It’s somewhat confusing, especially to the all-knowing-internet, which always wants to send you to “vienna” information when all you really want to know about is Vienne, a town about 25 miles south of Lyon.
And a pretty important one, too. Important enough that it definitely doesn’t merit this confusion.
Well, that was my destination for the day (Saturday). I’d always had Vienne on my dance card since I began preparing this trip, but was holding out for Annecy for my other big day trip – Annecy being, as I’ve said, the site of St. Francis de Sales’ and St. Jane de Chantal’s final resting place. But – rain. And Annecy is a beautiful lake town, so it makes no sense to trudge about it in the rain when you really don’t have to.
So, Vienne, it was. And although I’m sorry I’m missing Annecy, Vienne was fascinating.
Vienne, along with Lyon (Lugdunum) was the center of Roman Gaul. There on the banks of the Rhone, the city’s Roman heritage is still quite evident – a temple of Augustus and Olivia, right there in the center of town, now surrounded by shops and bistros – random walls and columns everywhere, and a large Roman theater which is still used, for instance, during Vienne’s well-regarded jazz festival each year.
The Romans settled on the other side of the river as well of course. The rich evidence for this settlement was not actually uncovered until the 1960’s during the process of building a new high school. Well, that was haulted while archaeologists got to work tracing the outlines of the urban fabric, unearthing fabulous mosaics and eventually building a museum on the site.
It’s compact, very well-preserved and curated, and kind of like being in Rome but with a little less graffiti and no cats and no Pope.
(Staahp, sedes….)
It was a quick trip – about 5 hours all together, but I saw what I wanted to see:
- St. Maurice Cathedral – named after the saint, one of the Theban Legion martyrs who refused to execute Christians. Part Romanesque, part Gothic, it’s rather spare of decoration because of the vandalism of the Wars of Religion and the Revolution. Many decapitated statues inside and out.
- There was a simple, enthusiastically celebrated wedding happening inside the church, which was lovely to see.
(There were, for example, originally statues in the niches above the door.)
- The Temple, of course.
- The Gallo-Roman museum across the river, on the site of the 1960’s discoveries.
Of course, it’s not the collection that you’d find in Naples, but then…they’ve got Pompeii and Herculaneum.
They had excellent models that help the visitor understand the lay of the land:
And the size and function of the warehouses on the Rhone. I was impressed with the detail.
- Finally, a hike up to the Pipet hill belvedere, which offered a spectacular view of the city, including the amphitheater – which I didn’t go in – seeing it from above was quite good enough. I don’t travel with children who need to run off steam on stadium-like steps any more. The hike up to the belvedere was vigorous enough and the view of the theater was great.
So, where I’m standing would have been the major temples. Below it, the amphitheater, and below that the forum and administrative buildings.
That’s the museum across the river.
- Also atop the Pipet hill was a small church that’s quite intensely dedicated to Our Lady of LaSalette.
Oh, it was also market day in Vienne, and it was serious. The stalls basically took over the entire center of the town. Who needs Wal-Mart?
Got back, came to the apartment, charged my phone, started laundry. Went back out, wandered in the neighborhood, had my usual frustrating experience of, just when I’m about to leave an area, discovering intriguing new corners. Not that I wanted to join the boules game, but you know. There were other things, too.
Charlotte was Both 