Lovely Lyon

Time flies when you're gallavanting around Europe on your weekends off! I am such a lucky duck these days. I haven't been at home for the last five weekends. Zermatt and Charmey made up the Swiss portion of my weekend adventures followed by Lyon and Avignon in France. I also popped up to jolly old England to meet with Sean in London. Not too shabby!

A few weekends ago I was supposed to go to Italy for a silent film festival. Unfortunately, after adding up the expenses, I wasn't able to afford that trip. However, I did still have some time off and I wanted to do something. Then I read a post about some amazing chocolate bars on David Lebovitz's blog. And so I decided to go to Lyon figuring that if the UNESCO World Heritage sites didn't wow me that the chocolate bars from Bernachon would. Did I mention that Lyon is also known as the gastronomical centre of France? It is.

I arrived in Lyon on a Friday afternoon and immediately got lost trying to find my hotel. Nevermind. I turned around, retraced my steps and found it relatively painlessly. I stayed at the Hotel Residence les Palatines. It is a little bit out of the way, but was a good price and close to the metro. The rooms are actually small suites with a kitchen and would be ideal for a longer stay. After dropping off my bag I took advantage of my 2-hour metro ticket and went back to the city centre. I found the tourist office and got a map, as well as directions to Rue des Marronniers where several restaurants are. I'm sure there are plenty of hidden gems in Lyon, but I didn't have time to do much research beforehand so I happily ate on tourist row.

My first meal was at a bouchon, a traditional Lyonnaise restaurant. I was dying to try Salad Lyonnaise and I wasn't disappointed. Crisp lettuce topped with chopped bacon, crutons and poached egg tossed in a light Dijon vinaigrette. I followed that with a creamy pepper sauce-topped steak served with potatoes gratin and courgette. To drink I had red wine. For dessert I chose the prune clafouti. Yum. One of my goals while spending time in Lyon was to speak as much (broken) French as possible. The woman at the restaurant told me, en français, that I was doing very well. Phew!

My second day was for sightseeing. As I mentioned earlier, parts of Lyon have been declared UNESCO World Heritage sites. And by "parts" I mean most of the city. I only had three days to explore and take in Lyon, so I spent Saturday taking the metro to various points of interest including multiple sites of Roman ruins as well as churches and little ancient streets. Unfortunately, I didn't have the energy to explore the traboules once I arrived in the Croix-Rousse area. However, I still saw a lot considering my relatively small time frame. And, without a doubt, I plan on visiting Lyon again.

In Fourvière, I saw the ruins of a Roman odeon and theatre where an Indian film crew was filming some sort of heist movie (guy in suit wearing nylon on head = heist, right?).

After that I walked over to the Fourvière basilica to take a peek. I'm not particularly religious, but I do enjoy the grandeur of old cathedrals and churches. This one did not disappoint.

Also, the view from up there is amazing. You can see all of the red roofs of the buildings across the river. Lovely!

From Fourvière I took the funicular back down to the metro and headed to Croix-Russe to find the Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules. It's all fenced off, but quite impressive. Side note: the metro system in Lyon is quite excellent.

While walking around it I came across a pack of feral cats being fed by a neighborhood cat lady.

I also saw the Fontaine Bartholdi, which emits steams fon my way to gaze up at the impressive Hôtel de Ville (City Hall).

To finish off my day I went to a movie. I know, a little lame in a city so full of stuff but, in my defense, I was getting over a cold. I saw "The September Issue" and fell in love with Grace Coddington, the creative director of Vogue. I did not fall in love with Anna Wintour who, while not completely horrible, did not seem like a fun person. After the movie I was pretty pooped, so I picked up a baguette and went back to the hotel.

Sunday was museum day. I started off the day with an incredibly cheesy crêpe and salad before exploring the Institut Lumiére Musée. I figured that since I couldn't be in Italy for the film festival at least I could spend some time reading about some of the founding fathers of cinema. The museum is in their mansion actually and it is quite spectacular. Rooms and rooms full of artifacts and film clips projected on screens and walls. In addition to pioneering cinematic technologies the brothers were also responsible for developing artifical limbs and hospital bandages! Talk about product diversification. My only disappointment was that the library was closed. Sigh, next time.

After the museum I took the Metro to Brotteaux to find Bernachon and those chocolate bars. Since it was Sunday most shops were closed. I did get asked for "one pound or fifty cents" by three teenagers sitting outside a bank, which was kind of funny. I had the impression they were just hanging around with nothing better to do as opposed to actually pan-handling. Moving on...I found Bernachon and for a moment I thought it was closed. The tea room was closed (slightly dispointing) but the chocolate shop and patisserie were open! Rejoice!

I bought chocolate tablettes galore. My favourite being the Kalouga. I like chocolate a lot, but I love caramel.

I also bought three miniature pastries. Delightful.

From there I walked along the Rhône back towards Bellecour and the Musées des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs de Lyon.

There are a lot of museums in Lyon, but I chose this as my second museum choice during my short stay and I'm glad that I did. For a time, silk making was a major industry in Lyon and that's why, I suppose, this museum is so well curated and maintained. The first exhibit that I viewed was a large collection of Persian rugs, weavings and other artifacts some of which were centuries old and massive. The second was an exhibit all about colour and fabric. I really enjoyed how they separated the sections of the exhibit by different colours with explanations of the meanings of various colours throughout history. The decorative arts museum, which is attached to the textiles museum, was also quite interesting although not as grandiose as the former. Imagine the most amazing antique store ever. That's what it was like. Some of the tea settings and furniture were sublime.

I finished the museum portion of my day at an awkward time. Too early for dinner, but too late to find another museum. I ended up taking the metro back to my hotel for a rejuvenating nap. When I woke up I went back out for another delicious meal. This time I started with a duo of salmon (tartare and carpaccio), followed by a steak with a ramekin of shredded potatoes and finished with an Iles flottant.

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To accompany my meal I had wine, but this bottle was slightly bigger than the previous meal and I got a bit tipsy. So I took pictures of the weird puppets in the window of the restaurant.

Lyon is a wonderful, beautiful and interesting city and I can't wait for an opportunity to go back once again. Lyon, j'taime.