Fairly quiet last night and in the morning here. Our first full day in Lyon. Expected high of 16 degrees and mostly cloudy skies. A low of 9 degrees at night. We are not in the south of France anymore!! We pick Lyon Explorer Team for our 'free' English speaking walking tour. The tour is free, but at the conclusion of the tour you are expected to tip your guide. We meet at 10:30 at Terreaux Square Fountain. This place was on the way to our restaurant last night. I have an email confirmation to prove we are booked with the group. Our guide is wearing a yellow shirt. About a fifteen minute walk from our apartment to the square.
We have a lot of pictures from this walking tour! Our guide is JD (John David). He's pretty good and very knowledgeable. We move at a decent pace although there is a lot of elevation gain on this walking tour. We give JD a 30Euro tip at the conclusion of the tour for the two of us. My Garmin stats for the walking tour: 60 metres total ascent and 4200 steps in 4.17 kms.
These are my notes:
- Two rivers in Lyon; Rhône and Sâone.
- The city hall was built by King Louis the Fourteenth (XIV)
- local area is a famous hill "Croix-Rousse"
- Most buildings between 5-6 floors in this area
- Some of the buildings in Croix-Rousse have very high ground floors and the reason was a long time ago silk looms were in place. For 300 years the silk trade was super important in Lyon.
- "Canut" is a local term in Lyon for silk workers going back a number of centuries
- Cervelle de Canut -> Lyon Cheese
- Lots of art (looks like graffiti to be honest until you take a closer look) on the buildings in the streets all over this older area of Lyon
- there are six different walking routes you can take and they are all designated with special signage
- during Roman times this was the capital of Gaul so there are many Roman ruins in Lyon
- Romans came up with "traboule" which are streets that cross the older sections of Lyon and enable people/troops to get around the city much faster as a shortcut (used by the French resistance in WWII against the Nazis)
- top of one hill Basilica/Eiffel
- Sainte Blandine is the patron saint of Lyon
- during earlier times your property taxes were based on the number of windows so many owners filledl in their windows and painted over them from the outside so they did not count
- Ememem street artist fills in broken tiles in sidewalks and street paving with his art work so no holes
- eventually walked across the bridge to the oldest part of Lyon
- Renaissance architecture (St. Paul)
- French word "Gone" can mean child and/or resident of Lyon
- Bouchon is a Lyonnais restaurant style where all diners share the dishes at the large tables (family style). Also, the majority of meats are offal or the lesser parts of the animal. The wealthier Lyonnaise always took the best cuts of the meat.
- headless statues everywhere here due to 1562 when 16th Century Protestants rebelled against the Catholics
- where the two rivers meet there is a new neighbourhood called La Confluence
- SOME LYON FOOD NAMES: La Rosette (cured meats) and Sauccison Lyonnais (sausage with pistachio inside brioche) and La Quenelle (fish soufflé)
Lyon's City Hall located in our starting plaza.
Terreaux Square Fountain
There are self guided walking tours available to take--this sign is the blue lion and you follow the images of the lion. There is also a street map to guide you.
A local street artist makes these monkey face reliefs and puts them at corners of buildings.
More monkeys--that you would not necessarily see unless you were looking for them.
Another local artist who does depictions that represent children and their suffering.
This artist does pixel art and we saw his work in Dijon as well.
Another artist who uses the same little girl image all over town--always labels with "the end".
Art made from trash/recyclables. There are over 90 of this artist's sculptures all over Lyon to find.
Same little girl as before from "the end".
Lana saw this sign in a Chinese restaurant and thought it was funny.
Typical Asian noodle dishes being offered.
Windows that got filled in to avoid paying oppressive window tax.
These got filled in and painted to look like the other windows!
Ememem artist work with tiles filling in holes in the streets.
La Fresque des Lyonnais (painted building near the river) depicting famous and significant people who have shaped Lyon.
Two structures that were bought by the same owner who commissioned an architect to join them together.
