Assembly of ruins and murals

The sun shone, the thermometer climbed, and we took advantage of the first real summer weekend to do a bit of exploring. The three day agenda (including Pentecost Monday, a 'semi' bank holiday in France), included lunch at a riverside café and stroll in the park on Saturday, painted wall hunting on Sunday and Roman aqueduct viewing on Monday.

Earlier in the week, on Thursday we were treated to an extraordinary (in more ways than one) meeting of our apartment building neighbours. The main reason the meeting was called was to approve the request to delay the AGM in order to decide on a new management company. Our current syndic is notable only for its incompetence and lack of reactivity, as illustrated by the fact that the AGM should have taken place six months ago, and one of the agenda items is to approve accounts for 2008. Anyway, the meeting once again took a familiar course. Lots of high speed talking, usually two or three people at one time, which meant I followed only about half of what was said. It seems to me that the French, especially the female variety, have brains wired in a different way to my own. They appear to have no problem talking and listening at the same time, and eventually a course of action was decided. The syndic won't be happy…

Les murs peints are a feature of Lyonnais culture, and on Sunday we decided to set out in search of one or two examples off the beaten, central Lyon tourist track. Venturing into the seventh arrondissement, we eventually found le Fresque Lumière and le Mur de Cinéma. Very impressive too, even if the former is better viewed at night when the lighting system brings it to life, but after the latter the six km walk took its toll on two bodies suffering from a mysterious malaise. Not hangovers, I hasten to add, but something else, perhaps the shock of seeing warm, sunny weather again.

We had recovered enough the next day to mount a more ambitious expedition, driving out into the hills to the west of Lyon. Principal attraction of the area is some remains of the Roman aqueduct that carried water from the Monts du Lyonnais to downtown Lugdunum. After admiring the impressive selection near Chaponost, we set off on a 8km walk on the hottest day of the year so far and at the hottest time of day.

Following sketchy directions in a pamphlet and a map illegible without reading glasses, we took a somewhat more roundabout route than intended but eventually stopped for a pleasant picnic lunch by a pond just outside Chaponost. La bienheureuse took over navigational duties thereafter, and we thus retraced the route we should have traced earlier with somewhat greater success, arriving back at the car, hot, sweaty but satisfied. We then drove into the village for a brief look around, finding another painted wall to complete the theme of the weekend.