, that is to borrow internal streets which allow to cross the city. The term “traboule” would come from “trans-ambulare”, through. In Lyon, we count approximately 500 “traboules”. They are mainly situated in the districts of “Vieux Lyon” and “Croix-Rousse”. These first date from the Renaissance, they were built according to the model of the Roman patio, with its galleries and the well in the courtyard. In “Croix-Rousse”, “traboules” are more recent because stemming from the construction of the buildings of the workers of the silk, the “canuts”. These ways their allowed in to transport sheets and other silk pieces through the city by staying under cover in case of precipitation. They also allow, since slopes, to gain quickly Peninsula in a straight line, thanks to shortcuts.

Many myths built up themselves around these places and symbolize the resistance today. First of all during the Revolt of the “Canuts”, in 1831, when the workers they claimed a guaranteed wage. And then during the Second World War, German getting lost easily in the labyrinths.

One of the most typical and my preferred is the courtyard of the “Voraces”, this making name references to a group of silk workers who were of very active revolutionary especially in 1848.

One of the most beautiful Lyon’s square, the Bellecour square, is the historic place of Lyon, it’s here where the guillotine was installed after the French Revolution, place of culture and sidewalk coffee in summer today.

In the East stand the City Hall realized by Simon Maupin in 1645 and refurbished by Jules Hardoin-Mansart in 1700 after a fire. It overhangs the peninsula with its belfry and instill with its elements covered with gold leaves.

In the south, here is the Musée des Beaux-arts, realized by François Royers de la Valfranière in 1659. We can look a beautiful facade uncluttered gathering columns of Doric and Corinthian styles.

In the center, a fountain of Bartholdi realized in 1891. What is strange with this one, it is a allegorical representation of the Garonne with its four tributaries throwing itself into the ocean… Ordered in a first by City Council of Bordeaux in 1857, the sculpture, become too expensively for Bordeaux, was acquired by the city of Lyon.

And the small final touch, was realized by Chritian Drecet and Daniel Buren, in 1994, with An orthogonal alternation of 69 water jets lined with 14 pillars, of light and marble, creating a harmony of colors grey, white and black as well as a lighting effect, changing according to the hour of the day. It becomes the summer fabulous one playground for the children

It is, so, a very homogeneous set, and it in spite of different buildings period and style, that the passer-by discovers and admires today.

With a size six hectares, the « Place Bellecour » is the biggest square of Lyon, the fourth biggest of France, it is also the biggest pedestrian square of Europe.

In the center of, there is a bronze statue of Louis XIV, realized by dating of Francois-Frédéric Lemot in 1825. More low, she is accompanied, in its feet, by two allegorical statues of the Saône and the Rhône created by the brothers Nicolas and Guillaume Costou in 1720.

Too little known, the statues of Petit Prince and Aantoine de Saint-Exupéry is situated in the extremity west of the Place Bellecour.

It is only with the works led under the Consulate of Bonaparte in 1800 that this place opens to miscellaneous activities: a flower market, A guardroom, two detached houses which are today The Rectangle (showroom) and the tourist information office. It is from there that a certain energy builds up itself.

Today it is the center of Lyon, the place of all the gatherings!