On the back of my last post, for those on my Facebook you would probably know that K and I spent a short weekend getaway to Lyon for our one year wedding anniversary.
We didn't really know where to go but we both do like France a bit more and I remembered Lyon being the culinary capital of France. We flew in after work on Friday night and touched down at 1030pm. We made our way taking the Rhone Express (their tram service) to Part-Dieu, the commercial district, and where the main train station was, and from there we hailed a cab to our B&B, about 5km away. I had arranged with the B&B owners for a very late check in and they told us they would leave the lights on in our room so we know where to go to. The room was lovely, everything seemed brand new and the bed was so comfy. Our room overlooked the front garden too.
When we awoke on Saturday we were greeted by Mimi and Nicholas, a very happy smiley couple. They greeted us with a "Bienvenue!" (welcome!) and proceeded to serve us our French breakfast. We chatted about places to see in Lyon, restaurants to visit, and soon I asked about this interesting B&B. See it is perched up on a hill called Fourviere and has ancient looking walls. We could see there was extensive works done, a big effort to combine the new and old. So our room would have new walls but on the exterior we could see exposed bricks and old plastered walls. It was an interesting juxtapose. Turns out that the property dates back to 1850 and it's believed to be an ex convent because they saw a statue of Virgin Mary in the front garden. 12 years ago Mimi and Nicholas bought the place and it was literally crumbling. They spent a full year restoring and refurbishing to what it is today. They excitedly showed us a photo album of pictures they took depicting the before and after. It's all very interesting.
We decided to do the touring the lazy way, via the open top bus. A round loop takes a bit more than an hour and then we would return to the pick up location where our lunch reservation would be awaiting. We had asked Mimi to help make a reservation for us at her recommendation, Daniel et Denise. She says it's very local and upcoming. We saw the different sights and made mental notes to alight at two or three stops to walk around. Lunch was rather posh which we were not sure if we expected but the food was good. These days, K would always prompt me at restaurants to "stop being an Asian and take photos of food!" So yup no food pics to share :( The french certainly know how to enjoy long meals. Our lunch took a good 1.5h before we both rolled out of the restaurant and guess what? Instead of heading out to the few places we planned to visit, the hubby actually suggested going back for a snooze. I was like "huh you being serious?" To be fair, I have to admit we both are exhausted from work. We just need to catch up on sleep. Especially after such a full meal. And so we did.
He kept assuring me the snooze will do us good. Which on hindsight I have to agree. We felt more refreshed. An hour later when we headed back to the city centre, we walked around the main square and the streets until it was time for… dinner. In fact we barely took photos.
Paul Bacouse is a famous chef in Lyon. He owns a few brasseries and has a proper restaurant which is very expensive. My colleague had told me the brasserie would be good enough if we were not planning on a splurge. And so I made a reservation the week before at Le Nord (translating to The North). And he has a few others called - yep - South, East and West. And then another chef has one called Le Centrale. Seriously they love the compass here so much?
Funnily we saw lots of Asians dining at Le Nord that night. K thought I had brought him to a tourist trap! The food was good I won't deny but if you recall we had such a big lunch and to have dinner at 7pm, I could barely eat. We tried to delay the meal but delaying our order saying we needed more time to decide on our food. Finally we decided to go lighter by ordering fish instead of steak. Again we ate so much it wasn't even funny anymore. My tummy felt so bloated for the whole night and I couldn't sleep well. K sighed and told me "first world problems dear wife, first world problems".
Sunday was even more relaxed than Saturday. We woke up, had a long breakfast - Mimi and Nicholas must be wondering what's wrong with this couple. We even requested for a late check out, only leaving the B&B at 1pm. Yes K went back to snooze again after breakfast! I surfed the net, and just enjoyed the comfy bed. The weather was sunny again, amazing. We were supposed to have thundery showers for both days and the only rain was the drizzle after our dinner at Le Nord.
We walked further up to the basilica and Mimi suggested us having lunch at the restaurant next to the Basilica which has an awesome view of Lyon. What a great suggestion. The view was stunning. The basilica was beautiful. We sat in the cathedral for a while where we prayed for our marriage. And yep, to lunch next. This was not such a heavy lunch and was really good. The view definitely helped. Again we had a 2h lunch - the service was so slow. We walked back to our B&B to pick up our luggages and the cab was waiting for us, ready to take us back to Part-Dieu where we would take the Rhone Express back to the airport.
All in all, I am not quite sure I can say I saw Lyon cos we were snoozing and eating for most part of it. Sometimes I do think we need to have a slow vacation like that.
