I can conceive nothing more melancholy than the views upon the Saone, seen, as I saw them, tho vegetation is out everywhere, and the banks should be beautiful if ever.  As we approached Lyons the river narrowed and grew bolder, and the last ten miles were enchanting.  Naturally the shores at this part of the Saone are exceedingly like the highlands of the Hudson above West Point.  Abrupt hills rise from the river’s edge, and the windings are sharp and constant.  But imagine the highlands of the Hudson crowned with antique chateaux, and covered to the very top with terraces and summer-houses and hanging-gardens, gravel-walks and beds of flowers, instead of wild pines and precipices, and you may get a very correct idea of the Saone above Lyons.

You emerge from one of the dark passes of the river by a sudden turn, and there before you lies this large city, built on both banks, at the foot and on the sides of mountains.  The bridges are fine, and the broad, crowded quays, all along the edges of the river, have a beautiful effect.  There is a great deal of magnificence at Lyons, in the way of quays, promenades, and buildings....  I was glad to escape from the lower streets, and climb up the long staircases to the observatory that overhangs the town.  From the base of this elevation the descent of the river is almost a precipice.  The houses hang on the side of the steep hill, and their doors enter from the long alleys of stone staircases by which you ascend....

It was holy-week, and the church of Notre Dame de Fourvieres, which stands on the summit of the hill, was crowded with people.  We went in for a moment, and sat down on a bench to rest.  My companion was a Swiss captain of artillery, who was a passenger in the boat, a very splendid fellow, with a mustache that he might have tied behind his ears.  He had addrest me at the hotel, and proposed that we should visit the curiosities of the town together.  He was a model of a manly figure, athletic, and soldier-like, and standing near him was to get the focus of all the dark eyes in the congregation.

The new square tower stands at the side of the church, and rises to the height of perhaps sixty feet.  The view from it is said to be one of the finest in the world.  I have seen more extensive ones, but never one that comprehended more beauty and interest.  Lyons lies at the foot, with the Saone winding through its bosom in abrupt curves; the Rhone comes down from the north on the other side of the range of mountains, and meeting the Saone in a broad stream below the town, they stretch off to the south, through a diversified landscape; the Alps rise from the east like the edges of a thunder-cloud, and the mountains of Savoy fill up the interval to the Rhone.

All about the foot of the monument lie gardens, of exquisite cultivation; and above and below the city the villas of the rich; giving you altogether as delicious a nucleus for a broad circle of scenery as art and nature could create, and one sufficiently in contrast with the barrenness of the rocky circumference to enhance the charm, and content you with your position.  Half way down the hill lies an old monastery, with a lovely garden walled in from the world.