More Odds and Ends From Lyon

This is the poster for the big world cultural event we attended over the weekend. Strange, while on the Bellcour grounds, we couldn't find any banner or other mention of the actual event! Found this walking down the street some ways away. Now I know what we experienced!

I've decided the French are as fucked up as we Americans are. Well, maybe not quite as much, but almost. I thought traveling to France I'd notice a big change in people and attitudes. Not really, the French dress the same, act the same, for the most part. Businessmen in their suits and ties appear as sad as American businessmen. Beaten down by the system. And the French are all wearing those stupid rectangular eyeglasses (I'm so over that style). Kids are as crazy, and punk and goth, as teenagers in the US. And, like any major city, crime and trash exist similarly.


We found the above graffiti in a middle eastern neighborhood. I do love good graffiti for its artistic value, if in an appropriate place. What I hate is the stupid "tagging" that's everywhere, particularly on the historical buildings and in the ancient neighborhoods. Sad...

Curiously, the gangstas here, instead of driving big SUVs, prefer the larger BMWs and Audis, black of course... Sort of Euro -Gangstas, since they are "white" rather than "blacks"...

Of course, most cars are very small, and many are quite cool. The streets are so narrow, and parking is such a premium, and gas prices so high, small cars are a necessity. But you can still "pimp your ride" (this one is for Matt Peters...):


What I will give the French over Americans is a generally higher aesthetic: better design, better style, fresher food, a greater appreciation of life somehow (long, enjoyable meals!). Even the dreaded rectangular eyewear often attracts my attention with some amazing stylistic variations on the theme. Simple things like light switches are really cool! I even took a picture of the apartment circuit breaker box!


And I've posted pics of the public transit vehicles. So cool looking you want to ride them!

On another tangent, we are "downtown" yesterday on a big shopping street. One store was changing their window display... the perv in me got excited...


Further down the street was another window display of very expensive women's clothing. The mannequines were all gold, and rather detailed. Of course I wanted to see those mannequines in the nude! OK, I'll quit...

Last for this post is a colorful floral sculpture I just had to get a shot of. Hope you enjoy...

Rain in Lyon

The weather here has been great. Perfect temperatures for walking around. A couple brief thundershowers, but, until today, nothing that would interfere with our exploring. However, after setting out today, the rains came. We made it to the center of town and sought refuge in the Opera House. We couldn't see inside the performance area, but was able to take an elevator up several stories to a small cafe, where we "enjoyed" the world's most expensive bottled water... As the rains let up, we took some pics across the plaza to the Hotel De Ville. This isn't a hotel at all (the French have several meanings for the term), but rather the "city hall". And, yes, they do get many requests for rooms from tourists...


After some stories of her student groups getting "detained" by the gendarmes while conducting research at the Hotel de Ville, we took the obligatory shots of each other with the "hotel" in the background.




We paid out bill, "l'addition, si vous plait", and ventured out once again. Here's the Hotel de Ville from the other side... truely a magnificent old world building.


And, in case you are getting bored with all this, here's a stunning classical statue... check out the detail on the horses... and that's real steam coming out of the horse's nostrils... interesting plumbing trick.


With the rain coming and going, we caught a bus for a tour of the Croix Rosse area of Lyon, It's up on a hill overlooking the city, and supposedly the area of the famous silk weavers of Lyon. Sorry, no pics, the bus driver was rocking and rolling the vehicle back and forth through narrow streets as we wound our way to the top.

After returning "downtown", we bailed on the whole tourist thing and went to the movies. Found an English movie with French subtitles... "Good Morning England", a wild take on the pirate radio ships that broadcast offshore Britain during the 60's and 70's. Great movie, hilarious, and great music... go see it if it ever comes to town.

Dinner at a French "steak house". Pretty good, nothing fancy, good wine (chilled red, a little unusual), fairly priced. A bit more exploring then we bolted for "home", getting there just before the really big rains started pounding.

Tomorrow Lacey delivers a paper, and I'm on my own. If the weather is good, I want to visit some Roman ruins.

Sunday Afternoon in Lyon

Fortified with market provisions, we decided to hike off to the Musee Lumiere. Well, this was an ambitious hike, as it turns out. However, we did find the University of Lyon branch where Lacey makes a presentation on Wednesday, and we did find the Alliance Francais where she will take intensive French lessons next week.


Exhausted, we finally arrived at the museum.


