All of the pillows in the AirBNB seemed anemic, to the point that I found it difficult to get comfortable and sleep. I guess that meant not getting up late wasn’t a bad thing. For breakfast today we headed down the road to Le Pain du 8eme. The name of this cafe translates to ‘The Bread of the 8th’, in reference to this area being the 8th district of Lyon.

It was a little busy, but the food choices weren’t too bad. The pastry that looked the most appetising was a large almond croissant. I ordered an Earl Grey to go with this, and then for Carmen a pain au chocolate and a hot chocolate. My French was holding up so far, but when I was asked a question after ordering the tea I couldn’t figure out the question; Carmen thought she might have asked if I wanted milk with it, but I hadn’t heard the word ‘lait’ so thought it unlikely. She then came back with a box of tea for me to choose from.

It was a short walk from the cafe to the tram stop for the T2 tram. The trams aren’t that frequent, so maybe they aren’t the quickest way to get about if you’ve got the Metro as an option. The nearest metro was a bit of a walk away, and we’d got Carmen’s dance stuff to take with us, so even if we’d known it at the time, this was still our best option for now.

The tram only got us as far as Perrache, and from there we switched to the metro which took us the rest of the way to the Hôtel de Ville Louis Pradel stop for the town hall. As we left the station, we saw that the building beside us had large Pride flags hanging on the front of it, so we decided this was the most likely place to go for registration. As we walked across the Place de la Comédie, Carmen spotted a pink sign that directed us towards the athletes village. After a moment of questioning whether we should follow it or not, we decided the large building must be the town hall, and the right place to be. We’d try it first at least.

I headed towards the gate, but a guard quickly stepped in front to block me. At that point I saw the sign that said ‘Entrance’ actually had two feint arrows drawn in that suggested the actual entrance is round the other side. Around the corner we spotted a Warhammer store, the second time we’ve seen at least one on holiday. This road took us around to the Place des Terreaux, and I could see the Bartholdi fountain which looked like something to photograph.

First though, we needed to get registration sorted. The queues were almost non-existent after the reports that yesterdays queue has been very long all day. We went straight in, and I got my ‘Companion’ wristband, whilst Carmen got her ‘Athlete’ one along with some locally sourced treats.

We passed by the fountain, and headed over to the nearby Carrefour to buy snacks for the day. I bought a pack of two very small baguettes with cheese and ham inside, some Pringles, and an apple.

We’d got some time to waste, so we walked over to the La Saône, the river that runs nearby. As we were crossing the bridge, Carmen found her dance partner was already heading to the venue, so she was going to join them now to avoid any anxiety over transport troubles making her late. I told her I’d walk her to the station and then stick around as planned, due to being near the museum I’d got booked, but along the way I realised we’d somehow ended up with enough extra time that I could travel with her all the way to the Palais des Sports.

We walked along the other side of the river, along the edge of the old town. We saw the police had pulled someone over near the back of the Saint John the Baptist cathedral. A little beyond this we rounded the corner, and found the courtyard for the 5th Library of Saint John the Baptist, and the entrance to the metro.

We took the D metro to Saxe-Gambetta, and then changed to the B metro that took us the rest of the way to the stadium. Carmen saw one of her dancing friends on that train, so she walked with us until we reached the Palais des Sports de Gerland. Once Carmen was seated inside, I then headed back to the metro, and took it all the way back to where we started in the old town - taking about thirty minutes to get there.

I’d got a long list of sights to see, and a fixed amount of time to see them in if I wanted to get back to the stadium in time for the presentations. Fortunately I was a little ahead of time already, so decided I’d start off with the Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon. On my way out of the station I spotted the barriers for the funiculars to get up the hill, so was a handy observation ready for tomorrow.

Place Saint-Jean was a little busy as expected, and someone was playing Irish-sounding music on a wind instrument outside. Inside the cathedral there wasn’t a great deal to see, other than the 14th century astronomical clock. I sat down briefly, and then headed back outside to sit on the steps of the Fountain of Saint John, and have some lunch.

I was an hour ahead of schedule at this point, and thought maybe I could see if I could go round the Museum of Cinema and Miniatures early - the time I’d originally booked for. Fortunately they didn’t question it, and pointed out where to go, and told me to make sure I went up five flights of stairs to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

The tour starts in the basement where there are sets from ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’, a film from 2006 starring Alan Rickman, Dustin Hoffman, and narrated by John Hurt. It’s not a film I’d seen, so took a few photos and moved on. I felt perhaps this is a film I should watch when I get home so I could understand the context of the sets.

