Threads

I had planned that today's clever-clogs line would be 'Petit dejeuner in Paris, lunch in Lyon and tea in Turin'. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. I'm writing this on a bus in Chambéry, on the wrong side of the Alps (I've seen the snow in the distance), and it will be way past anything I could call tea time before we see the river Po. We spent longer than can be justified by its cultural significance in a gruesome-but-friendly bus station in Lyon, amid much Gallic shrugging and diesel fumes. But it did mean we got to meet a frienldly Lyonnais with such fluent American English that we took her for a US native, so we got her perspective on the city

Lots of Roman archaeology, apparently - an amphitheatre on the hill above the city, but lots more underground. It was the Roman capital of Gaul. There are still strong links between Lyon and Turin, she said ("except by bus", I thought). Lots of Roman church, too: a cathrdral and a Basilica and crumbling monasteries. The locals call the high ground from which the basilica surveys the city 'the prayer hill'

The city got in early (15th century) on farming silk worms and producing silk thread and cloth, becoming a global powerhouse in the trade and a prosperous city. All went well until the late 17th century, when the French expelled protestant Hugenots, many of whom were skilled silk workers, who took their expertise to Germany, UK, Italy and beyond. The decline of the monarchy, the revolution and the 'terreur' finished it off. No wonder 'the prayer hill' was spoken with and undertone of venom

The textile industry more generally hung on, though, which led to expertise in dyeing and dyes. That, in turn, generated expertise in chemistry, which kicked off a chemicals industry, which became a petro-chemicals industry and has now fosteted a biotech industry. We learned quite a lot from a delayed bus. As in the case of the granting of a slik monopoly by Francois I in 1540: something about unanticipated consequences

(For blipper kendalishere in particular, I should just record that Lyon lunch was a goats' cheese and honey baguette (with pine nuts and salad), and it was quite delicious. These honey sommeliers are clearly on to something)