Vienne

Bon Jour Mes Amies.
The charming city of Vienne on the banks of the Rhone has been a popular spot for habitation since the bronze age, and it makes an easy and delightful day trip from Lyon.  Fortunately I had a day of spectacular weather for it.
I was puzzled when I researched my time table and ticket. The trip out was fast, but the trip back look significantly longer.  Stops I guessed.  Yes, but that was only part of it.  We trained out but bussed back.  I don't know why, but it did'n't bother me because I got to see more of the region.  What did bother me was the string of large and busy McDonalds that lined our route back and the sad (to me) spectacle of French cars lined up for drive through.  People worry about cooking being a lost art.  I hope not.
Vienne was easy to get around.  I quickly found the fancy and welcoming tourist information center and was provided with a clear map to all the historic goodies to be found.  Vienne was at first an important center of the Gallic Allobroges tribe who used the river system in the area to build up a trading empire.  Then, of course, the Romans showed up.  Interestingly the Roman name for Vienne in France and the better known Vienna in Austria are the same.
There are some impressive Roman sites here.  Probably the best known is the nearly intact Temple of Augustus and Livia.  Art History students would recognize the conventions of a Roman temple.  It sits on a podium,  is pseudotypteral,  and has a pro style Corinthian colonnade.  It's rather like the Maison Caree in Nimes just not as in good condition, and one cannot enter.
Among other sights was a Roman theatre that rivaled Lyons.  These spaces are not wasted.  Performances are regularly held in the this theatre and also in the Garden of Cybele, which also boasts some impressive ruins.  I even got to walk on a stretch of a Roman road!
All of this did not take as long as I anticipated because the center of Vienne is compact and easy to get around although some of it is steep, so I decided to get an earlier train back even though it meant a different station of arrival.  Well the train turned out to be a bus, but we arrived just fine, and I got the tram home and then visited Les Halles de Paul Bocuse to obtain croissant and butter.  Pascal Bellevaire seems to hire only cute cheese mongers.  This is nice.  I also wanted to look over the offerings so I could contemplate what special thing to have tomorrow.
I have sipped my aperitif as I wrote the post, and I am cooking some ravioli that I will douse with the lush but piquant olive oil.  And I discovered that that cheap wine I pulled off the bottom shelf in Monoprix was a lot fancier than I realized.  It's not just AOC.  It's AOP--in other words not just recognized in France as the genuine product but throughout the European Union.
A demain.