Lyon Visit

May 30, 2023 to June 1, 2023

The tourist brochures use numerous superlatives for Lyon but we chose to focus on the "gastronomic capital" and looked for fooding experiences. Good food starts with good ingredients, so our first morning we found an open market where we could buy fresh vegetables and a 'traiteur' prepared dish for a healthy lunch. Next was to prepare a map of the many suggested eateries on our 'short list' then use that as a starting point to explore the city. We wandered for hours and in between the pedestrian boulevards, fountain squares, bridges and churches we selected two possible lunch places, one, a bouchon with traditional Lyonais cooking and the other a nouvelle cuisine place with a young and avant-garde chef.

In the end we ate supper at Le Buchon des Filles. This was a regular haunt for Bill Buford when he lived in Lyon; in fact it was his wife's preferred place for an everyday meal, partly for the good food but also because it was owned and run by women, a rarity in the male dominated cooking scene of Lyon. We were surprised to be greeted by a male maître'd and we didn't peek in the kitchen to see who was cooking, but the food was indeed very good and the atmosphere was boisterous with every table taken and packed in side by side. We ordered Lyonnais specialties, Boudin sausage in pastry for Steve and Quesnel de Brochu, which is like a fish pie for Ann. With an assortment of salads and charcuterie to start, a cheese course and desserts we were completely stuffed when we waddled out at 9pm. On the way home we passed the stairs up to the Cathedral and, not knowing just how far up it was, took the 45 minute detour and got a marvellous view of the city while working off some of the calories.

Lunch the next day at La Quintessence was a more elegant affair in a spacious and modern room with beautifully presented dishes that were explained in detail by the wait staff. We started with white asparagus, then lamb for Steve and cod fish for Ann. The main ingredients themselves were very good and cooked to perfection, but it was the sauces that really made each dish exquisite: tasty, rich but not heavy. Strawberry mousse cake for dessert and coffee. Mmm.

Our AirBNB was upstairs from a Michelin starred restaurant and we enjoyed watching the team busily preparing and breathing in the smells from the courtyard below. The basic tasting menu was 149€ each, so we will go there when we win a lottery!

Overall, we left Lyon with a very positive impression and it has been added to our list of places in France for a possible longer stay, or at least another visit.

Lion of Lyon! With Trabules in background. There are over 40 Traboules, historical, hidden passageways, open to the public, most in old Lyon.

Passerelle du Palais-de-Justice, walking bridge.

City Hall under renovations. The roof is already finished, beautiful!

Bartholdi Fountain. It's interesting that Bartholdi was also the sculptor of The Statue of Liberty.

This huge, trompe-l'oeil painting on the side of a building depicts 30 well-known people from Lyon.

Metallic Tower of Fourviere, bears a striking resemblance to the Eiffel Tower although it predates it by three years.

Lyon from the Basilica looking out at Lyon and the Cathedral in the foreground.

Wednesday’s lunch at Quintessence. If I am going to serve this at home I am going to have to figure out how to make this light Hollandaise mousse to go with the white asparagus !

Our attempt at cooking white asparagus. We really liked it and will to add to our repertoire at home, if we can even get white asparagus in Canada.

Théâtre des Célestins on Place des Célestins.

The parking garage under Place des Célestins is one of the ten most spectacular parking garages in the world. "Its greatness lies in the rotating mirror named Upside Down and placed by the French artist Daniel Buren at the very bottom, which gives it the effect of a kaleidoscope".

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