Lyon - the Saône & the Rhône

Lillian:  This is a short post so we can show you our photos of the 2 rivers in Lyon - the Saône & the Rhône.      This is me and behind me is the Rhône.I think that most of these photos are of (or near) the Saône.

Elegant houses alongside the Saône, taken from the Passerelle Paul Couterier.

More nice buildings and - a barge.  There is something so lovely about seeing the barges and knowing that these are 'working' rivers - and that some goods are still transported by water instead of by road.

If you look closely, you can see red poppies growing by the fence ...









Here they are - so beautiful and fragile and ...

tough!

they were growing in a bit of wasteland at the edge of a car-park.

This dear little bird is a White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) - we saw these pretty birds in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.  The White Wagtail is also the national bird of Latvia.

This is the quay near where that birdie was - tracks still in the path and a busy bridge across the river ...

   It is the Pont Kitchener-Marchand and it has some rather nice statuary ...

The guy is catching fish - the lady is catching pigeons

Nearby was this rather elegant railway bridge - quite practical but look at those lovely curly-ques on the underside ...

We're not quite sure but that railway bridge is probably called the Viaduct Quarantine.

In 1944 most, if not all, the bridges in Lyon were blown up.  Just another of the crazy things that humans do during a war!  

Most of the bridges have been re-built but this one wasn't ...

Pont D'Ainay

You can find these 1/2 obscured plaques on the remains of an arch by the quay.   

 And to finish this post - a photo taken on a beautiful evening.  This is the Rhône and looking pretty with all its lights is the Pont de l'université.

Lyon - Musée des Marionettes du Monde

Lillian: The Musées Gadagne are in 2 parts - the History of Lyon museum we saw in the last post - in this post we will see something of the Musée des Marionettes du Monde ... the Museum of the Puppets of the World.

Audrey:  Well, not wanting to disappoint people who really like puppets but the camera clicker found most of the puppets rather creepy so ...

Lillian:  Of course, creepy is in the eye of the beholder - you know, some people find Blythe dolls a bit creepy ...

Audrey: Well!  huff  there is no accounting for taste!


Lillian:  These Ballerina marionettes are quite lovely


as is this Lady from Venice and dating from the 1700s.







Lillian:  Our photographer is somewhat obsessed about historical costume and textiles - especially lace. 
The lace over-skirt on that marionette is very lovely - possibly hand embroidered on muslin.  Of course, puppets' clothes are like dolls' - often made from left-over scraps or cut-down from human sized garments.  So they can be a source for fabulous textiles.

Audrey:  Although the camera clicker didn't take many photos of the puppets - she did take some close-up pictures of the lace on their clothes.

Lillian:  This Don Quixote gent had a wonderful outfit - including this lace.  Had it been a human's cravat end or a cuff frill?   Definitely hand made but we're unsure what type of lace it is.
More research needed.

An expensively attired lady puppet

bobbin lace - would we call this Cluny style?

Lillian: This gent is wearing a lot of lace - a simple bobbin lace for his cravat and on his coat is some gold lace.

Audrey:  What - real gold?!!

Lillian:  Yes, thread with thin strips of real gold wrapped around it.  It must've been stiff & difficult to work with but they made bobbin lace from it - and it was sold by weight.

Now no museum of Puppets of the World would be complete without some Indonesian shadow puppets, Wayang Kulit ...

from Java, 1850

 
 Lillian:  And this chap is a Kasparek, from Prague, 1928.  Kasparek or Kasperle / Kasper is a German / Austrian tradition - he is rather like the English Punch (and Judy).  The French have their own version and he originated in Lyon and his name is Guignol. 

Guignol was created around 1808 by Laurent Mourguet -  like the English Punch he is rather violent and uses a split stick as a weapon (the split stick makes a loud noise - which is why it is called a slap-stick ... ) 

This Guignol puppet was made by Mourguet

All these puppets, Punch, Kasperle & Guignol have their origins in the Italian Pulcinella in the Italian Commedia dell'arte.  

