The Lyon Beer Festival was held on April 27 and 28. We arrived in Lyon on April 30. Damn. Well, at least we made it here. We almost didn’t.
Less than 24 hours before our scheduled arrival, we received a cancellation notice from our Lyon Airbnb host, mentioning a water heater and plumbing problem. Neither the reason nor the apology mattered; suddenly we had no place to stay for the next month.
Our four main Airbnb criteria are: outside the city center; near a metro station; near grocery store(s); and, with air conditioning. This assumes a full kitchen, television, internet, and washing machine. Hopefully a comfortable couch. An elevator is preferred but not absolutely necessary. Within our budget, of course. Months ago, when this trip was planned, we had an extraordinarily difficult time finding a place meeting all these criteria in Lyon. But we did, in Villeurbanne.
We went back to the drawing board to find a place to stay. A first run through of possibilities in Lyon yielded nothing meeting most of our criteria, much less all. We even spent some time looking into Paris, Strasbourg, Basel, and Turin as other options for the month with no luck.
This is exactly why we book our trips several months in advance. It is near impossible to find a good month long stay at the last minute.
Left with no choice we started increasing our budget to see what we could find. Eventually we made a short list of five possibilities that met some of our criteria. Stephanie reached out to these property owners to confirm availability. The first host never responded. The second said the property was not available during part of the month. The third had a two month minimum.
Host number four responded favorably, and even agreed to a slight additional discount. Our total cost for the month nevertheless increased by 50%. Airbnb gave us a small rebooking refund and, upon Stephanie’s polite request, a credit valued at half of our increased costs to use against a future booking.
Now we are staying in Vieux Lyon (old town), right in the heart of tourist central, on the second floor (European first floor), two blocks from the Saône River near the Vieux Lyon Metro Station. A decent grocery store isn’t too far away (nor is it particularly close). Our major concern is a lack of air conditioning. As long as the weather stays cool, and we think it will, we should be fine for the month.
Neither of us is thrilled with this location. The city center is a great place to stay for vacation. But to live for a month? Not so much. Too many tourists. Too many beggars. Too noisy. Too few grocery stores. Too many overpriced, mediocre restaurants. We will see how it goes in Lyon.
Strangely we were both very calm throughout this whole process. When traveling you just have to learn to roll with it. If something like this happened a decade ago on a vacation we would have lost our minds.
After arriving at Lyon Part Dieu train station, our attention immediately turned to finding the metro station and buying metro tickets. Just like Lignes d’Azur in Nice, Lyon has separate apps for its public transportation system and ticketing, TCL and TCL E-Ticket, respectively. And the ticket app is only for Android phones, not iPhones. That ruled Stephanie out of buying electronic metro tickets.
I tried to create an account on TCL E-Ticket days in advance but could not get the confirmation text to come through. With that option foreclosed, it is back to paper metro tickets for both of us. A single TCL ticket (good for one hour on any metro, tram, bus, and/or funicular) costs €2 (plus €0.20 for the ticket itself if you don’t have one that can be recharged). We got a slight discount by buying 10 trip packs for €19.50 each.
One benefit of our new Airbnb location is that we will not be riding the metro nearly as much as we anticipated. We expect to save close to $100 in metro tickets.
Lousy weather followed us to Lyon from Grenoble. For our first week in Lyon the sky was overcast with light rain, with only few hours of decent weather each day. We had enough good spells to get to the grocery store and back, and take short walks along the Saône and Rhône Rivers.
The near perfect weather we had in Nice seems so long ago.
Our first beautiful weather day in Lyon coincided with a national holiday, Victory in Europe Day. Ordinarily we avoid activities on holidays as both tourists and locals are out and about, multiplying the crowds. But today we could not help it. We were ready for nice weather.
In early afternoon we walked a block to the Vieux Lyon Metro Station, purchased round-trip tickets for the funicular (€3.60), and headed up to Fourvière. This hillside neighborhood is home to two prominent landmarks in Lyon, Basilique Notre Dame and Tour Métallique. The first is a minor basilica constructed in the 18th century with a religious art museum and terraces overlooking the city. It is truly worth visiting. The second is a pint size Eiffel Tower look alike that is now a television tower and, in general, a blight on the landscape.
A quick word of caution. When we walked over to the funicular around 1:00 PM, there was no line. But on most days, and definitely on the weekends, there will be a long line for the funicular by mid-afternoon. Always expect a line and plan accordingly.
Basilique Notre Dame was fairly crowded when we arrived about 1:30 PM. In fact, because of its smaller size, Basilique Notre Dame felt even more crowded St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
The basilica is notable for having four main towers. A separate bell tower, topped by a very bright gold colored statue of the Virgin Mary, is found on the adjacent Chapelle de la Vierge. Entry to the cathedral and chapel is free.
For a more in-depth visit, you can choose to take one of the various tours options that are available. The tours come at a cost (generally €8 to €14 per person) and are conducted only in French. Tickets are purchased online in advance. Don’t be late as the tour will not wait for stragglers. (Hence the mention above of potential long lines for the funicular.)
We hoped to take the “unusual” tour at the basilica because it includes a trip to the rooftop – unless there is rain or inclement weather. With rain in the forecast almost every day during out stay in Lyon we eventually gave up on taking this tour. Our enthusiasm for it dramatically waned without a guaranteed trip to the rooftop. Thankfully the terrace adjacent to Basilique Notre Dame offers fantastic views of Lyon. You don’t have to get up on the roof for the views.
Fourvière is also the home of the Roman city of Lugdunum (founded 43 BC). Today Lugdunum is the name of the Roman museum, situated next to a Roman theater and odeon. Adult tickets to the museum are either €4 or €7, depending on whether there is a temporary exhibition set up.
Having previously sworn off Roman and Greek museums for a few years, we skipped the museum. The two outdoor theaters are open to the public and we did take a few minutes to walk through them. Yep, Roman theaters.
Moving on we made our way to Jardins des Curiosités, a small park featuring views of Lyon on par with those found at the cathedral terraces, but without the tourists. After a short stop in the park, we finished our time in Fourvière with a walk over to the Saint-Just Station where we caught a funicular back down to Vieux Lyon.
Garrett and Stephanie
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