A weekend in Lyon

So it's just been a couple of days since I've been back in France, and needless to say, I'm finding it just slightly difficult adjusting back to our daily routines, having to go to the office, and all that...

Actually, while we were in Japan, we'd signed up to participate in the JLPT exam (JLPT stands for Japanese Language Proficiency Test), which just so happened to be taking place in Lyon on the first weekend after my return. So, time to pack the bags then and hit the road for Lyon! (great excuse to check out Lyon again, one of my favourite cities in France).

Our hotel was a rather unexciting chain hotel called Le Campanile in a rather charmless suburb of Lyon. So after checking in, we jumped on the metro, and headed into the town centre. We spent the morning walking around in the lovely old town, checking out all the cozy-looking restaurants (many of them Bouchons, traditional Lyonnaise eateries). We settled on a nice-seeming restaurant in the old town, where we had an unsurprisingly delicious French meal! Nice change to get back to French food, after 4 months of Asian grub.

We spent the afternoon randomly walking around town - we've been to Lyon a couple of times already, so didn't feel an overwhelming need to go to any museums or similar (well, we were planning on visiting one the next day, actually). Lyon was pretty busy on this Saturday, with some sort of festival going on, involving a lot of students putting up various spectacles in the streets. Some police demonstrations going on as well....

For dinner, we decided to try our hotel's buffet restaurant - not one of the best ideas we've had, I have to say. The buffet was unsurprisingly unappetizing, so I decided to order something from the menu instead - pizza. It was definitely the worst pizza I've had for years - and that's saying a lot. One of those Micrwave pizzas you can get at the supermarket tastes better! A bit of a fail then...

The next day was our Big Exam Day. But before that, we decided to check out a fancy museum they've recently built in Lyon, Le Musee des Confluances. It's quite a masterpiece of modern architecture (if you are into strange geometric shapes made of glass, metal and wood, which I obviously am then, since I rather liked the building!). The museum itself is pretty interesting too - it's apparently a science centre and anthropology museum.

I loved the place - this is how modern museums should be like. Basically they've found the right balance between what traditional museums used to be like, yet using modern technology where appropriate. And most importantly, it's a place where you learn a lot - which to me is the most important thing when it comes to museums like this. A much more interesting museum than for example MUCEM -  the new museum in the port of Marseille.

And the Japanese exam, then ? Well, given that we were doing the N5 exam (the lowest level), I would've expected it to be easier, given our 6 weeks of intensive studies in Tokyo. Actually, I found it a bit tough, so fingers crossed, results are out end of January....

Anyway, nice to be back in France! ;-)

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!

A weekend in Lyon

We were quite happy when our good friends Aniko and Philippe got in touch some time ago about meeting up somewhere in France for a weekend, during their holiday road trip around France. After some deliberation, we agreed upon Lyon - one of the great cities of France, conveniently located between Nice and Paris (where Philippe and Aniko live). We've been to Lyon a couple of times, but haven't really properly visited the place, so we quite looked forward to spending a weekend there.

We arrived just in time for dinner, after a surprisingly trouble-free trip from Nice (traffic can be quite bad along the Rhone valley leading up to Lyon). And what better place to have dinner in than a proper Lyon "bouchon" - a traditional little Lyonnais eatery, serving things that sound rather disgusting on paper at least, usually involving intestines from various animals. We chose a rather promisingly named place called Le Carnivore - and at least the cozy deco more than lived up to expectations. The food was rather Lyonnais as well - I decided to really go all the way and start with some bone marrow, folllowed by that famous stinky sausage known as Andoillette (which is actually strictly speaking a speciality from Troyes, unless I am mistaken...). All in all, a nice little introduction to Lyon then! Me and Philippe rounded off the evening with a couple of beers in a bar near the hotel...

The next morning, we decided to head down to Vieux Lyon, in spite of the ominously grey sky. Vieux Lyon is a rather charming place, with windy roads, loads on Bouchons (many looking rather touristy...). My favourite bit of Vieux Lyon are the Traboules, sort of passages that cross building courtyards, allowing quick access form one street to another. Heading through these "secret passages", one feels almost like an explorer or adventurer...

