Are we talking about the same thing?

A recent article in the online English-language magazine The Local, entitled "The daftest Trip Advisor comments about France," featured an array of damning and often entertaining reviews of famous locations, mainly in and around Paris.

Although I am generally more interested in less well-known gems, the article made me wonder what people wrote about the highlights of my adopted city. Surely, I mused, visitors would be more positive in their comments about Lyon, France's second city (sorry, Bordeaux, Marseilles et al) and the undisputed capital of the Gauls.

A quick trip to the Trip Advisor site proved eye-opening.

Seeing Italy

Uh-oh!

Lyon is some 160 kilometres from Chamonix, the ski resort on the Italian-French border. Mont Blanc, the mountain that separates the two countries at this point, is the highest not only in France, but in all the Alps, topping out at 4810 metres above mean sea level.

Although the Swiss border is much closer than the Italian one (Geneva is just 110km away), you can sometimes see Mont Blanc from Lyon's Fourvière hill, Croix-Rousse and other higher elevations, like the Mont d'Or just to the north-west.

On particularly clear days, you are treated to a whole mountain range stretching along the Italian border, and Mont Blanc itself appears to be just a few miles beyond the city limits. However, pretty as the sight is, it's not a good omen.