 |
| Cour des Loges Hotel |
Lyon lies about midway between Turin and Paris so it seemed like an opportune time to visit the city in Paris that is best known for its restaurants. That's right, they say that Paris is heart of France but Lyon is its stomach! Based on our short time there we didn't find any reason to disagree! Food is first and foremost what people in Lyon talk about and young start-up chefs and their restaurants are everywhere. Lyon is also a UNESCO world heritage city. We stayed in one of the most interesting hotels I've ever seen. Located in the oldest part of Lyon the hotel has a fantastic courtyard right out of the Renaissance and consists of a warren of rooms on various levels. But it also has modern conveniences including a swimming pool tiled with mosaics akin to a Roman bath but with an automated current machine so I could swim in place.
I was anxious to try the famous chicken raised in Bresse - just to the north of Lyon. And fortunately we found it on several menus.
 |
| Bresse chicken leg and thigh |
The chef Paul Bocuse is from Lyon and one of his enterprises is Les Halles de Lyon - a food emporium (shopping mall) where each of the 80+ stores sell prepared foods of a very high quality. There are also cheese, meat and fish purveyors. But it bears little resemblance to the other colorful markets of Europe we have visited in Paris, Barcelona or Rome. This marketplace has a high gloss very rich feel and there is no sawdust on the floor or vendors shouting out the prices of their goods.
 |
| Goat cheese on display at the Paul Bocuse food emporium "les Halles" |
 |
| Jacobin square |
We also came upon an interesting mural on the side of a building some six or seven stories tall. It depicts the hilly landscape of Lyon and is so realistic it seems as though one could walk right up the stairs. Here is a photo of Marlow standing next to one of the people depicted in the mural that provides a good sense of the scale of this mural.
 |
| Realistic life-size mural on side of building |
 |
| Detail from mural |
October 27, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment