Lyon

Lyon is a beautiful French city located in the confluence of the Rhone and the Soane rivers.  The Rhone valley is renowned for its Burgundy and Chablis wines. We came to eat, drink and see the sights.

On the tour of the city we were able to see interesting French architecture and art. This building has no windows. An artist painted windows with historically famous people in each window. It looks very realistic.

Lyon is the food mecca of France.  The community prides itself on farm to table foods.  Lyon did not disappoint. The city has tiny local restaurants called Bouchons. These places serve traditional country foods. The Bouchon we went to was called L'Acteur. It seats 24 people very close together.  The menu was written on a small black board is in French (of course).  A very nice young French man sitting next to us who spoke English (sort of) translated the menu and described each offering so we were able to select the items we wanted for lunch.      

 

The indoor food market was marvelous.  It's filled with stores offering seafood, wine, cheese, bread, vegetables, sweets, and restaurants featuring every nationality of foods you could imagine. The French must do their shopping on the weekends because this place was packed with people with tiny carts they pull behind them to carry their groceries

Farmers Markets were everywhere on Saturday and Sunday.  The farmers markets feature the best fruits and vegetables, bread and cheese, fresh butchered beef, pork, chicken, and duck meat. One vendor had olives on a table that stretched 20 feet.  We stopped to buy one peach and one nectarine.  They usually sell by the kilo and didn't know how to charge us so they just gave us the fruit for free. In Bonaire we seldom see such fresh fruits and veggies so the farmers market became our street food treats.

 

We stayed in Vieux Lyon, the old district.  It has narrow cobble stone and brick streets. Our building door opens onto one of the cobblestone streets, and the building has a courtyard with a stone slab circular staircase. The building is ancient but the apartment is modern inside. It was a great location...close to the metro, grocery stores, restaurants and shopping.  

We came to Lyon by train via Geneva. We used the metro to go everywhere. Rick has become a master of finding ways to get places on the metro and can get us anywhere by transferring trains. We also walk a lot. We had sunny skies in Lyon.  This is one of our many selfies with the Soane in the background with Vieux Lyon beyond.