One of the major plazas in the downtown area is the Place des Terreaux anchored by The City Hall and Museum of Fine Arts. We spend quite a bit of time here either passing through or in the Museum of Fine Arts on our second day in Lyon. It is still quite hot so the water spouts are very popular with kids while we have to be careful not to be standing on one before an eruption, luckily we escape unscathed from our visit.
Besides the museum, where we spend a whole afternoon, the City Hall or Hotel de Ville is another major attraction of the plaza. And then we have the Bartholdi Fountain which seems to be the meeting place for the whole town. Bartholdi is famous from having built the Liberty Statue in New York so we are interested in seeing another one of his works in his native land.
After visiting the museum we eat dinner at one of the restaurants lining the plaza. While the specialty is pizza we also order a cheese platter as a bonus for our last dinner in beautiful Lyon.
From here we continue south through the center of the downtown area. The facades of the buildings here are beautiful and we keep our necks craned as we make our way through the neighborhood.
There are some nice views and many statues and small parks along the road we are following that lies between the two main rivers here, the Rhone and Saone, and runs parallel to them.
Next we stop at the Saint Nizier Church, a major church on our way and enter it for a short exploration of the cool and huge interior. Very welcome on a hot day of course but we are also curious as the church is on the Unesco World Heritage List with other historical sights in Lyon. The construction started in the 14th century and was only completed in the 19th century so the church contains a variety of architectural styles from neo-Gothic spires to the classical Renaissance facade.
After the church we continue on looking at the many full restaurants on the way where we tried to find a place yesterday. At least today we don’t have to find a place to eat dinner so it is more fun to look at the full tables and see quaint couples instead of enemies taking our rightful place.
Next is the Place des Jacobins, one of the major plazas in downtown Lyon with the beautiful Jacobin Fountain in the middle. The plaza was created in 1556 and the fountain was added in 1856 with the whole square belonging to the World Heritage Site.
Our turnaround point is the huge Place Bellecour, one of the biggest pedestrian squares in Europe. While it is supposed to be the main plaza of Lyon to us Place des Terreaux is much more beautiful even though it is smaller.
Now it is time to return to the hotel for our last night in Lyon. On the way we pass the magnificent Theatre de Lyon and then reach the Saone that we follow to the next pedestrian bridge.
This is a different pedestrian bridge than the one we took in the morning and it leads to the Justice Palace in Vieux Town from where we plan to walk towards the hotel to relax for the evening.
But first we enjoy the great views from the bridge of both the downtown area and Vieux Lyon, our last sunset here and then it is time to go pack and prepare for our next part of our adventure, a drive to Vichy.
