Lyon, France
3 July 2014
Today was a visit to the Amphitheatre and the Musee de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine (Gallo-Roman Museum). This is one of the main tourist attractions in Lyon, especially if you are interested in things Roman. Lyon (lugdunum to the Romans) was located in the Roman Province of Transalpine Gaul (Gaul-Across the Alps). It had become a province about the time Caius Julius Caesar (the famous one for moderns) was born. It was part of the provinces assigned to Caesar after his first term as consul of Rome and from which base he proceeded to conquer Omnia Gaullia. It was also one of the locations where Rome established a mint to coin bronze and silver coins partly to simplify payment of the legions stationed in Gaul and commerce. I have some of the coins minted here in my collection.
The museum really doesn’t look like much from the outside when you arrive. It is pretty much a blank concrete wall. But after you go down a few steps and enter it, it is entirely different. It is still pretty much a concrete building and much of the structural supports is visible. But you descend a circular ramp with a few short steps down six floors, along which there are artifacts found in and around Lyon. These range from early pre-Roman Gallic weapons and tools with which Caesar would have to contend in his conquest of Gaul through artifacts from the days of Imperial Rome.
The exhibits include items of ordinary everyday use and a great many inscribed stonework. There are some English labels, but most are in French. There is an audio guide which I imagine has English as well as other languages. The inscriptions are a challenge to read even if you know Latin because besides being sometimes worn and incomplete, they contain many abbreviations and no separation between words. EVERYTHINGISRUNTOGETHERLIKETHIS. Perhaps the most spectacular contents of the museum are the many mosaics which seem to be quite complete or else have been well restored. In several cases you are given an opportunity to view a mosaic floor from the floor above. There are also windows from which you can view the adjacent amphitheater. When you have descended to the bottom floor of the museum you are on the level of the orchestra of the amphitheater and the courtyard which was located behind the skena. Not to worry, you don’t have to climb back up the six floors to get out of the museum; there are elevators.
The museum is located on a hillside next to the Amphitheater and Odeon. Both have been restored and used for modern performances. The Amphitheater was like the classical Greek theater – semicircular seating on the hillside around an orchestra, behind which was a skena, a build that served as a backdrop, where the mechanics of deus ex machine were located and scenery could be deployed. The skena is now gone. The museum contains a small working replica of the skena. With the help of a museum attendant I was able to take of video of the mechanics of raising and lowering the scenery. Because of the slowness of Wi-Fi I will post the video in August.
Perhaps my luck is beginning to improve. My hearing aids have dried out and are more or less working again. The fidelity isn’t up to snuff and they are somewhat weakened. I will have to have them serviced when I get home. While the restaurant gave me a free ticket to the museum yesterday, I didn’t need it because access to the museum was free today. The ticket is also good for a museum in Vienne, which I will try to get to before I leave Lyon on Saturday.
I had decided to take a taxi from the hotel to the museum and back. The rivers Rhone and Saone lie between the hotel and museum which is located on a steep hill overlooking most of modern Lyon. I probably could use the local bus system, but with a taxi I don’t have to figure out how. One interesting thing about the taxis here is that they not only charge by the mile, but time as well. While stopped at in traffic, the meter ticks over about €0.10 per minute. What with the taxi rides, another excellent dinner in the evening and some magazines I ran a few euros over my “target” by well below my “maximum” day budget. But so far I well under $100 per day, which is the “target.” I’m still spending Euros left over from Greece and haven’t had to use an ATM, although I probably do need to do so while in Lyon just to verify that the Credit Union hasn’t messed up like they did a couple of years ago when I visited Italy.
Canicus Modius
AKA Kenneth Peck