The Lumiere brothers were instrumental in the development of cinema at the turn of the 20th century. Their original house serves at a museum, along with beautiful grounds, a warehouse (studio), and other exhibits. Rather than try to describe everything, there is an Institute web site with better pics and info on activities. I will note that the Lumiere brothers developed early color photography and also messed with 3D. This was a fun museum, but the best part was the house itself. Here's a couple photos of the interior... the ceiling and windows of the winter garden room.




Thankfully the museum was right on the metro, so we took the subway back directly into Vieux Lyon. Lyon has an amazing public transit system... subways, trolleys, buses. I think you can get anywhere in the area quite easily via public trans, assuming a little experience to figure things out.

After a well deserved rest, we left the apartment around 8:00pm for dinner (I should be in bed!). We checked out few places, then, suddenly, while I was looking at a posted menu, Lacey disappeared. I looked around and found her sitting at a table (I guess she decided!). Turns out it was the last unoccupied table for two (the restaurant would not seat two at a table for four!). It was a rather strange place... dark, romantic, and I felt I was a part of the French Resistance... fearing Nazis bursting through the door at any second to arrest me (we had been at the resistance museum earlier in the week). I was reminded of this Thelonious Monk album cover (unfortunately, there was no jazz piano music at the restaurant).


Well, it wasn't quite that dingy, but my imagination was running away with me, especially after the champaign apertiv...

Most importantly, food was excellent, maybe the best we've had all trip. Pork fillet, chicken breast rolled around a soft, white cheese, and many other goodies. The desserts weren't quite up to snuff, but not bad. And the wine, while excellent, cost us more than expected (the one downfall of allowing the proprietors to choose house wine for you). But we were very happy staggering back to the apartment. We never found out the name of the place, this is all that appeared on the outside of the restaurant:


This morning I checked the credit card receipt and found a more descriptive name... "The Nave of the Fool", as translated. They have a very nice web site, although the pics on the site make the place seem more formal than reality. Still, this was a restaurant and a meal to remember.

Sunday Morning Market

Stephane and Patrick, our hosts, offered to take us to the Sunday morning open market, just across the river from old Lyon. A quick walk, and suddenly everything we could desire to eat was available to us... fresh veggies, fresh fruits, fresh meats, fresh breads... and flowers. The market extended for several blocks.


How about breads?



Need some garlic?


Some flowers for the table?


Never seen so many chickens roasting on a spit...


And on the side, the "chef" is roasting little potatoes with sausage...


The boys are very particular about which vendor for which product. If we want apricots, only certain stall will do... (they grow their own or are particular about their sources). Leafy greens (salade verte)? Then another stall. Meats? Here is their favorite butcher:


Note the "ham" loafs... the bacon and ham varieties we've had with meals are incredibly tasty, nothing like it at home. And a selection of his poullet and rabbit...



Here are our happy shoppers with a favorite produce salesperson. She was quite fun, wish I could have understood what she was laughing about (me?)...


And another pic of Lacey, Patrick, and Stephane... Patrick shares my phobia of crowds and was ready to leave... he'd arrived early and was very kind to stick it out and share his knowledge of the market vendors.


And I escaped to the pedestrian bridge to wait for Lacey to get a last minute apricot purchase.


Then past a recommended bakery for croissants, but we were too late, all gone for the day... but there was this chocolate/almond pastry...

After we returned to the apartment, the boys showed up with some wonderful fresh basil (they grow their own). They also gave us two small rounds of St. Marcellin cheese. This is a soft cheese, somewhat like brie, but local to the Lyon area and much better than any brie I've had. Real men eat St. Marcellin! The boys get it from the same source as Paul Bocuse (a world famous chef who's main restaurant is in Lyon).

Saturday Night in Lyon

We are supposed to blow it out on Saturday night, I guess. But the geezer in us took over, so we opted for a quiet dinner on our street. I've got some pics from our window (la tour, the tower) at dusk, just before we left to eat.



As I've mentioned, the Rue de Juverie is only a block long and quite narrow.


So we decided to try this little restaurant run by two young women. At 8:30 pm, we were the only customers (finally, about 10:30 pm, another group arrived... the dining habits of the French still amaze me!). The pichet of vin blanc was very good for "house" wine. The food was prepared simply, without all the sauces we've had in previous meals. But the cod and salmon were excellent, and we appreciated the simplicity for a change. Best of all was the cream of asparagus soup, with thing slices of sauted ham. Unbelievable! They also prepared us salade verte, a simple green salad with very tasty miniture tomatoes. And desert was yet another chocolate freak out, maybe the best yet.


