Arles-Dijon River Cruise, Day 5: Vienne and Lyon

Vienne

The Bard of Long Island – no, not Walt Whitman, the other one, Billy Joel – wrote a wonderful song called “Vienna,” which includes the following lyrics:

“you know that when the truth is told, you can get what you want or you can just get old … when will you realize, Vienna waits for you”

While Mr. Joel undoubtedly meant the Vienna of wiener schnitzel and Mozart, folks in this part of France pronounce the name of our stop this morning, Vienne, almost like the more famous Austrian capital.  And Mr. Joel’s advice holds equally true, regardless of how one says the city’s name.

Before getting into the details of the tour, I need to commend AMA for once again finding a terrific local guide, Vincent, who’s originally from Arles, but I’m happy to say still has both his ears.   From the ship, Vincent led us along the waterfront walk, lined with lavender bushes, rosemary, and various other plants I don’t trust my phone to identify correctly, then across to the massive Cathédrale Saint Maurice (built starting in 1130).

At the Cathedral, Vincent pointed out that some statues were headless, and some were missing both their heads and their hands.  The former were victims of the French Revolution; the latter of the religious wars that devastated France in the second half of the 16^th century. 

Cutting off the hands, to 16th century zealots, prevented the statues from praying. I’m not sure what the oh-so-rational revolutionaries in 1789 believed cutting off a statue’s head accomplished, but they were quite fond of decapitation, so perhaps a stone head was a good as a live one.

Not far from the Cathedral, there’s a beautifully preserved Roman temple dedicated to Augustus Caesar and his wife, the Empress Livia.  On a visit to the temple with his buddy the Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson was so taken with the architecture that when he became president, he used it as inspiration for federal buildings, Monticello (his home), and the rotunda at the University of Virginia.

From the temple, we followed a steep, narrow road to the top of Mont Pipet (elev. 250 m), passing the Hotel Ville (city hall) and a cemetery.

There’s an observation area at the top offering expansive views of the city, the Cathedral, a Roman amphitheatre (now used for concerts at the Vienne Jazz Festival), and the ruins of a medieval castle (the Château de la Batie).

Just behind the observation area, a church, the Chapelle du Mont Pipet (1873), was built on a site where two shepherd boys – it seems like it’s usually young boys and girls who have religious visions, doesn’t it? – are said to have encountered the Virgin Mary.  

Heading back down the hill, we walked through the site of the old Roman Forum, whose remaining gate abuts a 14^th century half-timbered house.  If you stand across the street from the gate, you can see three eras of Vienne’s history (Roman, medieval, and in the background, modern (the Chapelle)) in one glance.

In addition to being a font of knowledge, Vincent has a wonderful sense of humor and an unlimited store of probably apocryphal stories, most relating to the origin of idioms such as “raining cats and dogs.” (Pointing to the half-timbered house, he said animals in medieval times were kept on the roof level of houses  whose roofs were made of straw, so in a heavy rain the animals would be flushed to a lower level.  I looked online and found variations of this explanation, as well as entirely different theories.  The point isn’t the truth of the anecdote, though; it’s the way he entertained us while telling it.)

The final stop on this morning’s tour was the Cloître Saint-André le-Bas, which dates to the 12^th century and was completely restored in 2010.  It’s a peaceful interior courtyard with rows of columns, fragments of ancient tombstones, and capitals topped with fanciful carvings.

So Vienne, indeed, waits for you.  If you’re nearby, it’s a great spot to cover 2000 years of history in a few hours, particularly with Vincent’s enlightening and entertaining commentary.  You can reach him by email at Vincent.laplaza@outlook.fr, and by phone at 07 81 51 56 02.

Lyon

Having started this post with a song reference for Vienne, I feel like symmetry demands a parallel reference for Lyon, but I’m having difficulties: something by Lyon Rimes? Lyon Womack?  Well, I’m not a huge country music fan.  Perhaps the Eagles’ “Lyon Eyes”? Toto’s “Hold the Lyon”? Lyon Russell comes close in terms of pronunciation, but   nothing really fits, sort of like my pants after a tasting tour this afternoon and one of the best meals I’ve had in ages at dinner.

I’m tempted to lead with dinner because it was so good, but I’ll take things chronologically instead. 

We docked in Lyon mid-afternoon, and I joined my friends on a tasting tour, a wise choice in some respects and an unfortunate one in others.  It’s wise because Lyon is known as a gastronomic heavyweight (word choice intentional), unfortunate because (1) the tour preceded a special dinner, and (2) I’m not a meat eater, and pork is to Lyonnaise cuisine as rhythm is to music.

Our tour took us across the Pont de l’Universite, through the Place Saint-Jean, past the Cathedral, to the city’s Renaissance district.  On a Sunday afternoon, the city teemed with shoppers, bike riders – there was some kind of bike festival – tourists, and locals out with their families and dogs.

The Renaissance district consists of narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with hotels, bars, shops, restaurants, and, stately, limestone-clad, centuries-old buildings. 

Our first stop, ironically, was at a sausage emporium on the Rue Juiverie – the street where Lyon’s Jewish population lived and worked way back when.  Fortunately for me, the array of meat products was accompanied by baguettes and a scrumptious, creamy cheese saturated with garlic, of which I had far too much. 

Next up: heavenly brioche at the Boulangerie au Palais, accompanied by several dozen pigeons crowding us in search of crumbs. 

Lyon seems like a wonderful city, but I saw very little of it.  I’d love to come back for a few days and do the place justice, but our schedule demanded a return to the ship – and that’s where the day’s enjoyment hit the stratosphere.

I ate tonight at the chef’s table, a separate dining area with a tasting menu. It was fabulous from the amuse-bouche to the dessert.  The courses in order: a mini potato souffle with beetroot and a goat cheese mousse, gravlax with black olive dust, coconut and lemongrass soup with shrimp tartare (velvety and outstanding), pan-fried walleye fillet with barley and spinach (amazing), luscious catfish (for me; others had Argentine beef), and then dessert, which the menu accurately characterized as “from heaven.” 

There was a cartoon when I was growing up called Quickdraw McGraw. The title character was a horse who, accompanied by his sidekick, Baba Looey and his dog, Snuffles, nabbed bad guys in the Old West.  Snuffles was an ace at his job, but to perform he had to be given a dog biscuit.  Per Wikipedia, “upon chomping on one, he would hug himself in ecstasy, jump into the air and float back down, sighing.”  That was me after having the dark chocolate mousse, at least figuratively. (I haven’t mastered aerial floating; jumping is difficult enough.)

In a serious blogging faux pas, I neglected to photograph any of the food, so you’ll have to take me at my word when I say it was beautifully presented in addition to being spectacular. And of course, it was accompanied by some exceptional wine.

Any meal is enhanced by good company, and I was fortunate to dine with five people from Saskatchewan who were terrific dinner companions.  Seeing beautiful sights and immersing myself in other cultures are highlights of traveling, but meeting interesting and fun people makes travel, and particularly solo travel, truly rewarding. Many thanks to my table mates for elevating the meal from extraordinary to memorable.

After all the food today, my blood sugar and cholesterol are looking forward to what’s supposed to be a long and challenging bike ride in Macon tomorrow morning.  See you soon!