Lyon afternoon · Maison de la Culture de Firminy

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Lyon

   Lyon sits on two rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, which meet at the southern tip of the narrow peninsula at the heart of the city, and it has been an important place for two thousand years. The Romans founded it in 43 BC as Lugdunum, and made it the capital of the three Gauls, and you can still sit in the Roman theatres on the hill of Fourvière, where plays are held on summer nights. Above them stands the white basilica, visible from everywhere, and below them, the old town of Vieux Lyon has Renaissance houses and the covered passages called traboules, which cut through blocks and courtyards and were used by silk workers and later by the Resistance.

   Read the complete Lyon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lyon is where the day begins. Next is Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette.

2. 2. Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette

   A concrete box on stilts, set on a slope among trees, is not what you expect from a Dominican priory. Le Corbusier designed the convent of La Tourette in the late 1950s for the friars of the order, and it was completed in 1960, with the young composer and architect Iannis Xenakis working on its rhythmic window walls. The church is a bare cube of rough concrete, lit by a few carefully placed openings, and the cells for the friars are small and very quiet, each with a balcony. It is a place where the building is the sermon, and it was added to the UNESCO list in 2016.

   Read the complete Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Maison de la Culture de Firminy.

3. 3. Maison de la Culture de Firminy

   Firminy is a coal-and-steel town in the Loire valley that happens to hold the largest group of Le Corbusier buildings in Europe. The architect was invited here in the 1950s to plan a new neighbourhood, Firminy-Vert, for workers whose old houses were crumbling, and over the next decades several of his designs went up: a housing block, a stadium, a youth and culture centre and, finished long after his death, a great concrete church. The Maison de la Culture is the long, bold building with a sagging roof that looks as if it had been poured from a jug, and it is part of the UNESCO listing given to his work in 2016.

   Read the complete Maison de la Culture de Firminy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Maison de la Culture de Firminy. Next is back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette.

4. 4. back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette, late in the day. Next is Lyon.

5. 5. Lyon

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Lyon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Lyon. That is the ride.