France Days 10, 11 & 12 - Lyon

Gare de la Part-Dieu in Lyon
The train station looks super modern.  It has a lot of stuff there, and the two that attracted me the most were Starbucks and Paul (yes that bakery that's everywhere).  Signs say there is free wifi but it did not work for us.  Across from it is La Part Dieu, a giant shopping complex with a giant Carrefour (yes, that was what excited me most).

Lodging
The first place I stayed at was Hotel Athena near Lyon Part-Dieu train station.  Literally it was right outside the train station so when I walked out I veered left and in 2 minutes I reached.  The room was very small but serviceable and clean, perfect for the budget traveler who wants convenience.

The second place I stayed in was an AirBNB in a really nice apartment shared with two guys.  I had my own bedroom and bathroom and for the most part it was super except I felt the bathroom and shower were not the cleanest, and toiletries (shampoo, soap) were not provided, though I have not done AirBNB a lot and am not sure what is typical.

Carrefour
I love hypermart shopping.

Food
The food was good too.  This post chooses to discuss food separately but here are some previous posts on the food I have been lucky enough to try.
Le Glacier Terre Adélice, ice cream shop that was #4 on Tripadvisor for eating with a gazillion flavours
Le Poivron Bleu, #1 on Tripadvisor but not my personal choice
Les Lyonnais, bouchon, I think a solid bouchon choice with many traditional items, thumbs up from me
Other random foods post, of which I will recommend Les Halles

Tourist Things to See in Lyon
Lyon turned out to be a much prettier city than I made it out to be.  Big fat thumbs up.  With not one two rivers running through it (Saône and Rhône), I should really have expected more.  I was thinking more like crappy ol' Marseilles, but no, it was actually really charming.

Parc de la Tête d'Or - one of the nice things about staying near the train station was that I got to enjoy this park as it was on what I classify as the same third of the city.  Well kept, with a few ponds and a very nice place to run.  There was a free zoo too!  Opens until 10.30pm in the summer!!

Traboules are, as I understand them, passages created under/through buildings.  Originally created for silk merchants to transport their goods in inclement weather, it was later used to get from place to place during wars, as well as to have printers to print clandestine material since the sound of the printers could not be heard.  I believe one could do a tour with the tourist office for a small fee, but I just found a bunch of the Lonely Planet and managed to complete them all!  :-D  Mission accomplished!  I don't want to be sued so I'm not going to reproduce the Lonely Planet, but I'm sure a quick Google would yield more info.  My favourite was at 16 rue du Bœuf which had a lovely pink tower (tour rose) and a pretty courtyard.  Sometimes you need to press on the doorbell to get in (sometimes it is not clear which bell/number to press on, and for that I am unable to help you with since I was just as confused).

Lyon also has pretty frescos.  The first one was in La Croix-Rousse, a Bohemian part of the city.  The rest are in the first district of the city by the water where rue de la Martinière intersects Place Saint-Vincent and it is of a building with famous people looking out.  I found a website with more, and I'm super bummed I did not discover these earlier, so I will have to see them on my next trip!

Here are some day photos.  I really liked the interior of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière which was on top of the Fourvière hill, but unfortunately photos were not allowed (maybe since mass was on at that time, not sure about other times).

Some night photos.

Finally I saw this restaurant, and I thought, it has to be Asian, and indeed it was.  Thought it was hilarious with the name.  Lingon would love this!

Le Glacier Terre Adélice, Lyon, France

My first visit to Le Glacier Terre Adélice, I did not know how supposedly amazing it was, until I came back and looked it up.  #4 on Tripadvisor!  They have some 90+ flavous, half of which are organic (does nothing for me).  They are so busy that they did not let me sample any.  :-(  I got the lemon basil and lychee flavour at first.  The lemon overpowered and I could not taste the basil but the lemon taste itself was nice.  The lychee just did not taste like it was of very high quality.

The second time round I got speculoos and ginger.  Speculoos was just so so.  That ginger, though, wow.  I read some Tripadvisor review that recommended it, and I had honestly thought of getting it the previous day but got waylaid by a lack of tasting.  The flavour was very intense, and very delicious.  I 1000% recommend the ginger if you like ginger, but you have to like it since it's very strong.

Food, Lyon, France

Outside of the two restaurants and the ice cream shop, here are some pictures and mayhaps some helpful commentary of food I have seen or eaten here in Lyon.  This is a happy place for fatsos like myself.

Just some random finds of food.  Of course, Paul, which is everywhere.  I got a quiche for breakfast after a run, which was OK.  You can always count on Paul to not be bad.  Next on I went to this pirate sweet shop, which is one of those places with buckets of nonsense and you fill up a bag.  The bright yellow things are tennis balls, and I had thought of my friend Chewy when I saw these.  They don't look as cool in the picture, but if you are able to blow it up to have a good look, it's actually really cool.  They had all kinds of other things too, like peeled bananas, that looked super real.  I hit up this market at Quai Saint-Antoine in the very early afternoon, which could have been winding down, and got this praline brioche bread.  I did some research online and this pink praline is made using food colouring, which made it less special for me, but still cool anyway, I suppose.  They have all these rotisserie chicken stalls which made me think of Roli Roti in San Francisco, so I took a picture of that.

Les Halles de Lyon de Paul Bocuse.  I'll be honest, I did not know he was famous before I read about this market, and then I was like, who is this Paul Bocuse guy.  So he's famous and he has this hall of artisanal food.