Back on the ground floor there then props from the Ghostbusters movies, and the Volkswagen Beetle from The Love Bug. Over the next few floors there were props, miniatures, and costumes from so many films and TV shows. I saw a costume from Stargate SG-1, one of Michael Keaton’s costumes from Batman, a bigature from Event Horizon, and so much more. There was even a display of Beetlejuice action figures and playsets in the area dedicated to those films. One room had a Nintendo Entertainment System, the board from HeroQuest, and some miniatures from Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game from Games Workshop. I couldn’t quite understand the context of them being there.

Not everything was cinema though. On the top floor there are many miniature dioramas to look at, all of which are in incredible detail. By the time I’d seen these and had looked around the gift shop back on the ground floor, about an hour had passed by.

I continued walking along the cobbled Rue Saint-Jean, keeping an eye out for anything I could photograph, and anything I’d want to tell Carmen about later. The next thing I wante to see were the Traboules du Vieux Lyon, but managed to pass them, so when I realised the I doubled back on myself, but along Rue du Bœuf instead so I could see something different on my way back. In doing so, I passed the Museum of Puppetry Arts.

On the corner by the museum, I spotted the staircases that are part of the traboules. In Lyon, the traboules are covered passageways that are hidden away, and would once have allowed merchants to easily travel between buildings on different blocks or streets. They were also used during times of resistance as well. I think the best way to experience them is through a walking tour, but I’d not got one booked, so did the best I could.

I then continued on to the Saint Paul Church, and crossed the Saint Vincent footbridge over the Saône. Just to the left of the bridge is the Fresque des Lyonnais - a large mural covering an entire wall of the building, and more. It was created thirty years ago to show Lyonnais history, and contains historical and contemporary residents. Two of the buildings nearby also have murals, one of which involves a lion at a pharmacy.

Heading up the hill east of there, I was heading towards Escalier Mermet, the stairs I thought were the multicoloured ones, but found they were not. I walked up them anyway, and then backtracked to the Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls.

This amphitheater was built at the base of La Croix Rousse in around 19 CE, and was part of an administrative and religious complex for officials that managed Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica, and Gallia Lugdunensis - the three Gauls. The Roman city was founded around 43 BCE for displaced refuges from Vienne (not to be confused with Vienna) during the War of Mutina. It quickly grew in importance to the point, where Lugdunum, the settlement that became Lyon, was one of the most important in the Western Empire.

The amphitheatre was closed to tourists, but there’s plenty of places to stand and take photographs of it from.

The traboules in Lyon seem to be very well hidden, and the well known one in La Croix Rousse, proved to be even more so. I walked down a hill to start with, and was treated to some great views across the city, but then had to go back up the hill and around the block before I found the entranceway to the Traboule et Cour des Voraces (Court of the Voracious). The canuts, the silk workers of this region, used these passageways as refuges during worker uprisings in October 1831 and again in February 1834.

"In the Cour des Voraces, hive of silk work, canuts struggled for their lives and their dignity."

I was pleased to have found it, and set off off walking further up the hill. I came across a large open park with a grassy area, and at a viewpoint there’s a large boulder, Gros Caillou, that was dug out when the funicular was excavated. There were children climbing over it so I had to wait, and whilst doing so I took the opportunity to photograph the skyline again. I’d got plenty of time though, as I was now two hours ahead of schedule.

It took me five minutes from there to walk swiftly to the mural known as Mur des Canuts. This mural represents the Canuts of La Croix Rousse, and has seen updates to reflect changes in the district. The staircase in the mural looked like one I’d passed earlier.

Somewhere nearby there was meant to be a stone cross, and I wanted to photograph it. It’d been a warm afternoon too, so decided to stop by a convenience store to get an ice cream on my way. I couldn’t find one of those there either, until the shop assistant helped me find them hidden away in the side of a freezer.

