Day 17- Lyon- sunny and warm today so went for a walk to the old city, ( Vieux Lyon) crossing both the Rhone and Saone Rivers. We went to the cathedral St Jean which is in a lovely square and peered inside- buil in the 12th to 15th century so is medieval. Of course once they start excavating they discovered ruins back to Roman times. There were a few 'scattered' around behind the cathedral next to a children's playground- so different to home. Then caught the furnicular up to Fourviere which has a stunning basilica on it( it's on a hill). The basilica was built in the 1800's and it has the most amazing mosaics- both on the floor and walls. Like  much of Europe the basilica is apparently built over Roman ruins. I gather Julius Ceasar was here and set up a military base around 58 BC. Believe also there were medieval buildings here. Whatever there was, the current building is stunning inside. Gather however that there was some controversy about the general opulence of the building and a replica of the Eiffel Tower was built next to the church in the late 1800's which rises higher than the church- built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Sounds good to me.

Also went to the Roman ruins on Fourviere hill called Hadrians theatre. Amazing ruins of buildings and a theatre that you can basically just wander freely around for no charge. Always find it amazing thinking about the Romans walking in my footsteps. Wandered back down the hill to the old town again and walked around some of what they call Les traboules. These are covered and narrow passages used to go from one street to another which are part of the buildings structure. They are comprised of stair towers, galleries, arches etc and are gothic/renaissance in style. People live in these buildings but in an arrangement with the local government the main doors into the streets are left open to allow people to wander through these passages during the day. Quite amazing. People used to use these passages during the Frech Revolution and WW2 to escape and hide. The parts of the old city we saw are fascinating. Apparently the old part was nearly razed to the ground- it was largely abandoned when the plague struck in the 17th century and people fled to the periphery. It was restored by General de Gaulle or he started the process- otherwise it would largely be gone.