After a nice little walk around this charming part of time, we decided to take the funicular up to Fourviere, a hill overlooking the old town and the Saone river. This hilltop is famous for its Roman ruins (which we didn't have time to visit this time around, unfortunately), and the Notre-Dame de Fourvière, an impressive church stunningly located at the top of the hill. The views towards Lyon are, needless to say, stunning. Pity about the fog... The walk down back to old Lyon was pretty nice too...

By now our stomachs were grumbling, so we decided to head back across the Saone river to the modern part of town to get something to eat. We eventually ended up in a great little bistro called Le Potager des Halles. We had a meal that I can only describe as stunning - everything was sport on: the food, the prices, the decor, and the cheeky service... Seems that Lyon's reputation as a culinary hotspot is well deserved!

After lunch, we continued exploring charming Lyon, starting with the rather stunning Place des Terreaux and the modern opera, and heading up-hill to trendy Croix-Rousse. Croix-Rousse used to be a working-class neighbourhood, but these days, it's one of the hippest places in town. It's got a nice little edge to it, reminds me a bit about some parts of San Francisco (not just because it's similarly hilly...), with its chic little shops and fancy cafes. And what's best, there are plenty of traboules to explore ;-)

After a couple of hours of exploration and walking around, we headed downhill back towards our hotel, stopping by at a nearby bar where we had rendez-vous for apero with Mathilde's friend Karine. She ended up joining us for dinner as well (and luckily ordered a nice little restaurant for us as well - since I had managed to book a Japanese sushi place rather than a Lyonnais Bouchon for the evening!).

Dinner was excellent again, similar to lunch, pretty much confirming our faith in the local cuisine. And great to get a bit more time to catch up with Karine! We were treated to some nice night-time views across the Rhone river on the way back to the hotel as well, as an added treat. Me and Philippe finished off the evening with a couple of pints at an Irish pub in the old town...

The next day, we very lucky enough to be blessed with plentiful sunshine. We decided to make the best of it and walk along the Rhone river up to the Cite International. The walk was rather stunning - they've really done a good job at redeveloping the riverside - dedicating it to nature. The Cite International is a pretty cool place as well. It's a kind of big appartment complex, completemented by art galleries, shops and restaurants, stunningly designed by Renzo Piano. Me and Philippe made fools of our selves, climbing on top of the art works on display (only afterwards spotting the "do not touch" signs). Some people never grow up, eh ? ;-)

After the cite we headed into the nearby Parc de la tete de l'Or, a lovely place to spend a sunny day like today. There's even a zoo there - great opportunity for me to put my telephoto lens to good use on the monkeys and other animals on display. We ended up having a rather disappointing lunch at the Place des Terreux in what can only be described as a tourist trap. During the meal, it started pouring raining cats and dogs, as the English would say, surely a sign that it was time to leave Lyon. So we did, after saying our goodbyes to Philippe and Aniko.

All in all, we'd had a fantastic weekend in Lyon. It hadn't made much of an impression on me on the previous short visits, but this visit really left it's mark. I would happily go back - especially as the cuisine was every bit as good as I expected as well! ;-)

To Anjou and beyond

All Saints Day and Halloween is coming up rapidly, which means school holidays ;-). This time we decided to head to the west of France, to visit Francoise and Joel, and visit a bit of Brittany as well. Angers is a bit tricky to get to from this part of the world, so once more we decided to drive down there. As it’s a bit of a long trek to do in one day (it’s about 9 hours of driving altogether…), we decided to do a stopover in Vienne. After a good 4 hour drive (including a stop for dinner at Hippopotamus – yippii), we arrived in Vienne, just in time to hit the sack at our less-than-glamorous Etap hotel.

Vienne (not Vienna :-) ) is located just south of Lyon, located in the Isère department. Vienne has some of the most well-known Roman sites (or at least some of the most impressive ones) in all of France. After a quick brekkie at out hotel (which was actually quite decent, considering Etap isn’t exactly a high-class hotel), we headed out to explore the Roman treasures of the town. We started by checking out the Roman theatre, the most impressive of the Roman remains. It certainly is the most impressive Roman theatre I’ve seen in France (certainly much more so than the one in Arles), although I’ve not been to Orange. It makes good use of the local scenery, being built onto the slope of the hills overlooking Vienne. Apparently it could welcome 13,000 spectators in its heyday – and the place is still being put to good use, as this is where the Vienne jazz festival is held each summer.

