Vieux Lyon

A few pics from our apartment windows... Vieux Lyon is about an 8 block area of buildings from the 1500's or so. Cobblestone streets, tile roofs, the whole historic European deal. Lots of residential spaces tucked into all the old buildings. Rather chaotic for those of us used to nice, rectangular condo/apartment structures. Way funky!




Then there are the stairs in our apartment. Really wonderful to look at and walk up once or twice, but since they divide the bedroom from the kitchen/den, we are already getting dizzy clomping up and down and all around these narrow steps.


So we dragged our jet lagged asses out into the streets last night. I was amazed! Zillions of cafes and bars and action everywhere! Lots of people in the streets, particularly 20 somethings. Of course, the weather is great at the moment, so a good reason to be out. All this activity, but not touristy... This area seems like real life in Lyon, at least this part of town. Of course, Lyon is quite large (nearly as big as SLC?), and there's lots of other cool areas, but we are happy to explore vieux Lyon.

And, of course, in any historical area, there are the churches. We found cathedral St. Jean just down the street. Classic European cathedral. St. Jean features a mechanical clock with intricate carvings including the zodiac. Pictures can't convey a complete description of this device. We hope to hear it ring with all the mechanical razzle dazzle sometime this week, but a small posted sign indicates the clock is 30 minutes off! Late or early???





Finally, for this post, our first meal in the culinary capitol of France. Lacey, having explored this area on previous trips to Lyon, wanted to try a particular restaurant not too far from our apartment. Based on a recommend from Willis (recently back from Paris), we tried the local Rose. Quite dry, not sweet like California rose. But the house rose was not particularly flavorful, although we sort of got into it as we drank more (wonder why?). Dinner was fabulous, Lacey a pork chop with a basalmic based sauce and an incredible baked peach. I had scallops wrapped in a thin ham (forgot the particular name) with a thin pesto sauce. Then there was the sorbet interlude between courses, sort of a lemon/mango/mint concoction that was tasty beyond belief! We finished off with the proverbial creme brullet... this version was bourbon flavored!


So our first meal lived up to expectations. Can't wait for more... The only problem, due to our fatigue, is the length of time to get our food. No pre-prepared dishes waiting for the final microwave heating, everything we ate was prepared fresh. We almost fell asleep between courses!

Anyway, off to bed and another big day tomorrow...