I got the strawberry mille feuille from Maison Victoire, thinking it was praline, but it was not.  Not bad.  I also got the canelé from there which I did not enjoy quite that much.  I later got another from Boulangerie De L'Ile Barbe and confirmed I did not like it, which is weird because I have had some before and enjoyed them, though I would say the latter version was better.  Got a sablé with pralines from there, a tarte aux pralines from Délices des Sens and a St Marcelin cheese which is supposed to be very creamy from Fromagerie La Mère Richard where it is supposed to be famous, all at Les Halles which I have not tried yet.  And then I got a rice pudding and rosette (which is Lyonnais but I did not want to get a whole sausage) from Carrefour and I cannot wait to share them with Metroman who is on his way to meet me now!  (As an aside, though my French has improved tremendously since getting to France, which was much of the whole point anyway, I am really looking forward to speaking English to someone.)

Now there was a line outside Boulangerie du Palais, #392 on Tripadvisor, both times that I was there.  A quick Google revealed their brioche aux pralines were the thing to get there.  I already got one the day before, and I did not love it, plus I knew I was going to get another ice cream.  Otherwise, I would have tried it.  From where I hail, long lines mean something, but I'll save this one for next time.  :-)

Le Poivron Bleu, Lyon, France

At this time of writing, Le Poivron Bleu is #1 on Tripadvisor, and only 28 € for a 3 course dinner, and was close to the place I was staying which was right next to the train station, which is precisely why I chose to go there.  I made a reservation, and this was possibly necessary, because there were 2 walk ins and then others were turned away.

I had the smoked salmon as an appetizer, which was recommended by the owner/chef of the restaurant.  It was very good but I always ask myself why I would eat smoked salmon at a restaurant since I can get it at a store, and again it happens.  Very very fresh, I don't usually take mine with cream sauce so it was interesting, but I probably would not do that again.

For the main course, I was recommended the chicken, smoked by the owner/chef himself.  It did not taste that smokey and was a good piece of meat, no doubt, but not all that special.  It sat on a bed of mashed potatoes and topped with rocket, and had a cream sauce, which was all good but not that special.  Might even have been a bit bland for some, though I eat very bland so I did not mind it too much.

The dessert was titled vacherin, which has something to do with cow.  What I think it was is whipped a bed of red fruit (I identified and remembered raspberries and teeny cherries) and meringue with whipped cream on top (probably from cow milk?) and a scoop of mine ice cream.  I quite enjoyed this one, though I think the Asian mother-daughter couple close by seemed absolutely infatuated with it.  While it was good, their love for it seemed a bit much for me.  There was a pain perdu, or French toast, on the menu, which the chef recommended, but I already made and ate French toast that morning and I thought I would pass.  The Asians kept calling it lost bread - the literal translation - which amused me.

Overall it was a good solid restaurant, perhaps I ordered the wrong thing, or I'm just too used to amazingly fresh meats, seafood and produce in San Francisco, that this failed to amaze me.  I definitely would not be coming back, but if you are in need of a solid meal with very good ingredients, I think I kind of endorse it.

Les Lyonnais, Lyon, France

I spent a fine amount of time looking up bouchons, and mapping each bouchon on my Google maps that I use for travel.  In Lyon, a bouchon is a traditional restaurant serving Lyonnais food, according to Wikipedia.  The official label people say that a bouchon has "respect for the culinary tradition of Lyon",  serves "homemade family cuisine prepared on-site" with "quality and origin of fresh and local" (lol) in a "typical Lyons atmosphere in a historic setting" with a "warm welcome".  I looked up each on Tripadvisor, and put the rating next to the restaurant, and chose a bit based on where I was, a bit based on the Tripadvisor rating, and a bit based on what I had set out to eat, which were oeufs meurette and quenelle.  I proudly present my Google map but note it has a bunch of other things in it.

I found myself in Vieux Lyon, the old city.  I decided on Les Lyonnais, currently ranked #210 on Tripadvisor, as it was right there, had the highest rating of all 4 bouchons in the area, and had everything I wanted to eat.  Not to be boring and repeat myself (OK I guess I am boring and repeating myself), I ordered the oeufs meurette, which is poached eggs in a red wine sauce with onions, mushrooms and pork, and quenelle, which is ground pike fish dumplings in a lobster sauce with rice on the side.  The oeufs meurette was an OK dish.  I enjoyed the mushrooms and pork, but found that I could not really taste my egg yolks (I love runny egg yolks) due to it running into the red wine sauce, which was rather watery and not that flavourful.  The dumpling of the quenelle dish itself did not have a ton of taste, but the lobster sauce was DIVINE.  I could have drank that thing, but I resisted and almost said no when the waiter asked if I was done.  For dessert I got a praline cake, which was not bad, but I think I want a praline tart, and only a praline tart will satisfy my praline craving.

Overall not a bad meal, I would recommend it for someone who wants to try Lyonnais food.  The service was efficient and friendly and I liked that.  Someone two seats down from me ordered this ravioli in a gruyere sauce that smelled like heaven.  The ravioli, from what I understood with my bad French, was sort of from the region too, so it wouldn't have been the worst thing if I ordered it, I suppose.

Here is an article on bouchons from the Lyon travel website.
http://www.en.lyon-france.com/Discover-Lyon/Gastronomy-Fine-Dining/Le-bouchon-lyonnais-Traditional-Restaurants

Here is a list from the official bouchon website.

Bon appetit!