We then crossed town, and the Rhone river, into the Rhone department, where the other main Roman site of the city is located, Saint-Roman-en-Gal. In Roman days, this was a big residential quarter in what was then the biggest city in Gaul. Only the foundations of most buildings remain, but the place is still well worth a visit. The relative vastness of the place gives a pretty good idea of the layout of the city, and there are enough foundations remaining of some of the bigger villas to imagine how splendid the place must’ve been in its day. The archaeological museum located next to the site was pretty interesting too – especially the mosaics on display were really impressive.

We still had time for a walk in the old town – where we came across the 3rd famous Roman site of the city – the Temple of Augustus and Livia, located on one of the main squares in Vienne. Quite unusual to see a temple preserved in the middle of the heart of a city like that – Nimes is the only other example of it in France which comes to mind. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit the place since it was under renovation. We did pay a quick visit to the rather impressive Romanesque cathedral. Then, after a quick Moroccan snack lunch at the local market, it was time to carry on…

We arrived in Anger just in time for dinner – I’m pretty good at timing sometimes ;-). We were quite happy to see the sun out gloriously on Sunday, after the rather chilly and overcast weather we had experienced in Vienne. So after a delicious Sunday lunch, we decided to go for a walk around the lac de Maine – no reason not to, really. It gave me a good opportunity to put my new zoom lens to good use – plenty of birds to snap shots of. The lake was very beautiful indeed, surrounded by trees with autumn coloured leaves – it very much reminded me of the Finnish Ruska actually.

All in all, we spent a couple of very chilled out days in Angers, chatting away with Joel and Francoise, playing Hanafuda and other games, eating as well as always, you know, family stuff. As we often do in Angers, we checked out a film at the excellent 400 Coups cinema – Social Network (very good actually, as one can expect from David Fincher). And of course we did our traditional jogging tour around the lake. And I spent a couple of energetic hours sawing up some old furniture as firewood for Francoise (ah, reminds me of my youth in Finland…)

On Monday (after a tasty lunch, of course) it was then time to make our way to the next destination on our trip – Nantes. No touristy visit this time, rather we had a rather busy social schedule to adhere to. First, we paid a visit to Herquise, who had moved into her own flat recently. After a quick coffee and apple pie there (yummie), ‘twas time to make our way across Nantes to Aude’s and Magaye’s place for an aperitif (unfortunately they couldn’t join us for dinner, since Aude’s dad was visiting.



Great to catch up with them – I’ve not seen them for absolute ages… Looking very much forward to visiting the house they just bought… And then it was time to head into the centre of Nantes, where we were meeting up with Patrick and Nathalie for dinner. They have also moved recently, into a house they are in the process of building, so probably appreciated a break from the « building site ». We opted for a restaurant with some local cuisine (well Angevine – not sure that counts as local in Nantes ?) – a good choice indeed. Good food, good wine, good company, what else does one need ?



We then made our way back to their house just north of Nantes. We were very impressed indeed with their building project. It’s a « nearly passive » house, so basically doesn’t require any heating or aircon. And I can testify it works pretty well – the temperature outside was pretty close to zero overnight, but we certainly didn’t freeze that night. Very impressive stuff indeed. After a brief but sweet visit, it was time for us to carry on towards Brittany. A pity I wasn’t able to meet up with my godson Florian this time – oh well, next time then !

Wintery visit to Angers

It doesn’t seem like such a long time ago since our last holiday (to Japan). But here we go again; off for a week of travelling. This time we had less ambitious plans; the idea was to drive down to Angers via Lyon, and spend a few days with her dad and Francoise there. Then, we intended to continue to Paris, and drive back down to the Cote d’Azur after a weekend there.

