Sunday in Lyon

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

[Sunday 1st April 2012]
Having stayed up quite late Friday morning, whilst needing to get up at a relatively sensible hour Saturday morning, we felt we needed to sleep in a bit today. So we didn't make any plans for the morning, and instead arranged to meet Junchan and Arnaud at a leisurely midday at Charpennes. Arnaud showed us around the Japanese cultural centre which Junchan is jointly running with another business partner. I have to admit I was rather impressed - they have a little shop, a lounge area, two classrooms, a room for cookery classes, and a little office.

From there we headed to Lyon's famous Parc Tete d'Or which was quite large (apparently nearly 300 acres - so almost the size of Hyde Park, if you don't include Kensington Gardens). There we sat in the sun - it was a surprisingly warm day - and had a picnic prepared by Junchan. Again a similar mixture of Japanese and French food, so it felt a bit like a hanami. Today being April 1st made it "Poisson d'Avril" in France, where they've restricted the broad palette of potential japery practiced in other countries on this date to just one tried and tested practical joke - sticking a paper fish onto people's backs. Of course. In a further pleasing example of cultural fusion Junchan had come prepared with little origami fish for this purpose. I remember hearing about Poisson d'Avril when I was in school, so it was nice to actually be here on the day itself and see it in action.

We got up from our dejeuner sur l'herbe around 3ish, and went for a stroll around the rest of the park, also taking in an indoor antiques market on the edge of the park, and a quick coffee at the cafe in the Contemporary Art Museum.

We eventually headed back into the centre around 6ish, and took an early evening stroll around the city, including a bit of exploration of the traboules, and taking in a couple of aperitifs - one on a ship, the other in a Belgian bar - before heading for what felt like quite at Brasserie Georges.

It's a vast cavernous dining hall with a pleasing Art Deco interior, and they also brew their own beer. So far so good. Of course this wasn't going to last. I had been insulated on this trip up until this point from the usual ordeal that is trying to eat out as a vegetarian in France. I was briefly encouraged when I discovered they had a "vegetarian specialities" section on their menu, only to then return to the more familiar state of fearing the worst when I realised this was mostly filled with vegetable side dishes and just one thing which was actually intended as a main course, which was, of course, the infamous "assiette de légumes". I think they had used the word "cocotte" instead of assiette to try and camouflage it. As is always the case this was a dish of badly cooked uninteresting vegetables (they're usually boiled, here they were apparently steamed, but either way they were overcooked) with no sauce. Although there was a sort of unpleasant fishy aroma about the dish. I ate about a tenth of it and left the rest, fearing I might die of boredom if I proceeded. This made me quite annoyed, but I suppose I should probably be grateful that this was the fifth meal of this trip to France, and up until now I'd successfully managed to avoid eating anything French.

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