A day trip to visit a friend I hadn’t seen in three years took me to a beautiful site in Nyon, just 15 minutes from Geneva. I’d been to the city before to see the Roman Museum (in its interesting 1970s underground-bunker-style building) and then the 12th-century Nyon Castle, but I hadn’t come accross these styles. A friend took my friend, my boyfriend and I there, and it was…

On Friday afternoon, I decided to visit the so-called Amphitheater of the Three Gauls of Lugdunum (Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules). I found the name intriguing, but I had no idea what it referred to (apart from the obvious fact that it’s a Gallo-Roman amphitheater). The amphitheater is located in a part of Lyon called La Croix-Rousse, the second-highest hill in the city after Fourvière. In Lugdunum, that area was…

After visiting the site of the thermae, I walked to the main (and more famous) site of Lugdunum, with the Roman Theatre, the Odéon, and the Gallo-Roman Museum (and some other interesting things). From far you can already see how impressive and complex this site is, the social, cultural and political center of Lugdunum. The theatre and the odeon are incredible, very well preserved and still hosting events (in…

I’ve recently realized that I live just a few metro stops away from one of the most important Roman archaeological sites in the world: the Roman theatre of Lyon (or Lugdunum), in Fourvière. I moved to Lyon a little over two months from Paris (an incredible city full of history, though not particularly rich in Gallo-Roman sites), so I am still finding my way around the city. It is…