Things didn’t start very well, since our 118d was still being repaired at the garage, having suffered a minor road accident a fortnight earlier. So we ended up embarking on the trip in my parents trusty Scenic instead (they were still in Finland so didn’t need it). In spite of leaving a bit later than planned (finding the keys for my parents car, getting the car out, putting our car back, and all that, took longer than expected…), our trip to Lyon was pretty painless (we were a bit afraid of getting stuck in snow or traffic, with all the other holiday makers on their way to the Alps…). We even found Karine and Johan’s place in Lyon (where we were staying for the night) without problems (praise the GPS...).

Karine is an old friend of Mathilde’s from her days of youth in Alencon, who has finally ended up in Lyon (having lived a bit all over France over the last few years), together with Johan and young Lukas. After a very nice dinner (boudin blanc, the real rural French cuisine deal), and quite a few glasses of wine, whisky, and some eau de vie, and some other stuff that all the alcohol I had has wiped off my brain cells, I stumbled into bed. Seems that me and Johan have at least two things in common (the other thing is our interest in nerdy computery things…). Surprisingly, I didn’t even wake up with a headache, so we could continue our journey towards Angers, after a very pleasant stay at Karine and Johan’s.

The journey to Angers took us through a beautifully snow-covered massif central. We felt lucky indeed, going west, as we observed the standstill traffic going the other way (people heading for some skiing in the alps…). The journey was a very smooth one; we weren’t even much slowed down by the snow.

Arriving in Angers, we were naturally greeted by a very tasty dinner a la Francoise. We also had the honour of meeting the latest arrival to Marc’s and Magaly’s family; Iloh (in case you’re wondering, that’s a girl’s name). On Sunday, we were joined by Xavier and Aude (who seem to be enjoying life by the sea in the Vendee very much indeed) as well as Herquise (who seems to be enjoying life in Nantes very much indeed). It was a all a very family-oriented Sunday; with a great sturdy French lunch followed by some Hanafuda (we managed to transmit our addiction to Herquise rather quickly) and general socialising. It was great to see the progress Joel is making, and to see his sense of humour is well intact (I especially liked his remark “Teemu ne boit pas de l’eau normalement”, less so his comment about me being Estonian).

And of course a proper French lunch requires a bit of physical activity afterwards, to get rid of that acquired fat. So we decided to go for a walk around the Lac de Maine (me and Mathilde even scaled the mighty heights of the “Roc de Croix” – or whatever it’s called, where we enjoyed some great views around the surrounding area, all the way to the town centre). Monday was dedicated to more relaxation, the most energetic thing we achieved was a cinema outing at “Le 400 Coups” (a brilliant cinema showing mostly independent films, for a town its size). Unfortunately our first choice, Gainsbourgh, was sold out; so we ended up seeing Une Execution Ordinaire (a very good French movie about communist Russia, with a superb performance from Dussolier as Stalin. In spite of it all being in French, I felt it captured the moment of that time, or at least as I have imagined it, very well).

The following day was gardening day. Cutting the hedge and sawing up firewood, mostly. I very much enjoyed it, believe it or not. Something I miss from the summers back in Finland; where I used to get rid of excess energy sawing up firewood at good old Ragard….). Since we really wanted to see Gainsbourg, we made another attempt, and managed to get seats this time. It didn’t disappoint; and gave me a great lesson about the life of one of great French icons of the 20th century. I suppose he’s a bit of a French Juice Leskinen (or is it perhaps the other way around?), although it has to be said he had better luck with women than old Juice. After this bit of culture, we managed to squeeze in a visit to Delphine and Christophe’s place; where we were treated to some coffee and waffles, yummie yummie. After another filling dinner, we headed back for the town centre with Sandra for a couple of drinks at a nice studenty bar. Good to see her again; one can always count on her to come out for a drink ;-).

On Wednesday, it was time for our customary visit to Patis au Chat, out in the rural Sarthe department, to say hi to Mathilde’s granddad. Good to see him and his wife are still in good form, able to live autonomously in the countryside the way they do. And trust me, where they live, it’s the real countryside (not like here on the Cote d’Azur, where a lot of the villages are filled with 2nd residences…).

That brought and end to our visit in Angers this time, as it was time for us to continue towards Paris on Thursday. As always, it was great to visit, and rest, and eat very well indeed. Angers really does feel like a 3rd/4th (?) home to me… Hopefully, Joel and Francoise can come and pay us a visit around Easter, as planned!