She's Cooking, He's Exploring - Part Two

Old Lyon does have a very nice feel to it, I think one of the main reasons is..it is all so very well looked after. The buildings are very old but so well maintained, and the old cobbled streets are very clean...because cars are pretty well kept out of the area it does feel like you have stepped back in time.

Old Lyon, A Bit Foggy, But Still Beautiful

Even though Old Lyon only covers a small area, I think that they have managed to cram the most eating places per square metre for the whole of Lyon.

I Spy...Patisserie!!!

Cafes Setting Up Early In The Morning

Everywhere you look, you are looking at hundreds of years of history. It is worth looking carefully at buildings as there are little detials, such as statues, and decorative finishes built into each and every aspect of each building.

Most Buildings Have Little StaTues Built Into Them

Quite Spectacular View Through Old Lyon

Another View Back Into Old Lyon

Old Lyon On The Edge Of The Saone

Beautiful Walk Through The Trees

I eventually made my way through Old Lyon and found myself back at the River Saone. looking across the river I could see the food market was still on...at this moment in time my stomach reminded me "Hey, it's nearly lunch time!!".

Looking Across To St. Nizier and The Food Market

The Walk Bridge Over To The Market

So I made my way to my favourite food stall lady, who just happens to sell patisserie, and bought a big piece of Quiche Lorraine and a Lyon speciality...a Praline Tart!!

Sorry no food photos, I ate it all before I even thought about taking a photo......I hope Lesley enjoyed herself as much as I did today!

 

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She's Cooking, He's Exploring - Part One

As Lyon is seen as the food capital of France, Lesley really wanted to do some cooking classes here, so today was her first opportunity. Now I am not going to steal her thunder as I am sure that she will write a post or two about her cooking classes.

So we started the day off together, I walked with her up the hill to her cooking class at Plum Cooking, halfway up the hill towards Croix-Rousse. I then continued to the top of the hill to have a look around. After wandering through a few streets I stumbled across a small fresh food market that had some beautifully fresh looking produce....I wonder if this is the food market Lesley will be coming to tomorrow as part of her cooking class?

Very Fresh Food

A short walk away I found an English pub, surely with a name like this it has to have an English owner!!!

Got To Be English Owners

I then headed back towards the apartment, dropped in to the local cafe for a quick Expresso....for someone that barely drank coffee before arriving in Europe, I just love a good strong short black coffee now!!

Un Expresso, S'il Vous Plait

I made my way down to just past Place Bellecour taking as many photos as I could on the way.

Great Wall Clock, Crap Graffiti

The Fountain In Place De Jacobins

Just East of Place Bellcour is the Place Antonin Poncet on the banks of the Rhone river. Here I came across the living sculpture, "The Flower Tree", it is one of many symbols of Lyon. The sculpture was actually created by Korean artist Jeong-Hwa Choi and is made of stainless steel and painted with polyester resin and measures 6 meters with a total of 85 flowers of polyester resin......the photo hardly does it justice...it looks great!!

View Back Towards Place Bellcour

View Across The Rhone River

Buildings On The Edge Of Place Bellcour

I then made my way across Place Bellcour, over the River Saone to Old Lyon.

Looking Up The Saone to Croix-Rousse

Looking Up To St. Georges

I just admit that I do love Old Lyon.......

 

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The French and Their Burgers

One thing I have noticed since we have been in France and that is how popular the Burger is here. Lots of restaurants and cafes seem to have a burger of some description on their menus, obviously the more up market restaurants don't, but you do see them a lot.

Also to our horror we found out that the French love MacDonald's. Our friend Richard told us that the French our second only behind the American's for creating income for this fast food giant, and we have noticed when walking past these placed they are packed at meal times.

Now as it so happens we have a little upmarket Burger joint at the end of our street just 50 metres from our front door called the Butcher Brothers so we had to try it. They actually have a Burger Bar and a more sophisticated Steak restaurant attached.....we went to the Burger Bar.

Butcher Brothers Burger Bar

The inside is great and is obviously very new, very trendy, and felt really good. The staff were very friendly, helpful and could speak English.....so within no time we were tucking into our very tasty burger lunches.

Trendy Setup

We both went for the 9.90 Euro lunch menu which included Burger, Chips, Salad and Soft Drink.....yes I said Soft Drink, after all the Liver needs a break once in a while.

Why Eat At The Golden Arches When You Can Eat Here?

At this point I have to formally apologize to Lesley, who has told me that she is tired of seeing photos of her eating!!!!....Well, sorry darling, here you is again.....I think she will confiscate my camera soon!!

After lunch a ran around the corner to a little patisserie shop to buy dessert....now if there is one thing the French are extremely good at, it is Patisserie.....yum!!

