|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Presqu'ile is the peninsula that separates the two rivers of Saône and Rhône. Its main focal point is the place Bellecour that was laid out in 1617 and holds the statue of Louis XIV dressed as a roman emperor although he is dwarfed by the size of the square covered in pink gravel. The area is full of shops, rue Auguste-Comte is brimming with antique shops and rue Victor-Hugo is a pedestrian shopping paradise. The area has the museum Musée des Tissus that presents the history of decorative cloth of the past centuries. Over the Pont Gallieni is the Centre d'Histoire de la Resistance et de la Deportation, easily translated, to present its contents of a collection of books memoirs and documents recording episodes and memories of the occupation and resistance. The collection is aptly placed to house the exhibition in the cellars where Klaus Barbie tortured and murdered victims. There is a video of the trial of the Gestapo boss of Lyon when he was on trial a number of years ago. At the north of the area is the Quartier Mercier lined with sixteenth and seventeenth century houses and the church of St Nizier that still declares, with the ringing of its bells, the nightly closing of the city gates. The district that was once the silk weavers den is now filling with trendy bars and restaurants and chic shops down the pedestrian area of rue de la République. The area also commemorates the fact the Lyon was, during Renaissance times, a leading banking and editorial centre in an uneventful Musée de l'Imprimerie. Pity really. |