"Lion King" or "Lyon King"

Paris, Paris, Paris.... When someone asks me where I come from, (in fact nobody asks me because with my accent everbody knows,) as an echo to my answer I hear a syrupy voice say...."Aaaaaaaahhhhhh Paris" and the person lets out a sigh... Perhaps "Paris" is orgasmic, who knows ? But you must know this, in Paris the streets are covered in dog droppings, the Parisians are rude, it's always rainy and cold, the sun is "persona non grata", and the Parisian soccer team is really crappy...

Ok I confess it's not true (except for the soccer team), but the non-french person must know one thing : Paris is not the only beautiful city in France.

I love Manosque and its mountains, Carcassone and its ''cassoulet'', Caen and its cheeses, St. Raphel and its Mediterranean sea, La Bourboule and its thermal hot springs, the Alps and its ski resorts, Paris and its.... its nothing! As a rule, I don't like Paris... But above all, I love Lyon.

Lyon is an amazing city : gastronomic capital of France, in the middle ages it was the crossroads for the merchants of Italy and Spain, it was a center of silk making... It's the city of Auguste and Louis Lumière, the inventors of photography and the cinema, Paul Bocuse the most famous chef in all the world, the Olympique Lyonnais the best soccer team in the world (ok perhaps I exaggerate a little, but this team has won the national league 7 time in a row), and many other things. The blog is too short to do justice to this city.

If the child of King François the first had not been assassinated in Lyon, the history could have been different and Lyon could be the capital of France today.

In Lyon you can see the evolution of the city. If you stand at the Fourviere Cathedral, the panorama of Lyon is before you. You can see the architecture of the city unfurl in a front of your eyes ; Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th century and now.

When I lived in Lyon, one on my friends, who is very knowledgeable about her city and its history, was my own personal tour guide. She showed me many "traboules", these are old corridors in a building between two streets. The silk makers used these corridors to cross the town quickly and to protect themselves and the silk from the rain. I must confess, sometime it' s a little scary. It's very easy to imagine a cut throat or a pickpocket hiding in a shadows. At this moment of my visit I asked myself if my friend was suicidal. But no, she is psychologist.... ha... that's a point. Perhaps she had a depressed patient just before our visit and now, life is too boring for her... I controlled myself and I tried to listen to what she was saying, the history, the legends (you must know, in the middle ages, one pope lost a big jewel in the old street, and nobody ever found it...), so I preferred listening to her rather than my imagination... This visit was perfect, if you are not a cardiac patient (between your imagination and the topography of the city), try it.

So, in conclusion, I encourage everybody to visit Lyon. You could visit Paris too (execpt if you like soccer, forget it) but come to this city. If you want, I can give you the phone number of my friend and perhaps, if you are lucky, you may survive her tour, and appreciate it. And if you are verrrrry lucky you could find the jewel and it would pay for your travel expenses (don't forget to tip the guide at the end of your trip).