Calories In A Box

So, if you are ever in France remember to try their Burgers.......and the hundreds of delicious cakes and other sweet delights that they have on offer!!!

Viva La Patisserie!!!!!!

 

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Night Out

Since we have been in Lyon we have noticed that the Lyonnais seem to eat out every night of the week and seem to fill most of the eating establishments around us.

So tonight we decided to hit the town Lyonnais style. So just before six we made our way to a little bar just down the road in the restaurant area just a few hundred metres away from the apartment.

Heaps Of Bars To Choose From

I think we are still in an Italian frame of mind as we ordered Aperol Spritz, one of our favourite drinks while in Italy. Just like in Italy your drinks come with a range of free nibbles...after all you need something to soak up the alcohol.

Spritz and Nibbles

After we finished our Aperol's we decided that we had to start drinking something different, something more local to Lyon. We went through the drinks lists and found the famous alchoholic French aniseed drink of Pastis, but we both agreed that was not the flavour we were looking for, so we both decided on Mojito's. Yes. I know, these are not a typical French drink....but they taste so good, and hey, the French seem to enjoy them as well, so what is good for them is good for us.

Mojito's All Round...Not Quite French!

A few Mojito's later we left the bar in search of somewhere to eat. So we wandered into the more restauranty (rather than bar) area and found somewhere to eat.

Find An Empty Table...Somewhere!

We found a typical Lyonnais restaurant that actually had an empty table and grabbed it. Lesley ordered a very nice sounding Seafood Medley, that read better than it tasted.......also they had run out of Scallops, and some other items, so she ended up with mainly prawns....it was okay but not that good.

Nearly a Seafood Medley

It is funny, I know my meal tasted okay, but for the life of me I cannot remember what I had, and I even took a photo!!!! Maybe the brain cells that remebered what I ate that night got killed of by that last Mojito!!!

The Forgotten Meal!!

So after a night out acting like a local we both crashed and were fast asleep within seconds of hitting the bed....and the locals seem to do this most week nights including week days, obviously practice makes perfect!!

 

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Exploring and Shopping In Lyon

After a casual day lounging around the apartment just chilling out, having a few drinks, and something to eat, we decided to go and do a bit of window shopping and have a good look around the area we have set ourselves up in.

Eglise Sant Nizier Just Around The Corner From Us

Nearly all of the buildings around us are 5-6 storeys high and made of a light stone, this gives a very nice feel to the place when the sun comes out as the light seems to reflect everywhere and just makes you feel good.

The Fountain In Place de Jacobins

Looking Across Place Bellecour

We are right in amongst all of the shops and restaurants so did not have to walk far to find them. The whole idea of today was to have a look at Winter clothes....it has to start getting too cold for us soon!

Walking around we cecame very amused at the way many of the French park.....if there is a gap, they will park in it. It is common to see a row of cars with bumpers all touching...it beats me how they get the cars in these spaces, never mind getting them out.

Hey, It Fits!!!!!

Very soon we were in the main shopping area, the closed off road of the Rue de la Republique...this place is packed with shops of every description. It started to feel like Lesley was going through every shop door "just to have a quick look"......I could feel myself getting older by the minutes........I just love shopping.

Photos Up and Down Rue de la Republique

Is it just me, or is walking around the shops more exhausting than running a marathon?

 

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Up To Croix-Rousse

Lesley has enrolled in a couple of cooking classes up the hill towards Croix-Rousse at a small cooking school called Plum Cooking.

So after lunch we thought that we would head up there so that she knew where she would have to go and how much of a hill she would have to climb.

Almost At The Street That Plum Cooking Is In

On the map Plum Cooking is just 800 metres from our apartment so I could not see it taking too long.

Plum Cooking

What I had not allowed for was how much of that distance was heading in the "upwards" direction!!! Now we got there in just under 15 minutes with a couple of "breather" stops for Lesley.....not too sure she is looking fowards to the classes as much as she was 15 minutes ago!!!!

After we found Plum Cooking, I convinced lesley (somehow) that we should continue to the top to see the views.

Almost There

Once at the top we had brilliant views across southern Lyon.

View Across To Notre Dame Basilica

View South Across Lyon

By the time we got back to the apartment Lesley was close to collapse, so as a reward we had a short rest and then went out for a meal just around the corner from the apartment.

Restaurant Leon de B

We found a great restaurant (Leon de B) that specialized in Mussell dishes, much to Lesley's delight, but I could not go past a good old hamburger for getting my energy levels back!

Now That Is One Big Bowl Of Mussells!

We both had a "Floating Island" for dessert....a big meringue with custard and caramel sauce....delicious! So, both very tired and both feeling quite full, we made our way back to the apartment for a good night sleep.

Oh, by the way, we did sit in a bar for a while and watch West Ham lose to Manchester City......enough said....good night!

 

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