I'm going to be in Lyon next week, and I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Are there any OL-related things worth checking out while I'm in town?
Check out the OL shops at Stade Gerland or in their main shopping district, which name I forget. I visited in March and bought a Juninho kit from the OL store at Stade Gerland. I hope you have fun there. Not sure if it's that great for tourists, but I enjoyed it there because I stayed with my host woman who I became close with (I was in a summer school program in France in 2004 and stayed with her then). Also, the food there is great and people are very friendly. Do you speak French? That certainly helps to ingratiate yourself... Don't shy to speak to any Lyonnais people, if you do speak French.
I read French a lot better than I speak it, so my French is probably a little slow, but I'm willing to embarass myself in public trying it out. My wife, actually, works for a Lyon company and is going for four days of training, so I'm just essentially tagging along and wandering around town for four days. I'm not making a lot of plans...just going to wander around, eat, and see what the Lyonnais have going on.
there is 2 OL stores : - one in the center of the city, called "planet'OL" - one next the Gerland stadium called "OL Store" (much more products in this store). but the gerland area is an ugly part of the city for tourism (well except for sex tourism at night... but well you will be with your wife, right ? ) here is the adress of those stores and the way to go with public transportation (very easy to find): http://www.olweb.fr/index.php?lng=fr&pid=404001 If you want, you can assist at the training of the team. it resumes the 3rd of july (well without the stars that are playing the WC ! so no juninho, tiago or coupet ! too bad but with caçapa, toulalan, pedretti, réveillère, berthod, squilacci... some very good players will be there) check out the training scedule here : http://www.olweb.fr/index.php?lng=fr&pid=104001 tola vologe (the place where the team makes its training) is near the gerland stadium (maybe 500m from the metro station "stade de gerland"). just walk in direction to the stadium, along the avenue between the stadium and the "OL Store", you will find it.
since the weather's nice, make sure you go to either rue mercière or vieux lyon to eat outside. taking the funiculaire to go up the hill to the basilica and the roman theatre is a must. and look around this thread for more info. have fun! https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329504
Thanks for the link...we leave tomorrow. Long flight, but I'm sure we'll have a great time, and I wouldn't be surprised if I came home with an OL kit, either!
Sorry about the delay...it's been quite a summer. But I did have a great time in Lyon. It's quite a great city...I enjoyed being there much more than the few days we spent in Paris. Everyone that I talked to was very friendly and dealt with my awful French accent with much grace. It was an honor to be with the people of Lyon in the streets to watch the WC semifinal match and to be part of the celebration afterwards. I did get out to Gerland, if only to walk around the stadium. By the way...there really isn't any such thing as things such as the sandwiches that "American Sandwich" serves in the States, but it isn't going to stop me from dreaming about them for the next few months.
I told you that Lyon has the nicest people around! I also found that a lot of them speak decent English at times when my French isn't suffice. No city in the world has captured my heart quite like Lyon.
I am in Lyon right now, and will be here untill late December. This place is great. For anyone visiting, I recommend taking a trip to the Park... It is really spectacular, free, and has a zoo and everything. The weather here is great, and the people are truely the nicest in the world. To watch OL games, I go to a bar on the riverside in vieux Lyon. Next Saturday there is a game, which I will be attending.
\ Also if you are Catholic, mass in the cathedral at the top of Vieux Lyon, is a lifetime experience!
THANK YOU. i love fourviere, though many people tend to criticize it as a tad ostentatious, I think its brilliant. the way it looms, almost ominously, over the city, rather omnipresent..perhaps this is intentional?!
The only thing I criticize is the huge Mary in the front... there should be a huge Jesus instead., nonetheless. Mary is very important to Lyonnians.
the basilica (not cathedral, that's down in vieux lyon) is called notre dame de fourvière, so it makes sense. it was built on subscription after prayers to the virgin mary not to let the prussians get to lyon in 1870 were answered. appealling to her is indeed a lyonnais tradition; the biggest traditional event of the year in lyon is on dec 8th (annunciation), when there is a huge festival of lights. it's in remembrance of lyon being spared from the plague a few hundred years ago.
Ahh, Ouais. Si on veut aller pour mass, c'est a 5 heures de l'apres midi. If you want to go to mass, it is at 5:00pm every sunday. On saturday is the OL match here in lyon. I will be going to the game with some friends. I can't wait.
So why would I resurrect this ancient thread? Because I'm coming back. My wife just found out today that she's heading back for more training, and there's no way I'm not going with her. So we'll be in Lyon 15-21 July. She'll be training through Wednesday, but otherwise I'll just be around. No World Cup this year to entertain me, but I'm absolutely going to try to attend training if they'll be in the middle of it. Any other events/stuff going on during that time? I'm not going to be doing a lot of sightseeing, since I saw most of everything last year. I'm instead just mostly going to relax, eat, drink, and wander.
some bad news for you... OL will be in korea for the peace cup at that time! but the 21st is la fête de la musique, a big bash all over france... sorry, that's the best i can do!
Yeah, I realized that shortly after I posted it. Are any of those games going to be shown on TV in Lyon? I'd have to bust out my new OL kit to go watch them.