Lyon 8-11th May

Lyon - the gastronomic capital of France (and a chance to chill out)

Hmmm - perhaps another food-focussed city that isn't particularly vego-friendly! Not to worry, we have arrived in Lyon to visit the markets and walk through old Lyon and perhaps relax a little.

 

Looking to the city of Lyon

 

We had a nice trip again by train from Beaune and splurged on a taxi to our hotel. You know the drill - check in, bag drop, quick change and hit the streets. Turns out the streets were packed due to a public holiday and hundreds of people flocking to the shopping strip (a world-wide phenomenon it seems). What a shock after our easy strolls around Beaune! So we chose to just pop into the Lyon tourist office and grab maps and ideas for our own walks through Vieux Lyon, the old city of Lyon. We headed back to the hotel via a supermarket for brekkie supplies and some local cheeses and snacks. Georgina had bought a Pinot Noir when we visited the winery in Beaune so we thought we had better open it. So the day ended with the 3 of us sharing some good local wine and cheese with some music from home playing in the background. Bliss!

Another view of Lyon

We headed off to Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse market the next morning, funnily enough named after the rather famous chef from Lyon, Paul Bocuse. He seems to be genuinely regarded amongst Lyon's most famous residents, throughout history! We have a great love of food and even though we are vegetarian (yes we know, Caz does slip occasionally), we can appreciate and admire the food and produce that is local to the region. France is perhaps one of the great examples of not only regional food trends but also the pride in which it is presented.

Cheese selections at the market

More Roquefort for G :)

We started with one of the best coffees Georgina has had since we left - so good that Caz had to also indulge. FYI Caz hasn't had an actual 'coffee' coffee for many, many years! On our leisurely stroll we came across a fromagerie that reminded us so much of Smelly Cheese in the Adelaide Central Markets; pretty amazing considering the number of fromageries at Les Halles. So after over an hour of taking it all in we ended up back at Fromagerie Mons Lyon.

Mons Fromagerie at Les Halles

 

They offered a tasting plate of 4 cheeses and a glass of wine for 10 Euro and as it was very nearly lunchtime we had the perfect excuse to indulge. Well all we can say is that the world does in fact keep getting smaller. Turns out (from what we understand...) Fromagerie Mons supplies Valerie at Smelly Cheese with most of their regional French cheeses. Victor who served us lived in Melbourne, married an Aussie, and has met Valerie from Smelly Cheese. After a wonderful chat and a couple of photos to send home Victor prepared us a generous plate each of 5 cheeses (one extra non-pasteurised cheese especially for us) with a glass of local white wine. The cheese? Superb - enough said. If you are ever in Lyon.......

Our tasting plates for lunch

Victor excited to have a picture with the Adelaide girls

 

We dragged ourselves away from the market and headed towards old Lyon. We followed a walking route suggested by a helpful woman at the tourist info centre. Founded by the Romans in 43BC, parts of Lyon are UNESCO heritage listed with many preserved areas. We took the funicular up to Fourvière Hill where the Romans settled, and strolled down through the old streets of Lyon.

A view from the top over the city

Roman ruins

A little friend trying to get some warmth from the rock :)

Sights walking through Old Lyon

 

The next day followed a similar path starting with coffee at the market and a walk through the historical quarter. Perhaps we're a little travel weary, but we have been a little ho-hum about our time in Lyon however we are by no way complaining. The time we spent with Victor sharing stories about cheese and the Adelaide connection with Lyon was our highlight. As they say in some wanky advertising campaign - priceless!

Tomorrow we farewell France and the French trains. We're flying to Barcelona on Vueling Airlines, the Spanish equivalent to Tiger - cheap and hopefully cheerful. So a quick practice of a few essential Spanish phrases and off we go. Hola!!!!