Day 9: Farewell to Lyon, on to Geneva

Today we visited the Museum of the Resistance in what was originally a medical college, turned Gestapo headquarters during the occupation. This small museum weaves historical information and artifacts with personal accounts from Lyonesse children, resistance members, and several prisoners detained here before being deported to work camps or Auschwitz. The collection is an extremely personal account of the lives of ordinary citizens and was completely worth the trip to see.

Museum entrance.

Courtyard.

A statue outside.

Photographs taken by Emile Rouge.

WWII era gas mask.

Propaganda display.

Recounting activism from his student days.

Wireless.

These include a pacifist student who was recruited to represent France at the Olympics recounting laughing with her friends at how ridiculous they thought this Hitler fellow was, and how much they had underestimated him. The vandalism of another student who removed a stained glass portrait of Marshal Petain recently installed in a church and smashed it before symbolically drowning it in the river. A man recounting being captured by the gestapo at a raid and his wife first going to Barbie to demand his release and then participating in the rescue of him and some other prisoners during transport to the train station. A wireless operator demonstrating how she encoded transmissions. A Jewish man who was captured with his mother and grandfather when he was 15 detailing his grandfather’s murder, their detainment here, transfer to Auschwitz, release to the Swedish Red Cross, return to Lyon, and eventual return to Auschwitz, which his mother had not survived.

Bill had read some reviews criticizing the museum for not being sufficiently English friendly, which seems like a bizarre criticism, and one that is apparently out of date. The 4 euro admission price includes access to an android tablet programmed in 4 languages, including English. Bill did that, while I took the slightly lighter paper booklet. Throughout the exhibit, there are wall mounted screens with recordings or video interviews, all with English options. If you come to Lyon, you should definitely do this – and block off at least 3 hours.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the market to find it indeed mostly closed for the holiday, with only a few crowded cafés open. So we instead head to a slightly quieter restaurant near the hotel for burgers and sausages before picking up our baggage to head out for our last train ride this trip. To Geneva, where Bill appears to have booked us a room in some sort of nightclub, or something.

Our bed has ground effects. WTF.

Here we have what is so far the largest communication error of the trip. Instead of ordering a small meal with a couple of cocktails, we get a large one. Alas, as far as errors go, this isn’t too bad.