Lyon in a day (more or less)

With the constant rainy weather that we are experiencing this past week, the extremely sunny day that we had last Saturday in Lyon already seemed like a distant memory. We actually started journey from Besançon at 7 in the morning and arrived at 10 in the morning. The whole morning was dedicated to a visit of the Basilica on the hill and its gardens as well as the old Lyon right at the foot of the hills. The afternoon was left to us as a "free" afternoon and I actually spent it window shopping in the city centre around Bellecour (after a hearty lunch in a lyonnais restaurant in the old quarters. Somehow, I was happy to return to Besançon for a good rest after walking a zillion miles...

  

 Poule de Bresse is a very famous labelled chicken (with typical blue-black feet) raised only in Bresse. The bus stopped for a rest here called what else, Aire de Poule de Bresse...freshly packed raw chicken for sale at an autoroute stop...

 sunflowers in the fields...

 first impression on the bridge crossing the Soane river...

The Basilica of Notre Dame de  Fourvière . This is actually a fantasist basilica built only in the 19th century funded by the city of Lyon on the hills of Fourvière on the sites of old religious sites of Gaul.

a copy of the higher part of Eiffel Tower next to the Basilica.

The actual original chapel...

 Richly decorated interiors of the Basilica.

a lion guard the entrance...

 view of Lyon and the two rivers - Soane and Rhone.

the pyramidal building was built in correllation to the hills of Fourvière.

 a roman amphitheatre

 gilded statue of the Virgin on the basilica from the garden

 the catherdral of St. Jean from the hills

 narrow streets of old Lyon dated from the roman times

 Certain buildings in the old Lyon has interconnected doorways called "traboule" dating back from its antiquity heritage. We were given a guided tour of the maze.

the catherdal St. Jean

the basilica from the city...

recurring motifs in Lyon - the lion (Lyon is derivated from latin Lugdunum)

 view from Pont Bonaparte

 Convennient stores like these are actually a chain supermarket that has specialized outlets mimicking the old-fashioned neighbourhood stores...

 At the shopping quarters in new Lyon...most buildings here has modern 19th century facade with a decidedly Haussmanian taste.

Hilly Franche -Comtois  landscape in the Jura nearing Besançon...

The Bouchons Lyonnais - traditional restaurants of Lyon

This is my first visit to the city of Lyon and as we descended from the basilic towards the old city of Lyon, the first thing that I noticed was rows and rows of restaurants in all directions. This is a very strong indication of the restaurant habits of this city. One of the most noticable point is that most restaurants here display a very stylish bouquet of fresh flowers at the entrance - something I have yet to see elsewhere. I noticed that every restaurant in this neighbourhood also uses the word "bouchon" - I thought it was a favourite local dish, not knowing that it meant restaurant until I read about it at FNAC...

a quaint one called the little gluton...

 the statue of the bull gave name to the bistro on its corner...

restaurants everywhere...

 just love the touch with the fresh bouquet...

 I randomly chose a restaurant called "Le Vieux Lyon". A 3 entree menu costs only 17 euro - very competative. I chose the classic Salade lyonnaise, mesclun served with fried bacon and poached egg. Simple and nice.

The main course was an entrecote of beef served with potato gratin, legumes du jour and green peppercorn sauce. Forgot to snap a photo of the chocolate tart...water is free.

the restaurant...

French épicerie: La Cave aux Fromages

For most people, buying cheese, jams, conserves and hams means heading for the nearest supermarket but for the French, it means going to your neighbourhood store for the finest and choisiest regional products. Though severely concurrenced by hyper and supermarkets, the French neighbourhood stores still exist, especially in towns because of many reasons - one of them is that French knows how to enjoy good artisanal  products and they detest making trips to supermarkets often set up in the outer ring of the city limits. The épicerie is like a convenient store for fine artisanal food as well as daily needs. This one, called La Cave aux Fromages (the cheese store) is right in the middle of Besançon city at the market square...

the entrance...

The cheese cutting machine. In the glass container are some very fine Comte cheese. behind the counter are salt, sugar, spices for daily needs...

 The jams, honey and other sweet conserves (as well as biscuits and confiseries) section.

 soft cheeses and yogurt section.

 wouldn't be called a cheese store if not for the cheese...

 hams of all kinds are sold too...

 Rillets, terines, foie gras and even truffles...

At the entrance: regional wines are offered to complement the dairy products. Select quality oils and vinegars, often artisans, are sold too...

Here's what I bought out of caprice:

1 bottle of milk

2 bottles of rose water

1 bottle of orange flower water

1 jar of pork rillet (Rillet Moulin de Vaux)

1/2 kilo of vanilla flavoured sugar (actually supposed to come for this only but got side-tracked on top of the fact that I only actually needed normal sugar...)

1 packet of biscuits of Reims (flavoured with rose water)

a piece of 165g Parmigiano Reggiano (for my pasta)

1/2 dozen of organic eggs

1 box of fleur de sel (salt flower)
1 small can of smoked cod liver mousse

Total payment: 43.69 Euro. Not Cheap...