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greenbagjosh · 10 months

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Sunday 16 August 1998 - stamping the wrong TGV reservation (return vs away) - the underground cograil line - automatic train without screen doors, doesn't Nürnberg have something similar? - Roman Theater and Vieux Lyon - walk across the Sâone and Rhône to Part Dieu - Paris, one rail journey in the north before going to bed

Sunday 16 August 1998 (originally written August 2018)

Bonjour à tous! Summer is coming soon to a close, at least in 1998, and I will have to return to university for one final year. Sunday the 16th August 1998 is the last day I can do any meaningful travel, and stores are closed until Monday the 17th August. And there is one last free space in my Eurail Pass for taking the train.

The summary of what I did 16th August 1998 - pretty much a day of riding the Lyon metro

woke up around 6:20 AM, took shower and had breakfast at 7 AM sharp

Took M8 from Ledru Rollin to Bastille and M1 to Gare du Lyon

found my assigned car and seat in 1st class TGV to Lyon Part Dieu but validated the wrong reservation

arrived Lyon Part Dieu about 9:45 AM

had snack at Quick burger in the shopping mall and bought day pass for metro

took Metro B to Charpennes and went up and down Cours Emile Zola

took Metro A to Hôtel de Ville - Louis Pradel, then Metro C to Cuire

walked down from Cuire to Rue de Margnolles and caught bus to Croix Rouge (metro C)

took metro C to Hôtel de Ville - Louis Pradel, Metro A to Bellecour, then Metro D to Gorge du Loup

Metro D to Vieux Lyon, and funicular to St Just via the Minimes Roman amphitheater

funicular to St Just to have a look around

funicular to Vieux Lyon and Fourvière, saw tower smaller in scale from the Eiffel in Paris, and return

walk along Rue St Jean in old Lyon, saw tourbus with Guignol painted on it

crossed the Sâone by the Passerelle du Palais de Justice (made a double exposure with my camera somehow, on that particular bridge)

walked along Rue Childebert and crossed the Rhône by the Pont Wilson

walked to the metro D station Guilliotière and rode to Gare de Vénnisieux

rode metro D to Saxe Gambetta and Metro B to Part Dieu

go to Quick, order two takeaway burgers and coke

at Lyon Part Dieu, boarded return train at 6 PM, ate hamburger at a free seat not next to anyone, after my ticket and reservation were checked

about 8 PM, at Gare du Lyon, took RER A to La Défense, then went on a clockwise loop towards Gare St Lazare

went back to hostel to sleep

That was the summary of Sunday 16 August 1998. So here is most of what happened, based on my photo album called "Lyon and Paris in August 1998". Unfortunately it is near impossible to properly reorder the photos in chronological order but you likely will have a good picture of what I saw and did that day. I need to let you know that this day I had made extensive use of Lyon's metro, so to eliminate references to the Lyon Metro, will make this day's story meaningless. Hope you will understand.

In France, the sun rises late and sets late, similar to Spain, but not Portugal which is in the same time zone as the UK and Ireland. I therefore had to set my watch to 6:15 AM (and all this time I never mentioned it was a replica of that similar to Marty McFly from "Back to the Future"). Breakfast would not likely be served until at least 7 AM, so I had to take a shower and get my things together, particularly my radio/tape recorder, camera, AA batteries and 35 mm film, couple of 0.33 L Orangina bottles, and the all-important Eurail Pass with accompanying reservations. I wrote in 16 on top and 08 on the bottom, in the last remaining space for the dates used, and there would be no further point to use it on the 17th as I needed to stay within Paris. In any case, I had my Paris Visite ticket that would allow me to go as far as zone 3 (La Défense) valid up to 11:59 PM on the 17th.

Going down the spiral staircase, I ended up on the ground floor. I had the usual Auberge Internationale des Jeunes breakfast, namely coffee in cups some with the handles broken off by past guests (to give them character), six inch sourdough breadrolls, butter and seasonal jam. I think it was apricot. I was the only guest in the room up to 7:10 AM when someone else entered. About 7:15 AM I finished and left for the Ledru Rollin station westward down Rue Trousseau to catch the M8 to Bastille. As I did not have much more than my day bag, the transfer was fairly easy, despite the steps required to climb. It was only a few stops on the M1 to Gare du Lyon. Coming out of the station, I found the track and the car in the upper level of the first class of the TGV that I was reserved for. Well, you think that I might choose the Paris to Lyon reservation to validate. Did not work out that way. I validated the Lyon to Paris reservation. How embarrasing. The train left about 8 AM. It was about half an hour until the conductor came to check tickets. I flagged down the conductor to tell him that I meant to validate the Paris to Lyon reservation and not the other one. He said no problem, then wrote on the reservation, en francais, "composté par erreur" (validated in error) so that the return trip conductor would accept the correct reservation. Everything from then was fine for the rest of the journey to Lyon Part Dieu. Even the seats were nice, you could use the rocker switch to recline the seats

About 9:55 AM, the train arrived at Lyon Part Dieu. The approach to Part Dieu is almost directly north-south. To the southwest is a shopping mall with access to the Metro line B. At the time, the ticket machines did not accept paper bills so I had to change a 50 FF note at the Part Dieu location of Quick to get a day pass. I bought a small Sprite and received about 46 FF change, enough for me to get a day pass. Day passes on TCL (Transport en Commun Lyonnais) are valid for 24 hours, and there were no fare gates at the time as the system was proof-of-payment.

