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.

Ahmed the gargoyle

Like all monuments exposed to the perils of pollution, the Cathédral St. Jean-Baptiste in Lyon is constantly having to be cleaned and renovated. Even though the cleaning is done by laser nowadays rather than high-pressure water, which tended to scratch off yet more of the fine sandstone, sometimes the delicate centuries-old structures are so worn away by acid rain that they need to be replaced completely.

In 2010, it was decided that a gargoyle on the north wall of the cathedral - on the left-hand side if you're facing the front - had reached the "point of no return". Sculptor Emmanuel Fourchet was therefore given the task of designing and producing a suitable statue that might take its place.