A weekend in Lyon

Christmas is approaching! Sadly, me and Mathilde are once again spending Christmas apart, me in Finland and Mathilde with her dad and Francoise in La Rochelle. Turns out that the easiest way for Mathilde to get to La Rochelle was to fly from Lyon - so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to spend a romantic weekend in Lyon together before going our separate ways for the festive season.

We'd booked a nice hotel in the Presqu'île part of town, nicely and centrally located between the Rhône and Saône rivers. As we arrived rather late, we decided to head off for a bite to eat right after checking in. We ended up in a cozy little bistros called Le Comptoir d'Ainay, which was recommended by our hotel. Bistros are very much in fashion at the moment in France, and I do rather like the concept. What characterizes these places nowadays is often a rather short menu (which suggest that they actually cook their food, rather than use a microwave oven), the use of in-season ingredients, a modern interior and friendly/informal service. This place was a rather typical example of one, in a good way. Tasty food, excellent service, a nice interior design - basically the perfect setting for an intimate meal after a long drive.

The next day, the plan was to meet up with our friends Ollie and Raphaelle (as well as their little ones, Lucas and Louis) for lunch, and then with Karine and Johan (as well as their young ones) for dinner. After a bit of a lie-in followed by breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to the Confluence shopping complex, a new "shopping heaven" located not too far from our hotel. Much to our amazement, the place was not overrun by last-minute Christmas shoppers like us - thanks god for that! So we managed to get our present acquisitions done rather efficiently.

As far as lunch was concerned, we ended up (after some rather last-minute planning) meeting up with Ollie, Raphaelle, her sister and their little ones at a place called Le Morgon, located near the main train station. Le Morgon is a bouchon, a type of restaurant that can really only be found in Lyon. Traditionally it's a rather simple, no-nonsense place serving up traditional Lyonnaise cuisine (which basically means offal in its various forms!) with some local red wine.

This place certainly qualifies as a proper Bouchon - the interior decor is traditional and simple (no mis-placed efforts to look "rustic" as some of the more famous bouchons in the old town resort to). And the food is indeed mostly of the offal variety (with a couple of "normal dishes" like magret de canard on the menu for the less adventurous-minded). So what's the verdict ? I'm not normally into offal, but the tablier de sapeur I had here did make me re-evaluate my opinion about this type of food - I wouldn't say I've been converted but I'll certainly be less reluctant to try this type of food in the future. But what I liked most was the no-nonsense, authentic atmosphere of the place. Thankfully places like this, which proudly keep up old traditions, still exist in this globalized world we live in. So, the verdict is: I loved the place.

After a rather long and filling lunch (in proper French tradition), we had coffee at Olivier's and Raphaelle's flat, after which Ollie took us out on a bit of a local tour with young Lucas. After checking out the local park, we made our way to a rather unusual tourist attraction called Les Gratte-Ciels, a rather surprising architectural ensemble built in Villeurbaine (the commune which together with Lyon makes up "Greater Lyon"), from 1927 and 1934. It's basically a collection of sky-scrapers, built in modernist styles, which wouldn't look out of place in New York or Chicago. Really cool place - we also liked the theatre and town halls, built in similar style. I also had my first vin chaud based on white wine here - now that's something for the history books ;-)

After saying bye bye to Ollie and Lucas, it was time for us to head off for our next rendez-vous - dinner at Karine and Johan's place. Time for some grilled meat with some excellent wine, followed by a few digestives from Johan's rather extensive collection (I always end up with a headache after dinner with Johan and Karine). Great to catch up with them again!

The next day, we decided to more or less randomly walk around Lyon. It's a rather pedestrian-friendly city, with the  Rhône and Saône rivers cutting the city in three parts (Presqu'île, where our hotel was located, is located between the two rivers). We started off by crossing the Rhone river over to the Eastern part of the city, where we decided to pay a visit to "Les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse". The halls are a revamped version of the traditional Lyon main indoors market, which got its facelift about 10 years ago, and got to use the name of the most famous Lyonnaise chef. It's a place where the well-off Lyonnais come and do their shopping - the prices of the no-doubt excellent products are probably rather off-putting for most ordinary punters. Still, it was good fun to take in all the hustle and bustle, as people stocked up for Christmas.

Our walk then took us back across the river to the opera, from where we made our way up to Croix-Rousse, a nice sort of off-beat part of Lyon we'd rather enjoyed walking around the last time we were in town. Our mission was to find an open restaurant, one which proved nearly impossible. Everything seemed to be closed - we eventually ended up in a micro-brewery called Nikkai, which served decent burgers (and better beer). Our opinion about Croix-Rousse remains unchanged - a very nice part of town to walk around, especially when the sun is out and about, as was the case for us!

To finish our day in Lyon, we walked back to the car park along the Saône river, checking out a second-hand book market whilst enjoying some rather nice views across the river towards the old town (which we didn't actually get around to visiting this time - next time I suppose!).

And then it was sadly time to take Mathilde to the airport and go our separate ways for a few days. All in all, we very much enjoyed Lyon, as we did during our first visit. The place certainly merits further exploration (maybe next time I'll try the tête de veau - another Lyonnaise culinary "delicacy"), so we will no doubt be back before long!