As soon as I bought my ticket, I validated it for 10:10 AM, and went to the Metro B Charpennes platform. In Lyon, the metro runs on the left, similar to Rome, Madrid, Lisbon and London. At Charpennes, there is a direct pedestrian link from the Metro B platform to the Perrache-bound Metro A platform. Per http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/fr/lyon/lyon-metro-b.htm, "The northern terminus at Charpennes is single-track, with line B trains being able to switch to the line A tracks to reach the depot at La Soie. Passengers changing between line B and the inbound line A can do so without climbing any stairs."

I climbed up the stairs to see what was at Charpennes, and it was the Hotel Mercure on Cours Emile Zola. I just stood there for a couple of minutes before moving on to Hôtel de Ville-Louis Pradel to get the Metro C. Metro A is similar to Metro B, but the Metro C has two main differences. One, the Metro C uses overhead wire for its electric feed, and two, between Hôtel de Ville-Louis Pradel and Hénon, a cog rail is used due to the incline. In fact, Croix-Paquet is said to be the steepest metro station in the world. At Hôtel de Ville-Louis Pradel, there is a slight rise at the platform to help the train come to a safe stop. Going up to Hénon was quite interesting, and Croix-Paquet was indeed quite steep. Between Croix-Rousse and Hénon it was fairly flat at the stations. Between Hénon and Cuire there is no need for the cog rail as that section is essentially on a plateau.

I thought I could take a bus from Cuire to Croix Rouge, but realized it was a Sunday and headways with TCL are a bit longer. I managed to get four photos of the passing Metro C cars with their pantographs. They kind of look like the Glasgow Subway cars in a way. I ended up walking along the Rue de Margnolles to a bus stop that had a line going to Croix Rouge so I could take Metro C back to Hôtel de Ville. After getting back on the Metro A, I went to the Bellecour station to make a transfer to Metro D. The Lyon Metro has few if any stations with central platforms, but Bellecour has the central platform for line D. Another thing about Metro D, although it is similar to lines A and B, it is billed as one of the first large-profile driverless metro line. In general, passengers on Metro D can be in the front and get a driver's view, and there is also a panel locked away in case it becomes necessary to manually operate the unit. I went on Metro D as far north as Gorge du Loup. Between Vieux Lyon and Gorge du Loup, it is a long underground section under Fourvière and the Cimitière de Loyasse. And at Gorge du Loup, there were a couple of things I noticed, one being a green Mehari, about as green as the average watermelon, and two, some musician I thought I recognized but wasn't. He was just some random person playing his guitar. I let him be and went back to the metro station.

At Vieux Lyon, there are not one but two cable car systems. One goes to St Just by way of the Minimes - Roman theater station. The amphitheater is close to the station and is open-air just like in ancient Greek and Roman times. From there you can also see down to the St Jean cathedral in Vieux Lyon. The station itself, in 1998 did not have any fare gates, and it has side platforms. It had an overpass for the far platform. Since the trains cannot operate in a single direction due to the mechanics of a conventional two-car funicular system, there are two signs to indicate which platform will serve which station, either St Jean at the bottom or St Just at the top. The signs switch each time so sometimes the close platform will serve St Jean, and the other St Just, then vice versa. St Just is only a residential area, but I found a classic 1970s Peugeot 304, that was pretty much the highlight of me visiting Lyon St Just.

It was time to visit the other part of Vieux Lyon, namely Fourvière. It required going down to Vieux Lyon St Jean and taking the Fourvière funicular. The Fourvière church reminded me much of Notre Dame de Paris. There was even a small-scale tower reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower. Probably it was twice the size of the replica in Paris, TX, not much more. I took the funicular back to St Jean cathedral, and walked along the Rue St Jean. I guess most people may not know Guignol, but I noticed a tourbus with his image on it.

To take a break from the rails, I wanted to cross the Sâone and Rhône rivers on foot. There was the Passerelle du Palais de Justice foot bridge. Somehow I made a double-exposure with my camera, if you see it in the photo album, you may know which one I am referring to. Then along Rue Childebert, I crossed the Rhône by Pont Wilson. The Metro D station Guilliotière was not far, so I boarded the train to Gare de Vénnisieux. At that station, it was not so deep underground and there was some natural light so I could get a good photo of the train leaving to turn around and coming back. Once it returned to the westbound platform, I boarded it and stayed on until Saxe Gambetta to go north on Metro B, to Part Dieu. It was about 5:30 PM and close to time when I needed to take the train back to Paris. At Quick, I ordered two hamburgers and a coke. There was not much time to eat, so I went to the train platform to find my seat. It was in the lower deck of the first class in the TGV train. The train left around 6 PM. I was sitting next to someone and I did not want to eat in front of her. I waited out of respect, for the conductor to arrive and let me choose vacant seats a few rows down. I also mentioned, en francais, that my previous reservation was validated incorrectly and he noticed the correct time. It was all good up to Paris Gare du Lyon.

The TGV arrived at Gare du Lyon about 8 PM and the sun was still up. Because the RER Line A stops at Gare du Lyon, I thought, let's do a clockwise loop at La Défense and come back through St Lazare and Auber, and end up back at the hostel. So I did that for the next hour, making good use of the Paris Visite card. While on the Banlieu train from La Défense to St Lazare, I heard "Les Portes du souvenir" by Les Nubians on the radio.

I was not particularly hungry after eating the two Quick burgers, so I went back to the hostel to sleep. I was fortunate to have quiet roommates. Monday the 17th would be a big day mainly of chores and such, maybe an adventure or two but not much more.

Thanks for reading, and bonne nuit, à demain!

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