We finished dinner in a record 2 hours! Home "early" for censored activities and attempted sleep, late night party drinkers did keep us awake, their laughter echoing along the street.

Fairs and Festivals in Lyon

Today was the big day for fun in Lyon, for the whole city. In Veiux Lyon, the Midievil festival took place, but it wasn't really that exciting. Some cool things, like midievil sex:


and some pretty authentic get-ups, including the renaissance dude with his RayBan Wayfarers, but it was still fun, especially since it was local and within the appropriate part of town (the oldest part of the city).


Then we crossed the river to Bellcour and the world festival. My god (mon dieu), what representation! We got there just in time for the young Turkish dude to fire up his oud-like stringed instrument.


I'd spent big bucks on the best flash audio recorder and thought I had a nice recording of this guy's performance, but, alas, it was not to be. Basically, I fucked up! But, since there was an oompah band blaring away on the stage behind me, I guess I didn't really miss much. Still, it would have been fun to post some audio.

Lacey then decided to seduce the entire Swiss brass orchestra...


They said they were going to play at 2:30. It was already 2:45. Something got lost in translation, and we never did hear them.

I spent some time in the African tents. I love the shirts/dresses. They are so colorful!


Most of the sub-saharan tents had food and drink. I thought I'd try this little cup of fruit juice. A young woman did whisper something about "very spicy", but fruit juice? Took my head off! Do they have habeneros in Africa? Don't ask me which country this was, there were more African countries represented at this festival than in the continent of Africa...

Lacey spent some time at the East European tents. She's getting very interested in visiting there, looks really beautiful in some of those countries. She also visited the US tent and got a brochure on Utah, Elevated, in French!

We wandered up the main pedestrian shopping street and caught the tail end of the world parade (very informal, the crowds mixed equally with the "marchers"...). The Thai babes really had it going on, and the Africans once again demonstrated blazing colors.





We continued up the street to, I believe, the "Independence Plaza", where there's a beautiful carousel.


Then back to the apartment for a rest and a little blogging. Tonight, perhaps dinner at a little cafe right on our street... the Rue Juiverie is about a block long and 10 feet wide, yet contains a couple clubs, a couple cafes, and several other businesses. I'm amazed at what gets crammed into such a small space in this neighborhood.

Odds and Ends From Lyon

We are still recovering from last night's dinner. Such a blowout, at a very expensive restaurant. I'm definitely getting to like champaign (at least Moet!). Quite frankly, although some parts of the meal were quite delicious, I was disappointed overall. The veal was half tender, half tough... Some sauces were way too strongly flavored. But other parts of the meal were to die for... the single blueberry in an orange flavored palate cleanser was so cute! We did have the sommeilier choose wines for us. First was a white wine, extremely delicious... don't ask me what it was, I think he did mention something about "sauterne" !!! And often the French serve a cheese course after the main dish and before dessert (or as dessert). So we quickly ordered a glass of red to go with the cheeses. Again, I have no idea what the wine was (just another French wine!). Now I'm not a big fan of blue cheese, but a bite of really good blue cheese with a sip of really good red wine is truely an orgasmic experience. Ah, yes!

Anyway, I'm having some minor difficulties with dining in Lyon. First, dinner doesn't begin until at least 8:00pm. The restaurants open earlier, but don't even want you to show up before 8:00. Then the meals last 2-3 hours. It must be a feminist plot! Men forced to talk to their partners to pass the time between courses! And no sports talk! Ah, well, stare into each other's eyes and proclaim true love...

Lacey insists that the French only go out to dinner occasionally, and experiencing the amount of time required, I understand why. Yet there are so many restaurants and so many people in them, I doubt her. Either she is incorrect, or there just are a lot of French people, all taking turns dining out!

OK, some pics. First a stairwell in veiux Lyon. And a friend protecting us from his window ledge. (remember, you can click on the pics for a larger image).




And a couple shots up and down the river Saone:



And, finally, a tree. These trees, of unknown variety, line the Parc Bellcour. I hope you can notice that the top of the leaves are dark, the bottom of the leaves are light. Rather amazing, we've never seen anything like it. Very impressive...


Now it's time to explore some more. A midevil festival "in the hood", and some sort of world festival at Bellcour. Gotta get going.

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