Going with the flow
Montréal's twin city of Lyon has much in common with our island home, but it's hard to beat the rich heritage of this town whose roots go back past the Renaissance
If you were to approach the city of Lyon by water at the point where the Saône and Rhône rivers meet, you could be forgiven for thinking you just landed at the docking facilities for a Star Wars battle cruiser. In fact, tho, you’d be looking at the city’s Musée des Confluences, a project directed by Michel Côté, former general manager of the Québec Musée de la civilisation. A renowned and respected authority in the museum world, Côte has been inducted as a chevalier in both l’Ordre national du Québec and France’s Légion d’honneur for his work in both France and Canada. In Lyon, he was hired in 1999 to lead the city’s Natural History Museum into a new milenium, transforming it into a modern museum of science and civilization.
The “confluence” represents both the site, where two major European rivers blend together and continue their journey together to the Mediterranean, and the confluence of science and civilization, which are as intertwined and inseparable as the rivers that flow past the distinctive steel, glass and concrete building designed by Austrian architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Inside the spacious structure are four permanent exhibition on the third floor: Origins: stories of the World; Species: the Web of Life; Societies: Human Theatre; Eternities: visions of the Beyond.
One floor down are several temporary exhibitions, including one of African art, a tribute to 100 years of work by renowned photographer Marc Riboud, and Secrets from the Earth, a fascinating collection of rocks, gems, metals and other building blocks of modern civilization.
I spent about three hours there Wednesday and could easily have stayed until closing, but there were, after all, lots of other things to explore on my short visit to Montréal’s official sister city. I could see much we have in common with Lyon, including lots or repairs to aging infrastructure, but also a modern transit system, a steep slope with huge iconic Catholic institutions perched on it, and, once again, as a place where two rivers meet (the St.Lawrence and the Rivière des prairies, which is fed by the Lake of Two Mountains and Ottawa River).
Lyon also has an Old Town, but it’s several centuries older than Montréal and packed with busy restaurants and shops, very few selling t-shirts. But one or two selling poutine. If you get a chance, visit Johnny’s Kitchen, an authentic Irish pub/restaurant that gives lie to my long belief that Irish cooking consists largely of boiled potatoes. Best veggie burger I’ve had in a long time and home-cut French fries that leave you wanting way too many more. Seems weird to single this place out in a city where several hundred busy restaurants make this the gastronomy capital of France, but you can’t beat Irish hospitality no matter where you land.
If you ever make it over here, I challenge you to do the public transit home run: métro, tramway, bus and funicular. I did three of the four Wednesday after having the day before ridden the funicular that takes you up the steep hill (they don’t call it a mountain here) to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, where you can witness the end result of 24 years of construction to build a Catholic shrine overlooking the city of Lyon and its sister rivers. It’s an architectural marvel and another example of what kind of fantastic art you can commission when your religion is rolling in doubloons, or whatever the Euro was called back then.
Enough chat, here are a few photo souvenirs of my first two days in La Ville des Lumières. I’ll be back soon with a few more, including several from the exhibitions at the Musée des Confluences.
See you back here Saturday! Thanks for coming for the ride.