In the stories Guignol is often a silkweaver (like much of his original audience) and he is always very poor.  He is cheeky, clever & courageous - has a strong sense of justice and inevitably the story is of triumph of good over evil. 

Audrey:  Guignol is a glove puppet - whereas the Kasperle is a marionette, on strings. 

Lillian:  Yes, the English Punch is traditionally a glove puppet too.  We should say that the French use the word marionette for all puppets and those with strings are called marionettes à tringle et fils or marionettes à fils.

 

Audrey: I found a statue of Laurent Mourguet near the museum - the top part  is quite charming with Mourguet interacting with the puppet he created ...

but on the side - some of that slap-stick violence you were talking about

just above that unpleasantness, there is a reference to silk weaving with a bobbin of thread, clippers ... a shuttle ...









Lillian:  But back to the museum for a bit - because the buildings are quite lovely examples of Renaissance architecture.
Audrey: With a tower and courtyards ... 

A nice doorway

Audrey:  But best of all was the very thoughtfully provided Blythe swimming pool ...

And when we got back to our hotel - the mural at the entrance made far more sense  ...

Hello Guignol!

Let's revive this blog and go to Lyon

Let's revive this blog :-)   and although we have more lovely photos of Nancy to show you - we'll restart with the train trip from Nancy to Lyon ... train travel in France is just so fast and efficient!

Whoa!  those trees are just flashing by!!

Audrey: "In Lyon we had a Room with a View,  of the Celestins Theatre and,  on top of the hill, a princess's castle."
Lillian: "umm - Actually, that is a cathedral.  The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière."

"Is that Cathedral following us?"

Audrey: "But we weren't going to stay in the hotel room when there was a whole new city to explore. 

Lyon is built where 2 rivers bump into each other.  They are the Rhône and the Saône, but don't ask us how to pronounce those names because we got all confused.

Here we are by the side of the Saône."  






Lillian: "It was a lovely day withe the sunshine making twinkles on the river.  The bridge in this photo is the Pont Bonapart."

 Lillian: "Our daddy Giant likes tugs and barges - this photo is for him.  A barge full of sand under the elegant Pont Maréchal Juin." 

We all love the slightly unexpected things you see on these working barges - cars, motorbikes, excavator / shovels ...







Lillian:  "Lyon is the 2nd largest city in France and has a very interesting history.  It has always been an important place for trade - being at the meeting of those 2 rivers.  The Romans built Lugdunum there and it was the most important city in north-western Europe for quite a while.  During the Renaissance, Lyon became an important place for printing and publishing - and in 1466 Louis XI set up a silk weaving industry in Lyon.

Audrey:  "He brought in some weavers from Florence - and they all lived and worked in the marvelous old part of Lyon - Vieux-Lyon.  We explored this amazing area a little on our first day." 

Lillian:  "And we will show you lots of Vieux-Lyon in a future post but here are some glimpses.  

It is a very densely built-up area on the side of the hill ..."



  


Audrey:  "So there are lots of stairs and even a Funny Peculiar."

Lillian:  "She means a funicular."

Lillian:  "In our next post we will show you some of the Musée Gadagne - which is in Vieux-Lyon.  But for now we will leave you with the setting sun on the Passerelle Paul Couturier ...

 Because it was then back to our room where we settled into the lovely writing desk ... so nice of the hotel to provide us with a dolly bed."

Nancy - Musée des Beaux-Arts

Lillian :  In our last post we showed you some of the wonderful collection of Daum glass-work in the Musée des Beaux-Arts.  Now we will show you a few snippets from the rest of the Fine Arts Museum.

Audrey :  We spent so long looking at the lovely Daum collection we didn't get to spend much time in the rest of the museum - which was a pity.


Lillian :   Our photographer loved the head-dresses in this painting and that the lady is knitting!    Looks like she is working on a sock.

