Lyon

The sights of Vieux Lyon

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we committed to part of our trip to France being based in Lyon. I love big European cities, so I knew the overall vibe would be great. What I didn’t expect was the how much I would be drawn to the older parts of Lyon.

Vieux Lyon was always right there, just across the Saône, looking down on Presqu’île where our hotel was located. On our first trip over the river to wander around, we didn’t even make it the whole way over the bridge before stopping to photograph the beautiful early spring morning.

Vieux Lyon and the Saône

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Modern meets historic

/ Greg / Leave a comment

For the better part of six days, my wife and I called Lyon home during a two week vacation in France. Lyon is beautiful. Gorgeous, really. And if you were dropped into the city blindfolded, you’d know you were in France from the architecture alone. I really wasn’t expecting to see much modern public art while visiting here, but was more than pleasantly surprised by a few sculptures and installations as I wandered around Lyon. These pieces all caught my eye as physical representations of a noticeable modern vibe running through this historic city.

On a stunning afternoon in the sprawling Parc de la Tête d’Or, this installation, “Ensemble Pour la Paix et la Justice” caught my eye. It was commissioned for the G7 meetings in Lyon in 1996.

Ensemble pour la paix et la justice

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Three great meals

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Admittedly, it’s not too difficult to simply stumble upon a great meal in either Paris or Lyon. With even a half an ounce of planning, you’ll have hundreds and hundreds of options at your fingertips. Our challenge was a little steeper as our plans need to be gluten free for one of us (thankfully, not me… I’ll take the entire bread plate, thanks). Over a two week period, we made three reservations and each gave us an outstanding dining experience.

Chez Marcel, Paris

You would walk right past this place if you weren’t paying attention. It is a quaint 30 seat bistro tucked just off the busy Boulevard Raspail. We arrived a few minutes before our 7:30 reservation and waited for the owner to arrive and let us in to the restaurant. As soon as we stepped foot inside, we knew we would be in for a great meal.

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A perfectly French day

/ Greg / Leave a comment

March 17, 2017 – Lyon, France

It might be hard to have a better, or more “French” day than I’m having. I slept in (good start). Had a leisurely coffee and a pain au chocolate at a cafe a few blocks from our lovely hotel. Then it was off for a morning of exploring the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood including the almost 100 vendor daily market of fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses. I turned some market purchases and a baguette into a perfectly acceptable picnic on a bench overlooking the neighbourhood square all the while sipping on a just before noon Kronenbourg beer. And of course, the meal ending strawberries from Provence were divine. A short break later, I had an un-St. Patrick’s Day afternoon by enjoying a Hoegaarden on a patio of a cafe that had no traces of leprechauns or green beer. And tonight, another picnic, this one in Place des Célestins with a bottle of pinot noir we brought back from our day trip to Burgundy.

France, I like what you do to me while I’m on vacation.

There’s more than wine

/ Greg / Leave a comment

In the days leading up to leaving for France, the most common question asked of me was some variation on “How many wines are you going to try over two weeks?” No one asked me if I was excited to sample some French craft beers. While I have almost built entire trips around craft beer tastings, you just don’t do that in France. You could. Not that there isn’t an ample and growing beer community, but there’s really so much else that’s worthy of attention. So on this trip, while leaving most of my time to wine (I’ll be writing much more on that soon) I fit some beer in along the margins.

On a late morning (if there’s something I love about Europe, it’s the laissez-faire mentality to a moderate amount of morning drinking) where my wife was getting a few extra Zzzzzs, I popped into Académie de la Bière just down the road in Montparnasse from our hotel and enjoyed a just before noon amber ale from La Parisienne. Nicely balanced, my first craft beer in Paris gave me hope I’d find a few hidden treasures over the two weeks.

Beer at L'Académie de La Bière

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There’s something about France

/ Greg / Leave a comment

As my wife and I were traveling back from Paris yesterday, while waiting for our connecting flight in Toronto, we spoke about how good it was to be back in Canada. For as much as I love to travel, I have always relished the feeling when my feet are planted back on Canadian soil. That being said, if there’s one place that could entice me to pack up and move, it would be France.

Two weeks ago after landing in Paris, even through the fog of jet lag, I knew instantly we were going to be in for a great trip. We spent about half of the trip in and around Paris based out of the 14th arrondissement where we had stayed back in 2009. The other half, we stayed in Lyon, a first for us. For the Paris part of the trip, we defiantly ignored the locations we visited on our first trip there – no Louvre, no Arc de Triomphe, and no Eiffel Tower except one distant view when we were exploring the Père Lachaise cemetery off in the distant 20th arrondissement. Instead, we lingered over drinks taking advantage of the spring warmth on outdoor patios, ate at cozy neighbourhood restaurants, and explored some quieter areas of the city.

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