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Touring Lyon Part 4 : Musee of Fine Arts & Other Miscellaneous Stuff

It's another Saturday again, and i decided to visit one of the museums in the city. Most of the museums here are located in some obscure place , so i decided to choose one that is more prominent and easy to get to and it is the Museum of Fine Arts. This museum is located just beside Hotel De Ville, the famous hotel that i mentioned before and the building i almost missed it if not for the magnificent fountain located right outside of the museum. The museum building looks almost the same as the surrounding buildings there and so if you are not attentive, u might miss it.

The entrance fee cost like 6 Euros which is like 12 SGD but it was worth the money to see the exhibits. On the brochure it says no photography but i managed to sneak a few, nope actually quite alot of pictures while i'm inside.

Once you enter the museum ground, you will enter the sculpture garden, it is actually quite serene there and quite alot of people like to sit and the garden and chat for hours. The museum is organized in such a manner: (Click to enlarge)

The ground floor has all the sculptures, the second floor has the antiques , some scupltures and coins and medal room, and the third floor has all the paintings ranging from the 15 Century to the 20th century.

The Paintings are also categorized from the country of origin which are from France or Italy. From my observations of the painting, the French like to painting scenery , self-portraits, bowls of fruits and politics. While the Italians on the other hand are more on the Christianity theme and some of the pictures are sort of gory and the paintings are mostly about Jesus, saints, popes, the virgin mary and alot of babies. Also , some of the italian paintings have some moral messages in them which will set you thinking while looking at them.

As i progress through the ages of the paintings, you can see the style of painting changes. I find that the more contemporary pieces are more abstract and some makes no sense when u look at them then the older pieces of the art.

The museum also has a small collection of egyptian artifacts which was pretty cool to see them upclose and most of the sculptures the building are quite amazing. Below are some more picutures of the exhibits:

After the museum, i took a walk down the Saone which is opposite the Rhone river and took some pictures of the view and the sky.

This church is located in the heart of Bellecour, its called the Church of Saint Nizier , it is built in the 18 Century. It houses quite a few stained glasses which i find amazing and beautiful.

Some random pictures here: A statue in a park and a ticketing place for the Olympique Lyonnais , a football team in France which i heard was pretty good. Sort of like Man U of France

Okay, thats all for now, my culture quotient for the day has gone up quite a few notches and i will be visitng more museums in the comming weeks.

Wines that i have drank so far

They say when u are in France, you should do what the french do, which is drink, eat cheese and enjoy life. So, I am going to review the wines that i have drank while and here and give me opinion of what i thing of it. (Please note that these reviews are from an amateur wine drinker and not a wine connoisseur)

Love It

Nothing yet...

Neutral

Vire-Clesse
Grand Vin De Bourgogne 2008
This wine had a much better taste then the first bottle i had, and u can actually taste the flavour of the wine which had a hint of fruity taste. But still i was a wee bit bitter for my taste but still to me considered okay as it costs like 8 SGD also. I rate it passable.


Medoc
Grand Vin De Bordeaux 2006
My third bottle of wine. Cost like 9 SGD. It taste a bit bland and also had sort of a chemically aftertaste which was not very pleasant... It was less bitter though.. but still drinkable standalone with some meat dish. Overall , i rate it passable but barely.

Hate It

Cotes Du Rhone
Les Combes Saint-Sauveur 2008
My first bottle of wine and it costs like 8 SGD . First taste and it was erwgh.. it was so bitter to the taste and abit sour at the same time. Didn't like it at all.. It had also a chalky texture to it, probably tasted bad because it was a cheap wine. A tip: Add mixers like fruit juice to make a bad wine go down easier. I rate this wine as i dun want to drink another bottle anymore and please dun make me.

Touring Lyon Part 3 - Hotel De Ville , Rhone River

All this pictures were taken on sun , while i was taking a looonnggg walk around Lyon. Realized while walking around that almost all shops were closed.

It all started with me with nothing much to do on sunday. Finished my laundry and got bored staying in the hostel. So i decided to take a walk around campus at first but didn't realized i would be on a road march..

