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.

Barrage de Cusset

The geography and history of Lyon are defined by two rivers. Hemmed in to the west by the rocky outcrop that is Fourvière hill, the city's growth over the centuries has depended on its inhabitants' ability to cross, bridge and eventually settle on the opposite, eastern banks of first the Saone and then, much later, the far larger Rhone. 

But whereas the course of the Saone was comparatively easy to control, the mighty Rhone was prone to flash flooding, and numerous attempts to rein it in were literally washed away. So it wasn't until the late 19th century that someone came up with a plan that worked. 

The outcome was nothing short of revolutionary - for both Lyon and France as a whole.

Hôtel-Dieu

Like a dowager reclining on the banks of the river while her grandchildren frolic in the water, a once-stunning princess whose best days are long since behind her, the massive Hôtel-Dieu sprawls along the west side of the presque-île; the wedge of land in the centre of Lyon at the tip of which the city's two rivers, the Rhone and Saône, merge. For although it is one of the largest buildings in Lyon, it goes largely unnoticed by the people, cars and even the waters that rush by this locked and shuttered behemoth.