So Monday morning, Société Française met on the hill of Croix-Rousse for class! Our professor, an extremely nice Frenchman, met all of us at Place Colbert where he began the lesson. He gave us a little history of Lyon, emphasizing the importance of the two fleuves (the Rhône and the Saône) and the two collines (Fourvière and Croix-Rousse). Fourvière is the hill that prays, while Croix-Rousse is the hill that works.
During the 16th century, Lyon was granted a monopoly on silk production by King Francis I and became the capital of the European silk trade. As the industry grew, the silk workshops were moved from Vieux Lyon up to Croix-Rousse in the 18th century where they would get to most natural light all year long. The canuts (silk workers), unlike a typical ouvrier of the times, were extremely dedicated workers with an enormous amount of knowledge about their profession. Despite their extreme importance to the silk industry, they were subjected to exceedingly poor working conditions and long hours, which led them to stage many worker revolts. The first of which is considered to be one of the very first worker uprisings in history.
Our professor then led us to through the traboules, passageways used by the canuts to carry the silk from the top of the hill to Place des Terreaux at the bottom of hill. These passages were much different then the ones Mom and I had seen in Vieux Lyon. Since they were meant to help workers descend the hill, there were hundreds of steps that passed through buildings and courtyards. Many of the buildings we saw had been built around the 18th century, purposefully tall and strong to support all the silk looms.
It was extremely fun to see this side of town and to learn about all the history that had happened on the very steps we were walking on!
Shoot! I missed this fascinating travoule!
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