Even the Thinker has gone mobile and can't put the damn thing down lol.
At the end of our tour we are hungry and I need to find a bathroom. We are very close to
Brasserie Gabriel and it is rated highly on Trip Advisor (we always try to check the reviews first). Normally, we would avoid restaurants so close to touristy areas, but in we go for our lunch. We order a bottle of Badoit sparkling water. The place is very busy with lots of French being spoken around us. Prices are not cheap. Too chilly to eat outside today. Large menu and our server is very professional. Food comes quickly with generous portion sizes. We are happy with our choice of restaurant. Total cost = 47Euro.
Lana's Onion Soup. She was freezing after the walking tour and beginning to realize she should have packed a coat to wear for this leg of the holiday.
Randy's huge salad with smoked salmon. I am a sucker for smoked salmon.
Lana likes to go into a church whenever we travel and light a candle. She noticed that this church has a tap function in case you don't have any actual money on you. How modern!!
We decide to visit
LUGDUNUM using the funicular (tram) up to the top of this steep hill. Lugdunum was the name for this Roman city. We love Roman ruins/history! Our guide mentioned this as a must-see destination and we are very close to it. The Lugdunum is a large area on the
Fourvière hill comprised of a museum, thermal baths and two large Roman amphitheaters, homes, roads, shops. Apparently more than 10,000 persons lived in Roman days. We decide to not visit the Museum. We both enjoyed our time here and would recommend a visit.
Our tram is arriving! You enter the tram at quite a steep angle and the tracks ahead are at quite a severe incline as you enter into a tunnel first.
Roman amphitheatre
Beautiful Roman tiles that retain their colours.
We have a long walk back to our apartment and it now feels warmer which is great. We return around 15:50. Still overcast. Again, we have seen many joggers and cyclists so this is definitely an active population. Wow, trying to get a dinner reservation in Lyon same day is almost impossible. Finally, after many attempts at many restaurants I find a table for 19:30 at
Le Bouchon des Cordeliers! 4.6 rating on Trip Advisor and profiled as one of the best Bouchon in Lyon. Turns out this restaurant is two doors down from our restaurant last night. An eighteen minute walk to the restaurant. Also, I scored reservations for dinners both nights and lunch tomorrow! Phew! The main reason we are in Lyon is for the food!
Online pic.
We arrive slightly early which is good as there is a growing queue of diners. We are second group inside and get a choice table for two. Tables are very close together, but we have some space between the next tables. A menu is provided in English. For wine I order a Blanc Mâcon Villages (25cl) for 9Euro. Lana won't be partaking in this wine so it is all mine! Total cost of our meal = 54Euro and my portion was a 32Euro making my dessert basically free. Our server was funny and engaging. Overall, great service and meal.
Menu outside the restaurant.
Traditional starter Rosette de Lyon. Noble pieces of minced pork mixed with spices such as pepper, garlic and often red wine. Put to dry and refine for two to three months.
Randy's Blanc Mâcon Villages wine and taking my usual notes in my travel journal.
Lana's order of L'Oreiller du Chef translated means the pillow of the chef as they make a huge pastry crust and add all the inner ingredients and top it with another layer of flakey pastry so it looks like a pillow!! (This one had paté with pork, veal, foie-gras, onion, chutney and pickles). Tastes as good as it looks!
Randy's starter of Monts du Lyonnais (snails in a parsley sauce). Six pieces for 12Euro. Pretty classic French dish and for good reasons!
Randy's main dish of Roasted Prawns with cognac, fregola sardar risotto and lobster bisque for 20Euro. Very good, but not risotto with rice as it was made with cous cous.
Lyonnaise Praline Tart for dessert. Damn good! Take note of the glowing red colour of this tart--more on this topic later.
We have a great walk back home which helps with digesting this meal. We arrive around 21:30. Total steps today =
19,200 and 41 floors of elevation gain! A very productive day in Lyon with interesting sights, fantastic food and exercise.
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