The French call it Lyon, but the English call it Lyons

Without doubt the French because, Lyon is the third-largest French city, the first being Paris and the second Marseille, with this amazing city being our next stop on the Uniworld River Royale Burgundy and Provence river cruise, now on the River Saone – you have to try it!

Lyon is without doubt a busy, buzzing city and a major centre of business, situated at the meeting point fo the Rhone and Saone rivers, between Paris to the North and Marseille to the South.

You may have read the feature last week on bouchon and seen the TMTV video, but Lyon also has the reputation as France’s capital of gastronomy!   Now that’s an accolade!

Replete with history Lyon was first established when Lucius Munatius Plancus, [Pictured right] the founder of Lyon, set up a Roman colony in Lyon in 43 BC, on the site of a Gaulish hill-fort named Lugdunum meaning the “hill of lights” or “the hill of crows”.

Lyon’s position on the natural river highway from the north to south of France made it a natural communications hub and Lyon became the starting point of the principal Roman roads throughout Gaul.

Lyon then became the capital of Gaul, partly thanks to its convenient location at the convergence of two navigable rivers, and quickly became the main city of Gaul, with two emperors born in the city, Claudius and Caracalla and even today, the archbishop of Lyon is still referred to as “le primat des Gaules”.

Taking a big jump in time, the fairs in Lyon, the invention of Italian merchants, made it the economic counting house of France in the late 15th century and when international banking moved to Genoa, then Amsterdam, Lyon simply became the banking centre of France, with its new Bourse [treasury], built in 1749, resembling a public bazaar where accounts were settled in the open air.

During the Renaissance, the city developed with the silk trade, especially with Italy, with the Italian influence on Lyon’s architecture still visible.

Lyon was a scene of mass violence against Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacres in 1572 and during the French Revolution, Lyon uprose against the National Convention and supported the Girondins.

In 1793, the city was under siege during over two months, assaulted by the Revolutionary armies, before eventually surrendering, with more than 2,000 people executed and several buildings destroyed, especially around the Place Bellecour and a decade later, Napoleon himself ordered the reconstruction of all the buildings demolished during this period.

[Pictured: Lyon in the 18th Century]

Thanks to the silk trade, Lyon became an important industrial town during the 19th century, with the silk workers of Lyon, known as canuts, staging two major uprisings in 1831 and 1834, with the 1831 uprising seeing one of the first recorded uses of the black flag as an emblem of protest.

Lyon was a centre for the occupying German forces and also a stronghold of resistance during World War II, with the city now home to a resistance museum, with the famous traboules or secret passages, through the houses allowing the local people to escape Gestapo raids.

Lyon’s geography is dominated by the mighty Rhône and Saône rivers that converge to the south of the city center forming a peninsula or “Presqu’île”, two large hills, one to the west and one to the north of the historic city center and a large plain which sprawls eastward from the historic city center.

To the west is Fourvière, known as “the hill that prays”, the location for the highly decorated Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica, [Pictured right] which you can see on TravelMole TV, http://www.travelmole.tv/watch_vdo.php?sid=75&id=14564, several convents, the palace of the Archbishop, the Tour métallique, a highly visible TV tower, a replica of the last stage of the Eiffel Tower and a funicular from the city to the top of the hill.

To the north is the Croix-Rousse, “the hill that works”, traditionally home to many small silk workshops, an industry for which the city was renowned, with the original medieval city, Vieux Lyon built on the west bank of the Saône river at the foot of the Fourvière hill, west of the Presqu’île.  

This area, along with portions of the Presqu’ile and much of the Croix-Rousse are recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the peninsula, the Presqu’île between the rivers Rhône and Saône is the third largest public square in France, and one of the largest in Europe, Place Bellecour, which you can also see on TravelMole TV and is the largest clear square, that is without any patches of greenery, trees or any other kind of obstacles in Europe.

East of the Rhône from the Presqu’île is a large area of flat ground upon which sits much of modern Lyon and most of the city’s population. Situated in this area is the urban centre of Part-Dieu which clusters the former Crédit Lyonnais Tower, central France’s only skyscraper [Pictured left] also known as the pencil – because it looks like one, the Part-Dieu shopping centre, and Lyon’s main rail terminal, Lyon Part-Dieu.

North of this district is the relatively wealthy 6th arrondissement, which is home to the Parc de la Tête d’Or, one of Europe’s largest urban parks, the prestigious Lycée du Parc to the south of the park and amazingly Interpol’s headquarters!

Ah well…….Inspector Clouseau is calling!

A Report by the Mole on location in Europe