Jour 2 Lyon: Fresque Des Lyonnais

One of the cutest things you can do while you're in Lyon is to visit the cutest mural ever, the Fresque Des Lyonnais.

The mural was just a short walk across the Saône. We enjoyed the lovely day and the bridges and views on our stroll.

 I recommend coming from the Saône side, not the Rhône side just because of the way you'll experience the mural. At first, you'll see this little bookstore. Just to let you know, bookstore is "librarie" in French so you have to pay at the librarie; you can't just borrow the books for free.

Anyway, that little bookstore is just a taste of the mural. You turn the corner and you'll see a gloriously huge painting with several famous figures who are from or from around Lyon, including Le Petit Prince who is a character from a book by the same name written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who is from Lyon.

It's an impressive trompe-l'oeil mural - meaning it's a mural that creates an optical illusion. And that makes it a fun opportunity to try and blend in.

If you're having any issues identifying the Lyon natives, you can take a gander at this handy little key.

Do you see the Little Prince? He's on the 2nd floor balcony. You might be thinking he's on the third, but in France (and probably the rest of Europe), the ground floor if floor 0 and then what we Americans would consider the second floor is actually the first floor. Honestly it makes a lot of sense. I don't know why Americans are always complicating things.

It's a lot of fun but you can't spend all day there, you know? So after we had our fill of photos, we headed over to just take a look at the Opera House and City Hall.

... But not before taking a pit stop to wash my hands in some lioness spit.

By the way, so many European dogs are incredibly well behaved. We saw more dogs off their leashes, obediently following their owners, than dogs on their leashes.

We tried heading to the Passage Thiaffait but all of the stores were closed so it was pretty boring. I was also somewhat disappointed. I spent some time in the Passages Couverts in Paris, which are truly covered shopping areas and this one was teeny and kind of lame.

I might have shed a tear or two having to climb these stairs.

We ended up wandering around a bit trying to find a place to eat but then ended up right by the Opéra de Lyon.

It's situated in a little square with a modern art sculpture fountain, a tiled area that kids use as a skate park, and a bit of grassy area for lounging around on.

And Hôtel de Ville (a.k.a. City Hall) is right here too. French city hall buildings are so pretty!

By the way, there's a cute little eatery nearby called Crock 'n' Roll that has the yummiest Nutella pressed sandwich dessert ever. Don't miss it.

Okay, so that's it for Lyon. Next up is Annecy so stay tuned, y'all. If you thought Lyon was quaint, wait until you see Annecy. You'll use up your entire "aww" quota for the year on my first four or five photos.

xoxo.