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LA VIE EN FRANCE / LIFE IN FRANCE

My favourite way of getting to France is overland, by train.  Others might find an 8-hour train journey, with two changes, a bit daunting but I love trains so much that, if a choice was always available, I would go everywhere - anywhere - by train.  In truth, one of the things that makes flying to Lyon from Edinburgh so attractive is the rail journey up the coastline from Newcastle (and the tram ride into Lyon at the other end, naturally).

An unexpected bonus on my outward journey this time was a chance meeting with Celia Imrie (no less) on Eurostar.  She is a splendid - and strikingly beautiful - lady and is graciously used to star-struck reactions of the sort she got from me. 

Her on-air presence is unmistakeable; although she’s best known for her role as Miss Babs with Victoria Wood in Acorn Antiqes, I last heard her on Radio 4 as Aunt Lilly in the very best comedy show that Radio 4 has broadcast for decades - Bleak Expectations.  I loved her all-too-brief appearances in it and told her so.

She was on her way to Nice to finish writing her first novel.  It’s called Not Quite Nice, it’s out next month and I’ll be buying a copy.  So will you, if you know what's good for you.

I think I’m in love...

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Life in France is sliding back to a semblance of normality now - although, as I’ve discovered, some things will never be the same again after Charlie Hebdo.  Already, worrying stories are emerging of Muslim schoolkids who refused en masse to honour the ‘national silence’ a week ago; of their attacks on the kids who did; of ‘copycat’ robberies in supermarkets by masked Muslims oathing vengeance like the Charlie Hebdo murderers.

There have already been masked Muslim personal reprisal attacks, too.  So, ‘to be on the safe side’, most people have removed their Je Suis Charlie posters and banners from view.  You can’t be too careful...

The only public Je Suis Charlie banner I've seen in 6 days.  

It adorns a building on the Place Bellecour, Lyon's grand central square.

It’s not over yet by any means, especially here in rural France, away from the Parisian news spotlights....

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And so to Lyon again - one of my favourite places on the planet.  And this time, it had an extravagant new surprise for me.

Lyon lies at the confluence of two of France’s greatest rivers - the Saône and the Rhône - and a shiny new museum has just opened on the spit of land where the rivers meet; the Musée des Confluences (naturally).

It’s an astonishing experience, outside as well as in.... 

Weird or what.

(It's the architecture I'm talking about...)

This is the new tram-bridge outside the Museum.

Lyon's trams have cowl-shaped ends so that they look like giant silkworms - a deliberate acknowledgment of the importance of silk manufacture in mediaeval Lyon.

The floridly extravagant lobby of the new museum.

It's been heavily criticised, even by lovers of modern architecture.

Personally...I loved it the moment I walked in.

As for the museum's contents...well, they're harder to 'pin down' and make serious judgments about.

There are culture-based artifacts like this small army of buddhas...

 ....to these Polynesian head-dresses...

...and these terrifying Pacific Island masks

There are examples of more modern human ingenuity, too.

This is a Jacquard loom.  Its introduction caused riots amongst Lyon's weavers - they threw their clogs at it to mess up its internal workings.  The French for 'clog' is sabot - which is why such actions are called 'sabotage'.

The rest of the museum seems to consist of artistically-presented examples of systematic cruelty, though.  Stuffed birds, mounted butterflies and moths...

 ...including this sadly thought-provoking display...

 ...and this jungle of dead antelope...

There's also a mammoth's skeleton, of which this is my favourite view...

I love you, too

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And I can't leave France without saying a very, very big MERCI to Ludo, his wife Vero ('Mam') and their son Julien ('Juju') for giving Serge and me such an unforgettable day yesterday.  In return for the home-made jams I gave them - courtesy of my brother and his wife - I was given a bottle of St Germain elderflower liqueur.  

Fair do's. 

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