Some of you may remember our blog posting on September 14th about spending the day in the Croix Rousse area of Lyon. We mentioned joining in a parade celebrating the "Republique des Canuts" (silk workers). The parade ended in a park with festivities including speeches, food, etc. We didn’t go into the park, but agreed that it looked interesting and that we should go back some time to check it out. Well, we finally did it!
The park, Le Parc de la Cerisaie (cherry orchard), is actually the former estate of the Gillet family. The Gillets built a vast industrial empire that eventually merged with Rhône-Poulenc, a large chemical and pharmaceutical company. (Renaud Gillet was president of Rhône-Poulenc for a while.) The park includes the villa the Gillets had built in 1911. The family actually lived there until 1976 when they gave the villa, outbuildings, and grounds to the city of Lyon.
Lyon has made a few changes. The city began hosting symposiums of sculptures in 1980, and there are sculptures throughout the grounds. The villa was renovated in 1986 and now houses several art, music and literary organizations.
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| Picture we took of the front of the villa and part of the grounds. (Yes, that's a modern high-rise in the background.) |
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| Showing detail of decoration on villa. |
The villa remains impressive, and the setting is lovely and amazingly tranquil. When we were there there were people strolling along the various paths, enjoying reading a book while sitting on park benches, and just enjoying the ambiance of the park. One couple had actually brought their own lawn chairs and were peacefully reading a newspaper. The grounds are so vast that one can easily find a spot away from all the other visitors. What a lovely oasis in this big city!
Here are some of the pictures we took; they should give you an idea of the lovely park we are describing.
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| One of the expansive lawns with sculptures. Hard to believe that downtown Lyon is just on the other side of those trees! |
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| David standing at the gate to the grounds. |
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| Here David is standing by some of the outbuildings (lodging for some of the staff and storage). The rear of the buildings is now right on the street as you can see. |
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| A pleasant, quiet place to sit and read a book as the lady on the bench is. |
Coming from Kirkland, a town known for its many parks, it has been a pleasure to enjoy the lovely parks in our second city, Lyon.
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