I walked down a dark alleyway that smelt like a toilet, with rundown buildings on one side, and found myself at the side of the Croix Rousse theatre, I photographed that and then sat down to figure out where I was going to go next. Google Maps seemed to suggest I was at the stone cross, but I couldn’t see it. In reality I was a couple of hundred metres away, but the GPS wasn’t accurate enough. I'd walked a long way, and had climbed so many hills over the last few hours. I'd not sat down since I'd had my lunch outside the church hours ago. It was a wonder my legs weren’t more tired. It was a shame Carmen wasn't with me for these sights, but I think I'd covered more in an afternoon than she'd have been keen on. I'm sure though that she'd have found other things to see along the way too that I'd have no doubt missed.

I’d been irritated by my bag for the last hour or so, as with every step I could hear the tube of Pringles rattle, and the power bank knock against my water bottle. I did the best I could to rearrange them, and then decided I’d head to the Escaliers Prunelle - the actual rainbow coloured stairs. I spotted another mural mentioned on the map along the route, so decided I’d stop by there first.

The L’air mural was about a ten minutes walk from where I was sitting, mostly back along roads I’d already been down to an area just behind Mur des Canuts. This one by Remi Cierco is one in a series by this artist, representing the four elements.

When I reached the final staircase, it was 15:45, and Carmen still had more dancing ahead of her. I considered walking up the other hill to the ruins, but decided to check-in on how she was doing. We decided we’d do the ruins tomorrow, and I’d go and meet her early. To keep things simple, I headed to the Vieux Lyon station.

On my way there, I came across the Maison Henri IV, which is another old building with many stairs visible through archways. It’s named for King Henry IV of France, a Protestant king who converted to Catholicism in order to rule, and was then murdered by a Catholic. The head of this king was actually found fifteen years ago, wrapped in newspaper. It’s head had been separated from the body during the French Revolution when the bodies of many its monarchs were desecrated.

When I finally reached the metro, I only stayed on it for one stop. When I heard the announcement the train was pulling into Place de Bellecour, I felt I should quickly take some photographs there on my way to the stadium.

I found this to be a large open square, with plenty of people, mostly sheltering from the sun under these large covers that make the walkways look like giant deck chairs. Looking towards the Fourvière Hill there’s a statue of King Louis XIV.

Around the corner to this, heading east towards the Rhône, is Place Antonin Poncet. I photographed the bell tower of the charity hospital of Lyon, the fountain, and then a large flower-like sculpture. I could have gotten back on the metro there, but decided I wanted to cross the bridge to get some more photographs. I walked the equivalent of two more metro stops, and got on at Saxe - Gambetta so I wouldn’t need to change lines.

I’ hoped to fill up my water bottle in the station, but found the train arrived as I did so missed my chance. I got to the stadium just after 17:00, whilst Carmen was waiting for the results of the semi-final, and for them to resolve some technical issues with the sound system. I think the opinions of the organisation of this event were a little low by this point, considering that they’d also been told the closing ball had been cancelled.

Sadly Carmen found she hadn’t made the finals for C class, but was still happy as they’d moved up a class from when they’d competed earlier in the year - a big improvement in such a short space of time. A lot of the people that had seen them dance both times had commented on how much they’re improving and thing they’ve got a good future ahead of them in the world of dance competition

Once the event was over for the day they had time to rehearse for Saturday, but the venue wanted people out quickly so that got cut short just after 20:00. By this time, most of the restaurants nearby had closed, and those that hadn’t were either going to close before we got there, or were very expensive ones. Most of the ones within walking distance were burger places, but Carmen had one of those at lunch yesterday. The best I could find was a pizzeria that’d be about a ten minute walk away. This took slightly longer though due to roadworks meaning we needed to cross the road a few extra times.

When we got there, despite Google Maps saying they were open, they were quite obviously closed. We found a place called Pizz’aïoli was still open, about 0.4 miles away so we started walking towards that. Carmen was growing tired of the walking though, and wanted to head back to the AirBNB. We carried on though, and thankfully found this one was open and had a table.

I had a Tex-Mex pizza, and it was nice enough, but every now and then I was convinced there was a slight taste of mint. For two pizzas, and a soft drink this came to €30 with a tip; which considering the average price of a meal in Lyon was actually really well priced.

Rather than keep on walking, we headed to the nearest metro station after that, took it for two stops, and then switched to the T2 tram that took us the rest of the way back to where we’d started this morning. By the time we got into the AirBNB it was just after 22:00, but we didn’t go bed for a couple more hours yet. Carmen needed to spend time removing all the make-up and hairspray that had been applied during the competition, and needed my help removing the many hair clips.