The pic of the map shows roughly the route i took and it took me like 3 hrs plus to reach back to my room and man was i exhausted.. I probably clocked like 20 km.. Anyways, got some nice scenic views while passing through.

My first stop was heading to the Cite Internationale where the museum of contemporary arts is located and also where Interpol is . Nothing much to see as it was closed , so i continued my walk by the Rhone river which was just beside Cite Internationale.

Fantastic view of the river, very peaceful and serene. Saw some people water skiing also. Next i went across the river and headed to the direction of Croix-Rousse where all the renaissance (i think) building are located. But i didn't see much of those buildings around so i went on my way and headed to the area called Hotel De Ville. This hotel was built in the 17 century and was sort of like a historical site. More details here

The Opera house was also located next to Hotel De Ville.



After that i continued on to Bellecour, but there was nothing much to do there as everything was closed and so i marched on by the river and headed back to my dorm.



I took a picture of one of their swimming pools, which i dun see many here in Lyon and it was actually located by the river and it was open air. Most swimming pools here are mostly indoors and this was an interesting site. The French sure know how to pick spots to relax.



Also i had to take a picture of my of Lyon's landmark, which is this commercial building in the pic above. This is the tallest building there and it is the most prominent building from the view off Fourviere Hill.

I was totally exhausted by the time i reach back to my room , but i had a good view of part of the city.

Meals that i cooked so far

Nothing much to do so i'm going to post pictures of food (Noteworthy ones!) that i concocted by myself. No maggie for me i say!

Touring in Lyon - Part 2 - Bellecour, Cite Internationale , Parc De la Tete D'OR

The next stop was on to Bellecour, this place was sort of the city hall of Singapore, lots of shops and boutiques. These shops actually span to a whole street at Rue La Rebublique which is abt 3 km long!! Talk abt shop till u drop, ladies, this is the place for u. This period is actually their sales period and was definitely tempted to buy something whilst walking through the place.

Okay, French lesson now. One thing i learned is that Sale in french is called Solde and the word Sale in French means dirty or filthy, so do take note when u ask people for any sales around in France.



Later on, i took bus to a place called Cite Internationale where the museum of contemporary art is located, wanted to go to the museum but couldn't find where it was , so took a walk ard and entered the park which was next to Cite Internationale. This park is the largest urban park in Lyon and it's called Parc De La Tete D'Or , it has a lake, rose garden and also a zoo in the park itself.


I did not explore the park much as i was tired from all the walking , perhaps another day.. That's all for now. Will upload more pictures on other locations that i going to visit in the next post.

Touring in Lyon - Part 1 - Vieux Lyon , Fourviere

My first stop was to hit the tourist spot which was Vieux Lyon and it is located by the Rhone River. Dunno much the history of the place but i heard it was a tourist spot and i say why not. The landscape view by the river was beautiful and i took quite a few pictures while walking towards Vieux Lyon.





The first stop was at this cathedral call Cathedrale Saint Jean. First cathedral that i've been to and wow, it was quite something, the architecture was well crafted. Couldn't find out much abt the history coz everything was in french...



Anyways, i was lucky enough to be there at the right time for this antique clock in the cathedrale to sound. i recorded it and u can heard it below.




Some sights outside of the cathedral



After that, did some wondering around the place and stumbled upon a movie museum with the robot featured on the movie I-Robot



Later on, i climbed this stairs which seems to go on forever up to Fourviere Hill to reach to another cathedrale call Notre Dame de Fourviere.





Again, the architecture was beautiful, amazed that people in the past could build something this grand with the technology that they have.




Fourviere Hill is the highest pt in Lyon (I think) and that was the view of lyon from a viewing pt.

Some other sights at Fourviere:




Gallo-Romaine Theater @ Fourviere


Cemetery of Lyon



After a tiring walk around Fourviere, i realised that there was actually a tram service from Vieux Lyon to Fourviere.. Could have save the energy climbing up the hill. Anyways, took this quaint little tram back down and on to my next Location which was.... BELLECOUR!