During my first weekend at Besancon, I decided to stay put and do things within the city, like visit the mall area with lots of stores (Chateaufarine) and visit the famous Citadel!  However for my second weekend, along with five other girls from Penn State, I decided to visit a famous French city relatively nearby to Besancon – Lyon!

Lyon is the second largest city in France after Paris.  It was a little bit of a train ride since there are no high-speed trains connecting it to my city, about a 2.5 hour ride, but we still had enough time to see a lot of Lyon in just one trip!  We got 1-day metro passes for about 5 euros and we took it out to the Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste.  There was a little market in the place in front of the church and we spent a little time looking at what was for sale before heading into the church, a beautiful gothic cathedral.

After the church we walked alongside the Saone River.  (Besancon’s river, the Doubs, is a tributary of the Saone).  Then we decided to hike up to the top of Lyon’s hill, Fourviere, and visit the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvi�re.  We got some amazing views of the old city along the way. 

Afterwards we went to the ancient Roman amphitheater which was awesome.  Behind it are ruins that you can walk around and they overlook the city at the top.  To end the trip, we went to the Musee des beaux-arts, Lyon’s Museum of Fine Arts, which had many amazing sculptures and paintings.  The building itself was nice, too!

I am really glad I got to see Lyon.  The only other large French city I had ever visited was Paris, so I felt like I got to see another side of French culture.  I was doubtful at first – what could compare to Paris?  And can you really get anything out of a city from one day?  Well, the whole city was interesting and beautiful and I highly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to see Lyon to definitely go – I know that I need to go back!

Location: Lyon, France