We didn't really know where to go but we both do like France a bit more and I remembered Lyon being the culinary capital of France. We flew in after work on Friday night and touched down at 1030pm. We made our way taking the Rhone Express (their tram service) to Part-Dieu, the commercial district, and where the main train station was, and from there we hailed a cab to our B&B, about 5km away. I had arranged with the B&B owners for a very late check in and they told us they would leave the lights on in our room so we know where to go to. The room was lovely, everything seemed brand new and the bed was so comfy. Our room overlooked the front garden too.
When we awoke on Saturday we were greeted by Mimi and Nicholas, a very happy smiley couple. They greeted us with a "Bienvenue!" (welcome!) and proceeded to serve us our French breakfast. We chatted about places to see in Lyon, restaurants to visit, and soon I asked about this interesting B&B. See it is perched up on a hill called Fourviere and has ancient looking walls. We could see there was extensive works done, a big effort to combine the new and old. So our room would have new walls but on the exterior we could see exposed bricks and old plastered walls. It was an interesting juxtapose. Turns out that the property dates back to 1850 and it's believed to be an ex convent because they saw a statue of Virgin Mary in the front garden. 12 years ago Mimi and Nicholas bought the place and it was literally crumbling. They spent a full year restoring and refurbishing to what it is today. They excitedly showed us a photo album of pictures they took depicting the before and after. It's all very interesting.
We decided to do the touring the lazy way, via the open top bus. A round loop takes a bit more than an hour and then we would return to the pick up location where our lunch reservation would be awaiting. We had asked Mimi to help make a reservation for us at her recommendation, Daniel et Denise. She says it's very local and upcoming. We saw the different sights and made mental notes to alight at two or three stops to walk around. Lunch was rather posh which we were not sure if we expected but the food was good. These days, K would always prompt me at restaurants to "stop being an Asian and take photos of food!" So yup no food pics to share :( The french certainly know how to enjoy long meals. Our lunch took a good 1.5h before we both rolled out of the restaurant and guess what? Instead of heading out to the few places we planned to visit, the hubby actually suggested going back for a snooze. I was like "huh you being serious?" To be fair, I have to admit we both are exhausted from work. We just need to catch up on sleep. Especially after such a full meal. And so we did.
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| Steep stairs up to Fourviere |
He kept assuring me the snooze will do us good. Which on hindsight I have to agree. We felt more refreshed. An hour later when we headed back to the city centre, we walked around the main square and the streets until it was time for… dinner. In fact we barely took photos.
Paul Bacouse is a famous chef in Lyon. He owns a few brasseries and has a proper restaurant which is very expensive. My colleague had told me the brasserie would be good enough if we were not planning on a splurge. And so I made a reservation the week before at Le Nord (translating to The North). And he has a few others called - yep - South, East and West. And then another chef has one called Le Centrale. Seriously they love the compass here so much?
 |
| Lunch at Daniel et Denise |
Funnily we saw lots of Asians dining at Le Nord that night. K thought I had brought him to a tourist trap! The food was good I won't deny but if you recall we had such a big lunch and to have dinner at 7pm, I could barely eat. We tried to delay the meal but delaying our order saying we needed more time to decide on our food. Finally we decided to go lighter by ordering fish instead of steak. Again we ate so much it wasn't even funny anymore. My tummy felt so bloated for the whole night and I couldn't sleep well. K sighed and told me "first world problems dear wife, first world problems".
 |
| Le Nord restaurant |
Sunday was even more relaxed than Saturday. We woke up, had a long breakfast - Mimi and Nicholas must be wondering what's wrong with this couple. We even requested for a late check out, only leaving the B&B at 1pm. Yes K went back to snooze again after breakfast! I surfed the net, and just enjoyed the comfy bed. The weather was sunny again, amazing. We were supposed to have thundery showers for both days and the only rain was the drizzle after our dinner at Le Nord.
We walked further up to the basilica and Mimi suggested us having lunch at the restaurant next to the Basilica which has an awesome view of Lyon. What a great suggestion. The view was stunning. The basilica was beautiful. We sat in the cathedral for a while where we prayed for our marriage. And yep, to lunch next. This was not such a heavy lunch and was really good. The view definitely helped. Again we had a 2h lunch - the service was so slow. We walked back to our B&B to pick up our luggages and the cab was waiting for us, ready to take us back to Part-Dieu where we would take the Rhone Express back to the airport.
All in all, I am not quite sure I can say I saw Lyon cos we were snoozing and eating for most part of it. Sometimes I do think we need to have a slow vacation like that.
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| A mini Eiffel Tower in Lyon |
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| Look at all the chimneys Lyon is surprisingly big. |
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