Paris1972-Versailles2003

I have found older paper pictures new to my blog from the wonderful regions, I like to include this in my blog even if quality will not be tops. We were on my road warrior trip in the regions and this was a memorable town indeed ; some we have revisited, My belle France is an inmense mouvable feast ! Therefore, let me tell you of curiosities of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes,part I !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The City of Lyon has the particular status gives both the attributions of a metropolis and a department, no 69 in the region of Auvergne Rhöne Alpes, It is 151 km from Geneva, 463 km from Paris, 537 km from Toulouse,and 684 km from Nantes, The road N88, which aims to link Toulouse to Lyon via Albi and Mende, and Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Dijon, Paris and Reims to the north on the A6

The Place des Jacobins is a square located in the Bellecour district, in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. Until 1782, the square was called Place Comfort. After this date, it becomes place of the Jacobins, named after the Jacobin religious or order of preachers also known as Dominican order who occupied the houses on the south side of the square. The French revolution saw the pyramid destroyed In 1794, it was renamed “Place de la Fraternité” it then took the name of “Place de l ‘Impératrice ”under Napoleon III, in honor of his wife Eugénie de Montijo. It was renamed “Place des Jacobins” in February 1871, after the fall of the Second Empire, The monument that we still see today was inaugurated on July 14, 1885. Today the square has regained its calm and its splendor, especially by expanding the sidewalks that border it and by a sharp restoration of the center statue in 2013

The Place des Jacobins square is mainly surrounded by buildings of around five floors in the middle of the 19C such as no, 1 , 6 floors and 11 spans with balconies on the 2nd and 4th floors, was built in 1860 , The Bossan and Giniez building at no, 4 , was the house of the painter Paul Borel. It was built in 1863. In no, 6, there is a building built after eleven floors with rounded balconies. In no, 7, we can observe a recent 9 -story building built in 1953 , The buildings in no, 8 and no, 9 are less worked than the rest of the square but their facades play on the opposition of colors of the stones , dark in the central and 1st floor for one and on the ground floor for the other.

An obelisk was drawn up in 1600 on the square to celebrate the marriage in Lyon of Henry IV and Marie de Médicis inaugurated in 1604, raised on three steps and with three faces, it symbolized the Trinity, and the inscription of God on his faces in 24 different languages symbolized his universality. It was above all a political message eleven years after the conversion to Catholicism of Henry IV and during the counter-reform, the Trinity remaining a concept above all Catholic. In the location of the square, four fountains were successively installed. In December 1876, the city opened a competition for the decoration of the Place des Jacobins, it was this majestic arts fountain that today offers its identity instead. In white marble, therefore solid, of the pyramidal type, it is made up of four stages of pools and circular and trefted basins. In the center rises a construction of a square plan close to that of the fountain of the innocents in Paris. At its top, the temple is surmounted by a small rotundity of neo-renaissance style which shelters the tripod of Apollo and inspired of the Jules monument in Glanum (Saint-Rémy de Provence). Four griffins are watching for cardinal points. The monument carries a currency in frieze: “The city of Lyon to the artists who illustrated it”. An abundant fauna and flora (lions, turtles, eel, lobster, ivy, etc.) and a variety of water effects make the whole living.

A bit of history I like tell us that during the French revolution, Lyon took in 1793 the Party of the Girondins and raised against the Convention. The city undergoes a siége of more than two months before given up. The repression of the Convention is fierce Lyon thus takes the name of Ville-Affranchie. More than 2,000 people are shot or guillotined, and several wealthy mansions around Place Bellecour destroyed, just like the castle of Pierre Scize. Lyon welcomes Napoleon I favorably when he returned from the island of Elbe on March 10, 1815. The latter will say, before leaving for Paris: “Lyonnais, I love you” during the WWII, being located in unoccupied zone until November 1942, and very close to the line of demarcation, the city welcomed the refugees and is the capital of the Resistance playing an important role, even determining one in occupied France thanks to clandestine newspapers, networks of resistance, but also by the infamous arrest of Jean Moulin in the suburbs of Lyon in 1943 and the historic trial of his executioner, Klaus Barbie in 1987, first condemnation for crime against humanity in France.

The Lyon tourist office on the Place des Jacobins : https://www.visiterlyon.com/decouvrir/sites-et-monuments/sites-et-monuments-remarquables/la-place-des-jacobins

There you go folks, I come to the gorgeous historical even if the regions are vast apart, the towns were visited at different times, This is a wonderful region in my road warrior tour of my belle France. The towns here are wonderful full of great architecture and history, that should be visited and more ! . Again, hope you enjoy this post on curiosities of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes,part I  as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!