Discovering Villeurbanne

I keep doing this. I don't post for a while, then I put one of the posts I've been saving, and then I suddenly happen to have something to write.

Today I went out for a walk. It wasn't particularly sunny, the sun only came out for short periods of time. But the day was bright even without direct sunlight (by that I mean it wasn't somberly cloudy). I first thought of going out when I saw one of the sunny spells, but by the time I actually was ready to go out, the sun had disappeared behind a cloud. However I decided to go ahead anyway...

I walked all the way to Gratte-Ciel, and then République, and I believe I continued until I almost got to Alsace (the bus stop, not the region ;P ), but then I decided to turn back before reaching it. I walked back to Gratte-Ciel and walked around that area...and snapped a few photos (with my phone, so expect low quality)


This is a statue at Gratte-Ciel. I had never noticed it before, which isn't really surprising since I only passed Gratte-Ciel by bus or got off the bus there to take the metro. And both the bus and metro stops are further back in the photo. So I never walked far enough to see the statue.

Then I walked further (behind the statue, and by that I mean in the direction opposite the one it is facing) and found the place I had been wanting to find. :D

la mairie de Villeurbanne - Villeurbanne's town hall
(I'm not sure whether this is the front or the back though)

Okay, let me clarify. This is not some hot touristic spot. I passed it a few times by bus when I went for some interviews last semester (and I think when I took the bus to a friend's place as well). Before that I had never had any reason to take any bus passing through this part of the town.

While passing in the bus, I noticed the little square (okay, not really that little actually :P ) which I found rather pretty. I made myself a mental note to come back again another day to take a look, but up till now I never gave it another thought (which was kinda to be expected, I guess). So now that I have actually been there, on the square instead of just passing by in a bus, here are a couple of photos:

a "global" view of the square

and from one side of the square, which happens to be the view I got from the bus (the square's pretty symmetrical, as you can see)

For those who might have forgotten, I'm studying in INSA de Lyon, which is supposedly in Lyon but is actually in a small town beside Lyon called Villeurbanne ;)

Besides, there is a Starbucks in Gratte-Ciel. I remember all the fuss when a Starbucks opened in Lyon...please tell me that this Starbucks wasn't already there all the time! :P (not that I am a fan of Starbucks anyway...)