Saturday in Lyon

Posted on 2012/04/06 19:12:58 (April 2012).

[Saturday 31st March 2012]
Somewhat begrudgingly we checked out of the Hotel Raphael in the morning, and then perhaps ill advisedly took a taxi from there to the Gare de Lyon. The taxi we'd taken yesterday had been fine, but I think this second fellow was out to take us for a ride, if you'll pardon the pun. I told him what time our train was (we had over half an hour), and he then said that the traffic in the centre was very heavy, so it would be better to take the Peripherique. I didn't really give it much thought at the time, but this effectively meant almost entirely circumnavigating round the outside of the city. I'm quite dubious as to whether this was quicker than going straight through the centre, and it was certainly a lot less scenic. It also seemed to cost almost double what the taxi yesterday had been yesterday, despite being a similar length journey. Oh well, a lesson learned.

This put me in a bit of a bad mood, although that soon subsided after climbing aboard the very comfortable TGV. As always I'd booked us seats in first class (which on the TGV is very good value, nowhere near the price difference between first and standard in the UK), and had chosen a pair of solo facing seats on the upper deck. It was very quiet, very smooth, and overall an extremely civilised way to travel. Not to mention the fact it got us there in two hours, not bad considering it's about 400 km (250 miles).

Our friend Junchan, who we had come to Lyon to visit, was working in the afternoon, so we were left to our own devices. After dropping off our bags at our hotel (which was something of a stark contrast to yesterday's opulent lodgings) we went for a wander around the town, and had lunch at one of the cities' three vegetarian restaurants - a place called Zone Verte. The food wasn't really exactly to my taste, and the ordering system seemed unnecessarily fussy and complicated. Still, I suppose it was better than not eating.

After this we continued our wander around Lyon, in particular the little sliver of the town, almost an island I suppose, between the Saône and the Rhone. Chie had read in her guidebook about the Passage de l'Argue. I suppose this is sort of Lyon's answer to Jermyn Street - predominately aimed at the middle to older aged gentleman - and has an odd mix of shops which seems to focus mainly on hats and knives. Chie bought a new Swiss Army knife in one of the latter category of shops. It seemed somehow appropriate as I had learned the French word for knife - couteau - from the box of the Swiss Army knife I had as a boy. I can't say "couteau" without thinking of "couteau Suisse".

Next we crossed over the Saône into the Old Town, and there came upon some kind of festival procession, and perhaps more importantly a rather nice ice cream shop. This was probably the culinary highlight of our trip to Lyon for me which, with the exception of Junchan's home cooked Japanese food (for which I do not think Lyon can really take the credit) was otherwise a dead loss from my point of view. They had a "glace aux violettes". I love anything violet flavoured (an affliction I've picked up from Mum), and had never seen violet flavoured ice cream before. It was quite delicious.

From there we started to head up the hill to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière which dominates the skyline in Lyon. Together with the TV/radio/mobile mast on the same hill, it looks a bit like Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower. There was a good view out over Lyon from the top.

On the way back down we took the funicular rail - these are always inexplicably fun - which integrates well with the metro system as well. Somehow it seemed to require about five changes to get back to our hotel, which is puzzling as there are only four metro lines in Lyon (and I'm fairly sure we didn't use one of them).

In the evening we headed over to a station called Charpennes, where we met up with Junchan and Arnaud, and spend the evening chez the two of them. They have a little balcony so we could start off with an aperitif and nibbles out there, before moving inside to continue eating and drinking. There seemed to be an unending supply of food, an interestingly eclectic mix of Japanese and French food. Junchan's gyoza were particularly good.

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