Vienne (It's in France)

Cathédrale Primatiale Saint-Maurice/Saint Maurice Cathedral



Vienne, not to be confused with "Vienna, Austria."


Vienne is the second largest city in the department of Isère behind Grenoble and conveniently a nine minute train ride away from Chasse.


However, because the trains are not running regularly due to the strike, I hopped a bus, which took 20 minutes.


And just because it's the second largest city in the department, doesn't mean it's necessarily huge. Although I'd been there before for paperwork and to see a movie, this time I went by myself for an afternoon of solitary wandering and to discover the things that I briefly saw on my previous visits, but didn't really get to see.


Well, not too much was open or lively, because I was there at lunchtime on Saturday. It was peaceful, but cold and I was getting tired. I managed to take a few pictures. Here's what I saw:




Passerelle Pietonne/Pedestrian Pass
(This bridge reminds me of the Chain Bridge in Budapest,
and I was disappointed it has such a cop-out name in French).

View of the Rhône River

Distant view of Le Mont Pipet/Mount Pipet, home of ex-fortress
and present day place of Christian worship.

Boat along the river

Roman ruins in the Jardin Archéologique de Cybèle/
Cybele's Archaeological Garden.

Tiny tower windows

Had my lunch along the Quai du Rhône




View of Mont Salomon (the remains of
a chateau stand at the top)






Jardin Archéologique de Cybèle





I like to think of this as "tiki-guy," master of the pond




Steep street in Vienne with Mont Pipet in background

Oranges on a leaf-less tree in a Vienne park

I figured out that I missed a lot of sites, but then again I didn't refer to my map/guide until after I got home. I got up this morning wanting to walk around somewhere new and I knew the train schedules have been "dodgy" (for lack of a better word) lately. So, I had planned on going to whichever town popped up first on the train station screen. That's either Vienne or Lyon. Vienne won.

I like the idea of discovering things on my own without the help of a map, then figuring out later what it was. I know it's not the most logical thing to do, but I like to come up with an explanation for something on my own, guess what it is, what is was used for, then figure out the real deal later, and see how close I was.

I completely missed the famed Roman Theatre, Pyramid, and Augustus/Livia Temple, but had been pretty damn close to them at certain points on my wanderings. I just happened to turn a different corner.

On the bus back home, several people wanted to know if the bus went to another train station in Lyon, which it didn't, therefore making a lot of people do that clipped French sigh. One man found the humor in the situation saying, "Monsieur, vous faites Le Tour de France pour aller à Part-Dieu?"/"Sir, can you do the Tour de France to get to Lyon's Part-Dieu?" Everyone had a good laugh at that one and the tension lightened slightly.

I'll have to go back when it's a little warmer and when I'm a little less tired, now that I've read the guide.

Pas de soucis/No worries....Vienne's only 9 or 20 minutes away, depending on if there's a strike or not...