Lyon, France 12.21

As you can see I have a lot of time on my hands to update my blog. We were supposed to go on a last minute Christmas trip to Morocco. The day I sent my credit card information to the travel agent (first time I used a travel agent since my honeymoon) the Moroccan government shut its borders due to Covid. Boo..

So here I am re-counting my memories from 2021.  I am disappointed that I cannot travel more, I’ve dreamed of long weekends as many of my colleagues have done to Milan, Amsterdam, Greece, but now I realize we have gone to a lot of places this year. Paris, Munich, LYON, the Swiss Alps, ( Lauterbrunnen and Thun) and I have enjoyed every single minute of them.

Now back to LYON. Years ago the Head of Europe at work joyfully told me about LYON during the Festival of Lights. He said it was a beautiful experience and wildly popular. Wow, if such a well traveled European man raves about Lyon I figured I must go. Fast forward, I planned with my sister and brother-in-law for 5+ months for their visit to Switzerland. We took the train from Morges to Lyon, all told about three hours.  My strategy was to pay extra for first class, thinking there would be less people, less germs. Somehow, we got on any antique special train which was empty in both first and second class, so I paid extra for nothing. Didn’t matter, comfortable ride, we found the hotel on the tram with no problem. 

As you know, LYON is the gastronomic capital of the world. I tortured neighbors and French coworkers for tips. Got recommendations for a haircut, a facial, and typical Lyonnais local restaurants called Bouchons.

Bouchin Tupin was reco'd by a British co-worker and was 2 metro stops away, near the Lights we planned on seeing for night #1

Must have country pate

famous Lyonnaise sausage & local fish

HERE WE GO! Off to the Festival of Lights I'd been waiting years for.  Click here to check out the 2021 Festival of Lights site

22 different laser light show installations all over the city of Lyon.  Well planned out with maps, metro stops, Covid pass requirements etc.  Was so impressed everyone was masked--even outside!  Glorious-have never experienced anything like this.

Only one problem, this is where we lost David-in this crowd.  We turned around to take a picture and he was gone.  After several texts trying to say where we were (on the right of the bridge, near the Metro sign etc) I called.  He didn't pick up and told me later it costs $ to call.  ARGH!%$ 😡 Let me divorce you now! Or better yet push you in the Seine.

To add misery, sister had a conf call at 10pm and refused to leave me there "alone in the dark"...  Oh for God's sake, I'm 60 years old and have been in foreign cities by myself before.  I'm not alone, I'm here with 5,000 other people.  I was traumatized by their "ask him if he sees this", "tell him to walk across the bridge", "we're not going to find him like this, ask him for a landmark" {Gee I never thought of that and screamed "I did, I did"}  😖 Eventually they headed back to hotel.

I told him to walk across the bridge and texted him a picture of the restaurant I was standing next too.  We FINALLY  met with steam coming out of both our ears.  We walked to the metro and were re-routed due to crowd control so our Google maps didn't take us to the metro...................and then it happened, low and behold we saw the best exhibit of the night (& maybe the whole festival).  It was called the Rabbit and the Moon and told a story projected on two perpendicular buildings (buildings so large they must have been city hall or a museum or some other historic building).  OK, calm down, walk back to metro, get to hotel.

Day 2:  1st things 1st, color, mask, cut

Haircut place was near the famous Confluence so I walked another 15 minutes away and found this lovely structure & museum.  

Museum is called the confluence because it is where the two rivers meet:  Saone & Rhone ( see it above?)

I read about the "Rare Birds" exhibit and wanted to see that & the 9 Euro price included everything so I was happy to wander about.  Very very interesting exhibit of birds, where they originated from, how they bred and lived until I discovered Oh No, this is an exhibit of extinct dead birds.  How sad.  A conservation lesson on how man, farming, technology advances are killing off our birds and what we can do about it.  The museum was very well done and most of the exhibits dealt with environmental and pollution issues including global warming.  I read the English then French to test my French skills (poor).  

While I was busy getting a facial on the morning of day 3 at a place recommended by the hotel, Guinot the rest of them went on a Free Walking Tour of Lyon (wish I could have gone).  25 minute walk to the Spa and the best part was I got a tour of the city with a route towards the old town.  . Realized we were within 20 blocks of 2 of the Light exhibitions we saw the night before and there was no need to take the Metro/walk up and down the metro stairs as we just about walked the same # of steps. A neighbor drew us a map of key sights including Mercier street (street with all the good restaurants) & I trudged through the cobblestone streets in the pouring rain. 

We met up after the facial/Free Lyon Walking Tour at St Catherine Cathedral. Hubby & I continued up the funicular to Basilica Fourvier where they had a Mother & Child scenes from all different ethnicities. I took the below one because it reminded me of my Aunt Joyce. 

Hubby suggested we go to the market they recommended on the tour so I blindly followed him on the metro/tram. An hour later we were lost, trapped in the Westfield mall.  In exasperation I searched for “markets” nearby & realized he was trying to find the famous Paul Bocuse market. Once inside we stumbled into a restaurant where we sat at the counter with a full view of the cook right in front of us. The name of the restaurant was Julie and Caroline and I made an instant friends with another Julie. We enjoyed a nice glass of wine, escargot, and the famous Saint Marcellin cheese sister had been looking for. We also went home with a full bag of seafood Quenelles and a type of foie gras to be heated in a water bath in the oven water bath which we diligently refrigerated for the train ride home. 

That night we ate at the Famous Paul Bocuse west. The food was amazingly good for a huge mass produce open restaurant but the waiters were not helpful and in fact quite snobby. If it weren’t for the wine steward who told us to find the menu using the QR code on the table, we would have thought the specials were the only options.

My coworker said typical Lyonnais people do not give out the addresses of local restaurants, to keep them local.  Keeping in that spirit I will not tell you the name of this restaurant we went to on the last day, but I will tell you I had the most unique, tasty food and experience of the whole trip. I had fried calves  head, (because it is the crunchiest part)  and for appetizer a cake of chicken liver. Where else on earth would you get this?

cromesqui de Tete de veau

Foie gras de canard avec pares

Gateau de Foie de Volaille

  

Lyon map in hand shape in the Hotel Mercure

Train packed on the way home and the only thing that spoiled are memory was teens trying to pick pocket Sis on tram to train station.  Other than that, it was a fattening and fun light filled memory.