Mapping the path

PROVENCE TO PARIS

Vienne & Lyon

Our river-cruise itinerary takes us through two cities packed with history in one day, visiting Roman and medieval wonders in Vienne and exploring the streets of the old city in Lyon.

Vienne

The first Fall chill lingered over the Rhône at our port in Vienne. The early sun cast its gentle light across the river while more swans filed by with their broods.

But this would not be a gentle day of sightseeing. We had a serious — and possibly ill-advised — agenda facing us. After a morning walking tour of Vienne, we would eat lunch on the boat as it sailed to Lyon, where we would have just a few hours to see France’s third-largest city. We couldn’t possibly do it justice and would do it differently on our own, but c'est la vie.

Our tour of Vienne began on the main thoroughfare that circles the city before cutting through side streets for our first stop at St. Maurice Cathedral, the church that took 500 years to build.

Construction of St. Maurice Cathedral began around 1130, but there were prior churches at the site. Guy of Burgundy was crowned Pope Callixtus II there in 1119, and Burgundian King Boso of Provence (844-887) was buried in a sanctuary at the site.

What began as a Late Romanesque church in 1130 finished as a Gothic masterpiece in 1529, with ebullient window designs and intricate sculptural decorations. Pope Innocent IV consecrated the cathedral in 1251, and 60 years later it became the scene of a famous papal resolution that led to the end of the Knights Templar.

Pope Clement V convened the Council of Vienne in 1311 after knights belonging to Catholic military order had been rounded up by agents of King Philip IV of France and charged with heresy. Many were tortured into confessions and burned at the stake. Their real crime was asserting papal supremacy over royal interests. Philip’s forces had already beaten and imprisoned the previous pope, Boniface VIII, for taking a similar position. That led to the election of Clement and the beginning of the Avignon Papacy, greatly increasing Philip’s power and influence. In 1312, Clement struck the final blow on Philip’s behalf, and the clergy formally resolved to dissolve the Knights Templar.

The church is elevated to the street, making its massive and intricate façade all the more imposing and impressive. The interior soars with height along each aisle, with lovely examples of traditional and modern stained glass.

Vienne is equally well-known for its Roman monuments. We first encountered the Roman forum, established after Julius Caesar conquered the town in 47 BC. An impressive portico opens into an “archaeological garden” for buildings representing a major center in the Roman Empire, with an assembly room that could accommodate 800 magistrates. Also included in the complex was a large townhouse and a temple to Cybèle, the Mother of the Gods.

As we approached the archaeological garden, its portico came into view contrasted against a collage of history: medieval buildings in the foreground and, on a hill in the distance, the Pipet Belvedere. The viewpoint was a holy sanctuary in the Roman era and a fortress in medieval times. Today, it is adorned with a small chapel and brick tower dedicated to the Virgin Mary, both built in the 19th century. Directly below, a Roman amphitheater still hosts concerts in the summer.

We walked from there past City Hall and through quieter pedestrian streets, tempted by baked goods behind shop windows.

The tour stopped next at Vienne’s other major Roman monument, the Augustus and Livia Temple. Built at the beginning of the 1st century, the Corinthian temple honors Caesar Augustus, son of Julius Caesar, and his wife, Livia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it served as the parish church of Sainte-Marie-la-Vieille until the French Revolution, when it was renamed the Temple of Reason — a move ironically wrought with religious-level fervor.

The temple later became a commercial court for Vienne, then the city museum and library before being restored as a cultural monument.

We made our way back to the ship and ate lunch as the AmaCello sailed about 15 miles north to Lyon.

Lyon

Lyon is a city that will reward a few days of exploration. We gave it just a few hours. As our group bused from port to Vieux Lyon, the city’s old town center, I felt a strong sense of regret and even guilt for our afternoon drop-in. It felt crass and cheap, like we were gawking tourists parachuting into a city rich with cultural landmarks, unable to really take in the place and understand its many contexts.

We were given several tour options for our precious few hours in Lyon. I was sorely tempted to see Notre Dame de Fourvière, a massive yet beautiful minor basilica and UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the 19th century on a hill with a commanding view of the city. Instead, we chose a tasting tour that would traverse the streets of Vieux Lyon and give us a more general sense of Lyon’s historic center.

Lyon is situated at the junction of the Rhône and Saône rivers. From this point, the Saône continues due north, while the Rhône turns east toward its source in Lake Geneva. The city’s strategic location made it a natural settling point. The Gauls called the town Lugdon, which the Romans changed to Lugdunum when they arrived with refugees from their war against the Gallic Allobroges tribe to the east. The two most notable remnants of that era sit side by side on Fourvière Hill: a theater that seated 10,000, and a smaller Odéon that could accommodate up to 3,000 spectators.

We were well below all of that grandeur, moving through throngs of Sunday shoppers to our appointed tasting spots. We were led into an unassuming cafe and proceeded upstairs to a few tables adorned with plates of meats and cheeses, plus bread, dip, and chicharrones, accompanied by a local red.

After our snack, we stepped back out into the multitude before ducking into a dark passageway leading to a lovely interior courtyard. Amidst its medieval and more modern buildings, Vieux Lyon has a collection of Renaissance mansions with courtyards that have been faithfully maintained, respecting the important role they’ve played in the old city. These private-public spaces, called traboules, provided access to fresh-water wells and allowed for discrete movement through connected buildings in town. During World War II, members of the French Resistance took advantage of this network of corridors to move quickly from street to street and evade capture by the Nazis.

I can attest to their effectiveness personally. After tasting a fluffy loaf of praline brioche, Marianne and I paused to take a couple of photos, then realized our tour group had disappeared through one of the passageways. We opened the most likely door and looked around, ending up on the next street, with no tour in sight. We shrugged and continued on, finding plenty of shops with tasty treats on our own.

We spotted a café near the rendezvous point and rewarded ourselves with cocktails.

The bus back to our boat took a circuitous route past additional sites. We caught a glimpse of Saint-Nizier Church, completed in the late 16th century on the site of previous churches and temples dating to the Roman era.

We crossed the Saône and drove by Place Bellecour, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest public squares in Europe at 218 yards wide and 341 yards long. We rolled on to Place des Terreaux and its lead fountain sculpted in 1892 by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who designed the Statue of Liberty..

Back at port, we boarded the AmaCello and enjoyed a pretty pink sunset during the cocktail hour.

Our boat pulled away from the dock just after dinner, treating us to light shows reflecting on the serene Saône as we forged upstream toward Mâcon.

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