Rain was forecast for Lyon on Sunday morning, imperiling our tour group’s ascent to the Basilica of Nôtre Dame of Fourvière.  HL and I had taken the Paris Metro the previous week, but not as part of an official activity.  Getting to the Basilica in Lyon was to be the group׳s first use of public transportation. Laden with umbrellas, our windbreakers rustling, we sallied forth to the Metro station.  As it was only two blocks to the stop on Place Bellecour, our passing through the Metro’s portals was somewhat anticlimactic.
 
        Nowhere is the rivalry between Paris and Lyon more obvious than in the matter of the dueling Eiffel Towers.  Giselle, one of our pair of tour directors, was a passionate advocate for Lyon.  She had been born and educated there.  Giselle informed us gleefully that Felix Bartholdi produced both towers from the same materials and design, but the one in Lyon was slightly taller.

Lyon's Eiffel Tower
 

         There were several funiculars that conveyed the Lyonnaise to the higher sections of their city.  Our Metro tickets gained us admission to the funicular.  Each Metro ticket was valid for a whole day’s unlimited travel on all forms of public transportation.  We rode the funicular with the steepest route to the Hill of Fourvière, site of the Basilica.  From there, we had a panoramic view of Lyon and its  environs.  The drizzle was almost imperceptible by then.

Funicular to the Fourvière Hilltop 

         By the standards of the Cathedral of Lyon, the Basilica was newly constructed, dating from 1884.  The Romans had established the outpost that became Lugdunum, later Lyon, on the hilltop in 43  CE.  The name Fourvière may have been derived from Forum Vetus, Old Forum in Latin.

         Those of you familiar with ecclesiastical nomenclature will know that the far smaller, medieval Cathedral of Lyon is the one where the bishop presides.  The bishop's symbolic throne (cathedra) is there.  The Pope designates a church as a Basilica owing to some architectural, historical or religious distinction.  The Basilica of  Fourvière was erected to thank the Virgin Mary for her alleged role in Lyon's being spared during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.  

The Basilica of Nôtre Dame

Detail of the front of the Basilica

       
          The style of the church was fanciful.  The exterior was chiefly Romanesque Revival (if there is a Romanesque Revival).
Within were many mosaic murals with evident Byzantine influence, all tiled and many gilded.
 
         The grateful, relieved Lyonnaise raised construction funds by subscription.  These were sufficient to decorate every surface, from the vaulted ceilings to the floors, with brilliant colors and bas-reliefs.  With its rich hues and abundant gilding, the Basilica was almost garish.

         There was a Sunday service in progress while we were at the Basilica, so I took only a few photographs. Our tour director, Elodie, gave each of us in her group a piece of blue candy, a type associated with the Basilica.  Some extremely pious, and doubtless hardy, worshippers go up and down the stairs on their knees.  Some ease the pain by kneeling on little pillows as they go.  The sweets were called Cushions of Our Lady.  They were chocolates shaped into sugary blue rectangles colored with curaçao.  I was tempted by the candy, but passed on the penance.

One of the local chocolate and marzipan candies called Cuissons de Lyon, or, Cushions of Our Lady