What have the Romans ever done for us?

Been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks now, so here goes.

Lyon was an important Roman city and, like in London, you trip over Roman remains all the time. For instance the square up the road was the junction of 5 important Roman roads and there is an amphitheatre round the corner. Interestingly enough the archeologists started looking for this amphitheatre over on the other side of the Croix Rousse hill. They had no luck, then some bright spark suggested digging in the Jardin des Plantes as that was where it was shown on the medieval maps. French archeologists 0 - medieval mapmakers 1.

There is an amazing complex of ruins up on Fourviere hill that has a Grand Theatre - the oldest in France and a smaller Odeum, built into the side of the hill, with amazing views down to the river and over the town. These have been partially restored and every summer a series of music concerts and performances are held there, Les Nuits de Fourviere. The content of these can be quite varied and this year I trooped up the hill on July 14th to see Mr I Pop and the Stooges. I had to hand over top of my bottle of water to the attendant before being allowed in. Do I look like someone who is going to hurl a bottle of water into a crowd????(I told someone who was going to a later concert about this and she cunningly took up a spare bottle top, hidden in the depths of her trouser pocket)
We then went to get a cushion (stone seats are very, very hard) and before we were allowed any, we were asked if we were going in the mosh pit or not?? Eventually we were reluctantly handed a cushion each. Fortunately my friend who turned up later brought us in some more!! Then we looked for two friends who had gone ahead - hindered by the fact the guy I was with has no mobile phone and I didn't have these guys numbers. Now, you would have thought that a tall Mauriatian guy would have been easy to spot in mainly white crowd but no. Then the thought dawned on us that perhaps they were in the mosh pit. Then our 3rd friend arrived (she with the extra cushions) and she had a mobile with one of their numbers on and yes, they were in the mosh pit. Us geriatrics decided to stay on the seats.

The concert was excellent fun (even though I was sightly disappointed that they didn't play their 3 best known numbers). Iggy was topless within a minute, there was crowd surfing aplenty and the French were seen to be toe tapping every now and then. For the last couple of songs Fourviere tradition took over and the cushions we had been sitting on were thrown onto the stage. 1000's of blue missiles being simultaneously launched into the air. It is a sight to be seen and shows that the French can have fun too. It happens at the end of every concert, no matter what type, jazz, classical, rock, even when I went and saw a film up there the cushions were thrown at the screen. Then suddenly at 10.25pm Iggy and the Stooges left the stage and that was that.

As we were leaving, the Bastille Day fireworks started, and it was suddenly clear why the Stooges had left the stage so promptly. The fireworks are set off on Fourviere hill and the noise boomed and echoed round the Grand Theatre. There was no way anyone could have played over the noise of these fireworks. Which leads back to one of the most interesting observations of the evening, how teeny tiny the speakers on the stage had been. I guess some of it must be improving technology, the rest was down to how good the acoustics are.

You have to hand it to the Romans, they knew how to build a good auditorium, just wish they had made the seats a bit softer!

(The sound quality is crap, but you'll see what I mean about the cushions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSe8tgMc2AU)