From the Latin "trans ambulare", these are curious and often gorgeous covered passages that go all through old Lyon and the croix-rousse district. Lyon was (and is) a silkweaving town, and weavers used these passages to move their goods without getting them rained on.
Without the addresses in the links below, you'd never know they were there, and neither did the gestapo...
Sniffing out the traboules is a favourite Sunday activity of locals too! Just mind the signs asking for quiet, these are often private passages.
www.magazine.fr/lyon-cite/LOISIRS/GUIDE/index.html
www.lyon.fr/vdl/sections/fr/urbanisme/cours_traboules_lyon/a_visiter/
www.lyon.fr/vdl/sections/en/urbanisme/cours_traboules_lyon/?aIndex=1
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