Day 16 - Lingering in Lyon

Corner Rue St. Jean, Place de la Baleine

Ever since arriving in this beautiful town, I've been stunned by how decidedly pretty everything is. From the streets, to the parks, to the girls. I've done a fair amount of exploring these past few days, discovering all the various corners of the centre of town.

For the Wikipedia enthused: Lyon is a town about 470km South-East of Paris, and is the capital of the region of Rhône-Alpes, with a population of a bit under 500,000. It's the second largest metropolitan area in France (after Paris) and is considered to be the culinary capital of France. Its butcheries are numerous and of notable quality, and the best ice-cream parlour is Chez Nardone, where you can enjoy all your favourite flavours, such as Violet and Nutchocoblanc, for an unsurprising price.

My favourite part of the town has definitely been the Vieux Lyon, the old quarter. Its narrow cobblestone streets are studded with the occasional ancient cathedral, as well as large squares with traditional french cafés and crêperies. I did a bit of busking in these streets, most notably under a lamp post beside the cathedral of St. Jean.

A close second would be Le Parc de la Tête d'Or (Park of the Golden Head), an enormous and beautiful park, with a large lake and plenty of green. Most underwhelming is their "zoological garden". 'Nuff said.

Parc de la Tête d'Or

It was in this park that I established myself today, beneath the shade of a large tree, beside a path leading to the park's tall golden gates. I played to an enthusiastic crowd of young children and parents, who stopped by to listen. Some stayed for a song others stayed for an hour. 

Un grand merci à ceux qui ont pris un CD :) Merci, et merci encore.

After having played my last song in the park, I stopped and sat briefly in silence, with a cool wind blowing on my face. It's difficult to describe the sensation that filled me at this point, to have had my music recognised and appreciated to such a degree by complete strangers, but also, just to fully comprehend the place in which I found myself sitting.

It was a great wave of serenity. It was as though life had led me up the mountain, up the long and tortorous path, only to show me the view. And I was surprised by how far I had come. I was surprised by the height of the mountain, by how far I could see into the distance.

I would be lying to say that I had achieved what I came here to do, but my path is but newly forged. I feel that today was an important milestone in this journey.

And so, as the motto of Lyon says, "Avant, avant": "Onward, onward".

Tim