Le Mariage mystique de St Catherine, Joos van Cleve

  
Audrey : Our photographer also likes paintings with lots of costume detail - like this.   Hmmm I'd like a head-dress like that myself.

Lillian :  The little chap beside her is singing - and holding the music which is written in a very old style of notation - with square notes.

The photo is of some details from Le Mariage mystique de Sainte Catherine by Joos van Cleve, 1514.

L'Enlèvement d'Hélène by Mathis Gerung, 1531

Audrey : Here we have more fabulous costumes - and look at those red boots!  

Audrey :  Not so much colour in this painting - all monochromatic except for the faces & hands.






Lillian :   And another painting with a limited palatte, though rather more recent.  Les Vestales by Jean Raoux, 1728. 

detail of Les Vestales by Jean Raoux, 1728

Audrey :   They look very pretty looking after the fire and arranging the flowers ...



 Audrey :  Now this little girl is making quite a fashion statement with her collar & muff of leopard fur.


 Lillian :  By Adolphe Ulrik Wertmüller and part of a set of portraits of the Charton family.  Thomas Charton was an art lover and a patron of Wertmüller, this portrait is probably of Émilie his daughter, it was painted in 1781. 

 Audrey :  Oh! they didn't have faux fur then did they?

Lillian :  No, there was no "Acrylicus fakeus" - I'm afraid that fur was real spotted feline.   But Adolphe Ulrik Wertmüller had an interesting life - he was born in Stockholm, studied art in Paris, painted Marie Antoinette and George Washington - he ended up migrating to America.


  Audrey :  Now our photographer also has a 'thing' for representations of the saints with their attributes. 

 Lillian : ahuh ... and St Lucia / St Lucy is one of her favourites.  In this painting St Lucia holds a palm frond - indicating that she was martyred - and in her other hand ... 



Audrey : That looks like a cake stand with a pair of Blythe Doll eye-chips on it!   Is she the patron Saint of Blythes?

Lillian : Umm I'm not sure if we have one.   But the eyes are part of the stories of St Lucy - perhaps not surprising as her name comes from the Latin Lux, Lucis meaning light & you need light to see.  In some stories about St Lucy her torturers took out her eyes - in other tales, an admirer praised her beautiful eyes so much that she took them out herself and gave them to him.  Anyway, that is why St Lucia is usually depicted with an extra pair of eyes on a golden tray, or holding a pair of eyes like an old fashioned pair of spectacles.  Some of Rene Magritte's surrealist paintings have similar pairs of eyes ... Le Liberateur is one such.

Audrey :  So St Lucy has an extra pair of eyes ... like us Blythe dolls (only we usually have 4 pairs of eyes each).  I think she should be our patron saint.

 
 Lillian :  Now we aren't sure which saint this painting was of - our photographer just took photos of the fish-in-a-harness,

Audrey :  Looks like a fish hand-bag ... cute idea!

Lillian :  Fish are one of the attributes for St Peter but he is most often shown with a key.  St Zeno of Verona, patron saint of anglers is often shown with a fishing rod or a fish and St Ulrich of Augsburg is usually shown holding a fish.  However, all of those saints are usually shown as older gents in flowing robes.  The painting here shows a young man, in green hose (green was associated with youth). 

Audrey :  I think a fish-shaped hand-bag, done in slightly metallic pleather ... might work in a quirky but cute way.

  Lillian : Another quick snap was of this cupid ... from the foreground of a 18thC painting.  His rosy red cheeks had us wondering if the artist had only ever seen babies with nappy rash.

Lillian :  The Musée des Beaux-Arts is in one of the beautiful white lime-stone buildings facing Place Stan - there is a really beautiful sweeping staircase...

Here is the view from one of those windows - looking down into Place Stan.

Audrey : And looking at all those people dining under the umbrellas made us realise that we hadn't eaten for hours!



Lillian :  So we had a lovely little picnic with yummy doll-sized food.

Audrey :  I was so tired - and my feet were too!