The Fort du Bruissin - Part 1

Hi! The C20E bus here in Lyon begins its journey downtown, which is why I've often seen them in the streets although I'd never set foot on one until this afternoon. 

This bus goes to somewhere called the Fort du Bruissin and it gets there after snaking up one of the hills that surround downtown Lyon before heading through the suburbs and out into the countryside.

I didn't read up on the fort before leaving so that everything would be completely new to me, but I suppose you, dear reader, would like to know a few things about it before I post the photos I took there.

So, the Fort de Bruissin was one of a couple of dozen forts that were built around Lyon as fortifications to defend the city. It was built in the late 1870s, although the first forts were built in the 1830s, and it was a training camp for officers in World War One. In World War Two it served as a German Army ammunition depot. But the soldiers have long since left and today it is a cultural centre and home to one of Lyon's better known jazz festivals, the Fort en Jazz.

I got on the bus down by the River Saône, and once on it I would be taken up this steepish hill on the other side of the river.

The road twists and turns and soon we can see the city stretching out below us. I zoomed a lot to get this photo so we're higher up than it appears. The train station is at Perrache, one of Lyon's two major transport hubs.

Ah, lots of trees at last!

And there are a lot less people too....

Here's my bus, at the end of the line. It looks like there are two buses there but there's only one in fact. It's an articulated, or 'stretch' model and the articulated section is hidden behind the trees.

I asked the driver where the fort was and he said I could either go along a road that he pointed out to me or take a short cut through the woods. I chose the latter and here's where I entered the woods, just yards from where the bus was parked.

 It was a delightful walk, up a slight incline.

 Then, the first sight of part of the fort. This used to be an exterior moat and this vantage point shows one of six corners along the outer wall of the fort, which is a six-sided hexagon.

Here's the main entrance to the fort. That bridge you see used to be a drawbridge a long time ago, but the days of battle are long since gone.

The water in the moat has been replaced by lush spring grass and small wild flowers. It would be nice to walk around the fort in the moat but I'm not sure it's open to the public.

Behind the moat lies the inner complex consisting of what used to be barracks and the fort's cultural exhibition areas.

Here are a couple of shots of arrow slits and observation windows. I wonder whether anyone ever fired an arrow in anger out of one of the many slits that are dotted about on the walls.

There is a pathway that rings the fort and all along it are cannon emplacements and ammunition storage areas. This was the fort's first major defence perimiter and men, guns and ammunition would cross one of the sturdy bridges that connected the interior complex to the outer defences.

Here we are, back at the main entrance on the inside of the fort.

 There was lots to see and read at the Fort du Bruissin, and there are also a couple of absolutely charming young ladies at reception who were very helpful indeed. They're students who are studying various aspects of the world of culture. It was a pleasure to meet them and I'm only sorry that this photo of them is blurred. Toutes mes excuses ! :)

 

And with that I headed back to catch the bus home, very pleased that I had taken the C20E to the end of the line and discovered a new place in the country, just a few miles from the hustle and bustle of life in the city. The bus swayed from side to side as it descended back down to Lyon, which became visible one again from high up and a few minutes from town.

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(There is a very interesting exhibition currently running at the fort about the celebrated American jazz record label Blue Note Records. Blue Note recorded some of the world's best jazz musicians. I visited the exhibition and will be posting about that in Part Two in a couple of days.)

Fripouille.

Feyzin les Razes on the number 60 bus

Feyzin les Razes (an old postcard)

It was 3:30 in the afternoon and it was very sunny outside, albeit a little cold, so I decided to take the number 60 bus from my stop near the city centre this afternoon and continue on out to the end of the line, which is Feyzin les Razes, a small community on the outer limits of the city. It is 25 kilometres from my apartment and the trip takes 45 minutes.

Feyzin les Razes is a small neighbourhood on the outskirts of Feyzin, a community that has existed since its 11th century beginnings as a hamlet. The hamlet developed into a village, and the village began to expand in the early 1800's when industries were set up there. Modern-day Feyzin is synonymous with the chemical production factories that employ many of its inhabitants as well as the enormous Feyzin petrol refinery.

So, off we go to the end of the 60 line. The first site of note I see on my way out is a football stadium, that of l'Olympique Lyonnaise, one of the biggest clubs in France. Am I a fan? No. I come from Liverpool and as such would be hung from the nearest lampost if I ever went home and said I supported anyone else but Liverpool or Everton. I'm a Liverpool fan as it happens. But I digress....

After that the bus heads out into what were previously uncharted waters for me, the vast industrial estate on the South-West of the city that is a major employer in Lyon and the surrounding region. Here's the entry to a construction materials factory. It belongs to Lafarge, the biggest conglomerate in the world in its sector.

Lord knows what happens here. Is it a factory? Is it art? Is it place where cranes can have fun painting symmetrical patterns in the sky and building new buildings?

Wow!! I'm in an urban transport bus rolling through the countryside for a few kilometres!

Here we are in Feyzin les Razes. End of the line. And what's the first thing I see? This. It's an ominous-looking tower of steel and tubes and pipes that does god-knows-what at the petrol refinery that is a major symbol here. One of the biggest industrial accidents in France's history occurred at this refinery in the Sixties, when the reservoirs exploded, killing and injuring dozens of people.

The bus stop at the end of the line is next to a car park, in the middle of which is a bandstand. Constructed many years ago, it sits there patiently, waiting for those warmer days when the car park will be closed to cars and turned over to the local people for their local brass band concerts, flea markets and other activities.

Ah. A bar. I like bars, although this one looks rather uninviting. And is it even open? It turns out that it is so I go in and order a beer and talk to the barmaid, who says "You came here to take pictures of this place? But there's nothing here to see!"

Incidentally - and I may be wrong - but it seems to me that the old photo below may well have been taken from more or less the same spot as I was standing at when I took the photo above.

Here's the central square. Lots of greenery, kids playing in the playpark, few people around. It's quiet and peaceful, like in a village. That makes a change from where I live that's for sure!

Here's a familair site in small French communities, a memorial to those resistants who fell during the Second World War.....

But life goes on, new generations are born, and they need to be able to expend their youthful energy. Just yards from the memorial, and perhaps fittingly, is a basketball court. Those two young men in there are a part of this community, and they are also its future.

So there you have it. That's Feyzin les Razes, a place that nobody would normally go to unless they had a very pressing reason to or unless they lived there. Nondescript? Banal? Ugly? Uninspiring?

Call it what you like, but it exists, I was there, and I am pleased that I went to the end of the line.

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(The old postcard photos here came from this French blog on Feyzin, which contains a lot more of them.)