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.

Le Musée de l’École de Nancy - the gardens part 1

Audrey :  We are writing this post almost a year from when we were actually in Nancy.
Lillian :  Wouldn't it be nice if we could spend every Spring-time in France?

Ah well, at least we can look at all our photos.  And we loved the gardens at Le Musée de l’École de Nancy so much that we went back the following day to spend more time admiring all the flowers.

 

Lilac - Lilas in French.  This just doesn't grow in Sydney Australia - it is hard to believe how scented the flowers are - and the variety of colours.




Audrey :  It makes a cute head-dress or ear-muffs too.

Lillian :  Our people do grow Spanish Bluebells in Sydney.  These bluebells (jacinthe des bois) were a very pretty mauve, nearly pink.

Audrey :  It gets a bit confusing with lilac that is white and bluebells that are mauve ...

but weren't the tree peonies amazing!

 

Audrey :  Those flowers were so large - bigger even than our heads!

  

Lillian :  I liked this dark red peony - the French name for a peony is pivoine.

 

Audrey :  You look like a lovely Spanish dancer with that red flower in your hair Lilian.
Lillian :  Thank you, that's very sweet. 


Lillian :  A lot of the plants in the garden of the museum are those that inspired the Art Nouveau artists of l’École de Nancy.



Lovely white flowers - we think they are a wild columbine or Aquilegia (ancolie in French) they were beautifully placed in front of a screen with fabulous red poppies (pavot). 













Audrey :  Art Nouveau artists and craftspeople were very fond of poppies. 
Fern fronds are also a reoccurring motif in Nancy's Art Nouveau.



 Lillian : Our people thought that perhaps this bush with all the white flowers was the ombelliféres that is another favourite motif for artists like Emile Gallé.

Audrey :  Lucky for me that it was not the Ombrelles - because it seems that the flowers those people liked so much was probably giant hogweed a very nasty plant indeed!   (but please let us know if we have that wrong - and the Ombrelles were some other flower)

Lillian :  A Japanese Maple with wonderful purplish leaves.

Lillian :  Here we are under a Magnolia tree.



And our tour-manager helping us to pose for the camera.










 Audrey :  I think we'll have to save our photos of the buildings and things that are in the grounds of the  Musée de l’École de Nancy for our next post - because this one is so full of photos already.

 Lillian : Well, it is hard to resist sharing photos of flowers like this massive & beautiful pink peony flower.