France Day 4: Lyon Zoo and a Hilltop Church with Friends
[Written 23 AUGUST 2014. It’s quiet here.]
Our friends, Holla and Óli, were in the area with their kids and Óli’s mom at the same time we were. (By ‘the area’ I mean they were a one hour drive away from us, in Chambéry.) They wanted to check out Lyon though, so we planned to go visit the Lyon zoo, and then maybe the hilltop church.
It was a super-sunny day, and pretty warm too, so we weren’t the most energetic people ever, but the day mostly went fine. (31 images total)
Three kids and a piano. So quiet!
We drove toward the Zoo, located in the Parc de la Tête d’Or and drove around for a while looking for parking south of the park. We then walked around the area for a bit before entering the park itself. This is the Brotteaux train station. We discovered this was a bit of a shopping district, but it was all closed because it was a Sunday.
Bjarki about to go on strike unless he Gets. Food. Now! So, we ate lunch here, at the Brasserie Le Parc. The other open Brasseries in the area were on the expensive side, and too fancy for this army of children. The food here was ok.
When we parked, we realized that we’d forgotten Emma’s stroller at the house. Once Finnur was done eating, he was therefore sent on a stroller-retrieval-journey. They rest of us finished eating and then made our way into the actual park. (I totally forgot to pack the filter that makes the sky look blue. Sorry!)
This is a huge park, and it was somewhat crowded. This is taken in the botanical part.
Visitors catching sight of a brown bear. The zoo is free, which was nice!
See the crocodile sunbathing in the doorway?
Emma on board the mommy-stroller.
Probably the liveliest flamingo birds I’ve seen at a zoo. Perhaps because they had an actual river to play in?
Giraffes! Anna took a lot of the pictures that day.
The ‘tiny’ giraffe was still bigger than a human.
Enjoying the giraffes.
Zebras hiding. This zoo is renovating the entire park, so the animals have places they can hide if they don’t want to be on display. It’s good for the animals, and somewhat less good for the visitors.
Anna took photos of pretty much every dog she saw.
Finnur feeling tired from all the heat.
Emma was reunited with her stroller back by the flamingos.
The animals were mostly feeling lazy, but the monkeys were pretty happy to play.
Nice beard!
We decided to move on to the church up on the hill, so we exited the park and made our way to the cars.
Another doggy pic!
Up on a hill overlooking the city is this Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.
There was a nice breeze up on the hill, and the view was excellent!
Panorama from the balcony. Click on the image for a larger version.
Sun hiding behind a cloud and a tower.
Two kiddos and a church. Emma fell asleep as we were approaching the church, so Finnur stayed in the car with her, and then I swapped with him.
There was an actual packed mass going on when we visited, but there were a few benches in the back that were open. We stayed for a little bit, and I tried my best to answer the kids’ questions regarding what was going on. I also snapped a photo or two even though I wasn’t supposed to. Shhh…
Finnur out of the car (my feet were killing me!) and this is what happens when indoor camera settings are used outdoors!
Driving back home, over the river Rhone.
Bridges everywhere!
We all ended up in our house, where the kids played for a while.
We hadn’t quite planned for having dinner at our place, and all the shops were closed this late on a Sunday, but thankfully, Finnur and Óli stumbled upon an open corner shop where they bought frozen pizzas and lasagne. It could have gone worse! The kids played some more while we chatted and ate cheese, before our visitors drove back to their abode.