Great Rivers of France #3 and #4

I've shown you the wild and mysterious Herault, you've seen the glistening Orb. Now, get ready for two watery heavyweights .... (unfortunately viewed through some pretty persistent fog, and yes, it was very cold!)

The Saone


... and the Rhone



The two great rivers of Lyon, the Saone, sourced in Eastern France and the Rhone, flowing from the glaciers of Switzerland, meet and merge in Lyon, and proceed from there to the Mediterranean. They, along with the Fourviere hill, which was ideal for fortification, were probably why people have found the area attractive since before Roman times. The Roman town of Lugdunum was situated on the Fourviere Hill, and there's a park on the hill containing two Roman amphitheatres, along with the remains of the surrounding town.

There's also a Gallo-Roman museum built into the hill, and E and I set out to see all this while Al visited his work colleagues. Unfortunately the day was REALLY foggy, and the fog didn't really lift until well after lunchtime, making it a very cold day. It also meant we couldn't see very far ...

This is the entrance to the park


We went back on Friday with Al to have another look - there was still fog, but not so bad.




The museum was very interesting, with lots of archaeological finds from the immediate area (eg, potters kiln, found at 25 Rue de Riviere, and brought in one piece to the museum). We were really there to see 'Par Toutatis!, the religion of the Gauls' and we weren't disappointed. Lots of gruesome stuff for E - skulls of dead enemies hanging from horses and then annointed in cedar oil and kept in a box, to be taken out and shown to strangers with the boast that they had been offered their own weight in gold for the skull, but had not accepted it (proving a 'nobility of soul', according to the Roman Diodorus Siculus), and dead warriors propped up so that their bones can be picked clean by vultures, who will carry the warriors' souls to heaven; and beautiful and unusual jewellery and ornaments and myths for me to look at.