[Oct. 2025] Lyon, France, is home to many murals.
It’s fun to wander around and look at them.
After lunch, we still had some time before our return train, so we walked around a bit looking for them.
We’ve seen murals here and there in the world before.
For example, we’ve seen excellent murals in Salamanca in Spain or in Buenos Aires, as well as in Glasgow, Scotland.
But these murals in Lyon have a slightly different feel.
They have a certain history, a certain tradition…
It is the subject of the paintings which is different from others.
Rather than artists using their own creativity to create large, vivid paintings, many of these are optical illusions that are an extension of everyday life in the city.
When I asked the AI, I was told that Lyon’s murals combine memories of the city’s history as a silk-producing and artisan town with urban regeneration and arts policies.
A particularly popular painting is the Frasque des Lyonnais.
These trompe l’oeil paintings depict windows and verandas on old buildings, and the figures depicted are historical figures with ties to Lyon.
I couldn’t tell who the figures were, but apparently they include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Saint-Exupery.
The murals were painted in the 1990s by a group of artists specializing in murals called Cité Création.
Across the street, there were another well-made trompe l’oeil paintings that were worth seeing.
And that concludes our tour of Lyon.
We picked up our luggage at the hotel and headed to the Ampere Victor Hugo metro station.
However, although we managed to get on the metro train, it didn’t start moving at all.
There was an announcement, and people sighed and got off one after another.
We caught someone and learned that there was some kind of problem and the train wouldn’t start moving for an hour.
There was no taxi stand nearby, so we walked to the neighbouring Perruche station, which is also a railway station, to look for a taxi stand.
My husband is the stronger one in these situations, taking the initiative to ask people and call a taxi.
I was feeling quite desperate, having full stomach and feeling sleepy.
We finally got into a taxi and headed to Part-Dieu station for €25.
In the end we made it to our return Frecciarossa without any problems.
