It was the last day of class in Lyon, the day I was about to bid farewell to this city where I’d lived for a month. So that day, I explored Lyon with two classmates. That day happened to be the 14th of July in the lunar calendar—China’s Ghost Festival. Perhaps being in a foreign land, there wasn’t any “festive atmosphere” at all, and I didn’t think much of it. But it turned out that France also has its own way of observing the occasion.
We set off from Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon), where a modern-looking funicular station (Funiculaires de Lyon) stood somewhat incongruously among the classic French streets. After about two or three minutes on the funicular, we reached the top at the Fourvière station, arriving at the city’s most iconic site—the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.
The old town is full of French charm (@Lyon, France)
In keeping with the upcoming horror story, this is Guignol, the doll representing Lyon. I personally find it quite eerie and scary (@Lyon, France)
Riding the funicular up the mountain (@Lyon, France)
This Catholic church stands at the highest point of the city. From below, you can easily spot this mountaintop structure as if it were guarding the city. The architecture isn’t your typical Gothic style but rather a blend of Romanesque and Byzantine influences. Its pure white exterior is striking even from afar, and paired with the blue sky, it’s truly beautiful.
Unfortunately, the church wasn’t open that day. Unable to go inside, we walked around to the back of the church, where there was a platform overlooking the entire city. Next to it was a romantic restaurant with the soft sound of an accordion drifting out. From the vantage point, the tallest and most eye-catching pencil-shaped building in the city is the Tour Part-Dieu, a bank tower.
Walking along the path beside the church leads you to its back, where you get a bird’s-eye view of Lyon (@Lyon, France)
See that pencil-shaped building? (@Lyon, France)
As sunset approached, we decided to wander around and find a good spot to watch the sunset. At the time, none of us had French phone numbers, and Google Maps wasn’t giving accurate location data. Relying on intuition and fate, we headed in the direction of the setting sun. As we walked, we spotted a completely charred car parked by the roadside. It looked like it had been there for a while, with dead leaves scattered all over the car and the ground around it. Lyon is a very neat and clean city—if this car had been in an accident and caught fire, it would’ve likely been cleared away quickly. In such a desolate place, it was unlikely to be some kind of art installation. The whole situation felt strange, and we were getting a bit creeped out.
The leaves and the charred car had an eerie beauty (@Lyon, France)
But soon, our attention was drawn to the sunset ahead. From the photos, you can see the sunset behind the charred car, and near the wall, there seemed to be a lower wall, just high enough for us to sit on—it looked like a great spot to watch the sunset. Excited, we thought we’d discovered a hidden gem.
It’s the low wall on the left rear in the photo (@Lyon, France)
When we got to that low wall, we realized that behind it was a massive cemetery, with densely packed white tombstones. Although the sunset view was beautiful, it didn’t seem like the most appropriate place. So, almost instinctively, we turned around and left.
We quickly snapped a photo of the sunset and left (@Lyon, France)
Without a map, we ended up getting lost and missed the sunset. By then, we were somewhere halfway down the mountain, so we followed a passerby’s directions to the nearest St. Just funicular station. But the staff simply said, “Sorry. Problem,” meaning no trains were running. We had to trudge uphill back to the church at the mountaintop, as that station had another funicular line.
We missed the sunset while lost, and the sky grew darker (@Lyon, France)
When we finally reached the church’s funicular station, the station master told us that due to an accident, there were no trains, no buses, and we’d have to walk down the mountain. It wasn’t too far a walk—he said following the main road for about half an hour would get us there. But that’s when the really scary part began.
We also took a quick look at the church’s night view (@Lyon, France)
At the station, two young Asian girls walked in. Their outfits were hipster-vintage style. I especially remember one of them wearing a dark red midi skirt, with shoulder-length hair and distinctively almond-shaped eyes with an Eastern flair. Her features reminded me of women from classic Shanghai cinema. Even though retro styles are trendy now, their outfits felt a bit too retro. Later, when I heard them speaking Chinese, I naturally invited them to walk down the mountain together—after all, it was dark, and we were in an unfamiliar place. There’s safety in numbers.
As we exited the station, my friend and I naturally headed toward the main road the station master had mentioned, but the two girls walked into the dark woods opposite the church. They said they had come up this path before and that it was a shortcut. Convinced by their certainty, we followed them. The path was pitch black—you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It wound along the mountainside, with dense trees on the left, making it easy to fall off the edge if you weren’t careful. Being a fan of horror movies, I couldn’t help but start imagining all sorts of scenarios. The quiet, dark environment was straight out of the beginning of a horror film.
Illustration: Probably something like this vintage look, but with even more retro faces (Photo from Google)
All I wanted was to get down the mountain quickly, but then the short-haired girl suddenly squatted by the side of the path, facing the cliff. The other girl stood behind her. They stayed like that for dozens of seconds, and I couldn’t help but say to my friend, “What if she turns her head and... something happens?” My two friends got scared too. It turned out the girl had dropped her earring into the woods and was squatting to look for it. My male friend offered to help her search—honestly, I was afraid he might get pushed and fall off the cliff. In the end, they couldn’t find the earring, so we quickly continued on. By then, I was getting more and more frightened. Logically speaking, why would an earring just drop in the middle of nowhere? Two solo female travelers stuck on a mountain at night—shouldn’t they be desperate to get down as fast as possible? Why worry about an earring?
The night view was beautiful, but we still wanted to get down the mountain as soon as possible (@Lyon, France)
As we kept walking, it got completely dark—we couldn’t even see the faint light from the city below. At one point, no one could see a path ahead. Maybe we had taken a wrong turn and reached a dead end, so we decided to turn back and take the main road. But after walking back a bit, the two girls insisted on taking that path again and started walking down it alone. Worried about them, we followed back. When we reached the spot where we couldn’t see the path before, this time we noticed a bench with a woman lying on it. It was a bit strange, but at least we asked around and confirmed she seemed to be human—and that the path ahead led down the mountain. I still don’t understand why we hadn’t seen the path the first time.
Gradually, we neared the foot of the mountain, and the appearance of streetlights and roads calmed our nerves. The two girls had been walking ahead of us the whole time and didn’t seem to be talking. My friend and I started discussing all the strange things that had happened. Even though we’d lived in the city for a month, we wouldn’t have dared to take shortcuts ourselves. Two girls in a foreign land—even with the best sense of direction—wouldn’t insist on taking dark mountain paths at night, and they hadn’t spoken more than a few words the whole time. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who thought their outfits were overly retro. My friend did too.
By 10 PM, after nearly an hour and a half, we finally made it back to the old streets of Lyon, back to the familiar roads. Starving, we decided to turn right into the old town for dinner, while the two girls went left toward home. I clearly remember, at the fork in the road, they stood close together in the corner, giving us that same smile we’d seen earlier as they waved goodbye. After everything that had just happened, the scene still felt eerily haunting.
At a crossing like this, they stood in the corner, waving goodbye to us from afar (@Lyon, France)
Later, when we got to the cable car station at the foot of the mountain, we saw a large number of firefighters and fire trucks battling a blaze. It turned out that a building above the station was on fire, and it looked quite badly charred, with the exterior walls blackened from the smoke. We remembered the scorched car we had seen on the mountain and couldn’t help but connect the two incidents.
The coincidence of the burned car and the building, the unplanned visit to the cemetery, the dark and confusing descent down the mountain as if something unseen was blocking our path, and those two peculiar girls. Maybe on July 14th, even when you're abroad, you're bound to encounter something unusual. That night was the most unforgettable of our entire month in Lyon.
The day ended with not a single pedestrian left on the streets, the tranquil city of Lyon (@Lyon, France)
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