Champagne and Wings in Lyon

This morning my in-laws are checking out of their gite and heading to our gite in Chamelet.  First, though, they get the day in Lyon.  Jan wants a coffee, Mel wants to shop, Matt needs to buy train tickets for Paris, and I remind them that the traboules will be open, if we start earlier in the day.  We decide we can do it all!  Our total route is about 3. 5km of flat terrain.  Both Jan and Mel warn me: "This better be in your g*** d*** blog!!"

We head down to the Gare de Lyon Perrache train station, which is only 500m away from their gite.  There, I show Matt the best machine to use to buy tickets.  "Best" of course is relative, because while the blue machines are faster, the yellow machines have a little British flag on the first screen which switch all the instructions to English language, and walk you through the ticket buying process step by step.  Then I show him the tiny yellow machines scattered throughout the station where one has to "composte" (verify) the ticket before boarding a train. They are basically a little yellow bubble of a machine with a slot that you insert your ticket into.  It reads the barcode on your ticket with a "tchunk" noise.  (Thank you Molly, for demonstrating the proper technique below.) I am not really sure why they are necessary, since a conductor will come by your seat in the train and check the ticket again anyway.  Throughout this whole process, we are serenaded by various train guests on an open piano in the station.  They are surprisingly good!

After successfully purchasing the train tickets, we head out with a vague goal of finding a coffee spot, so we walk in the general direction of Place Bellecour and Rue de la République.  I check my traboule map and notice there are traboules in between here and there.  We decide to run the Parcours Presqu'ile Centre on the way to the Place Bellecour.  I am happy because I have never run this set of traboules before.   I marked the traboules we successfully completed in green on the map above.

Our first traboule is a neat U-shaped passage between Rue Sala and Rue Ste Helene. To our surprise, it contains a pre-school!  According to the map, this traboule has an "exceptional ceiling."  It takes us a while to locate the "ceiling" in this open-air courtyard.

The next traboule, off Rue Francis Dauphin, is a dark hallway that opens to a lovely courtyard, and while the traboule map tells me that the exit is somewhere to our left (the West side of the courtyard), I can't seem to locate it.  We try several doors, but can't seem to find the route out.  We go back out the way we came, walk around the corner to Rue August Compte, and look for the other entrance from the outside.  The passage from this end holds its own mini-courtyard and a surprising little kitchen!  The staircase spirals upwards to the open sky.  The passage on the right leads us back to the original courtyard we were trapped in, through a door we never tried on the North side of the courtyard.

The next few traboules run between Rue Victor Hugo and Rue Boissiac.  The first traboule door we try is locked, but the one next to it is open, and consists of a simple passage between the streets.  The last one puts us back on Rue Auguste Comte.  Although the last door itself is beautiful, we are frankly all a little disappointed with this set of traboules.  They mostly seem like fancy alleyways, rather than the claustrophobic ancient passages of the Vieux Lyon parcours.

We give up on the traboules as we see a row of cafés along Place Bellecour, and select a casual-looking spot called Ed's Original Eat & Drinks, facing the beautiful grounds of Place Antonin Poncet and its lovely Flower Tree.  Unfortunately, it took me writing this post to realize how close we were to Brasserie Le Sud, one of Baul Bocuse's amazing restaurants.  On a past visit to Lyon, Colin and I had walked into Le Sud one day around lunch time, and managed to snag a seat without a reservation.  It definitely would have been worth the attempt today.

As we peruse the menu of Ed's Eats to decide what to have for lunch, I suggest they try a Monaco, a popular French drink made of beer, limonade, and grenadine.  Yep... it's a frothy pink beer!  Looks strange and tastes great.  ;)  Everyone gives it a try except Mel, who has to have her "bubbles."  Deciding what to eat, three of us decide on salads, while Mel muses:  "I really feel like chicken wings..."   Matt double-dog dares her to order champagne and wings in Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France (and some argue the world), but has to eat his words when her surprisingly gigantic "half-order" of wings proves amazingly delicious.  "They even make wings better than us!"  he sighs.

After lunch, we wander down Rue de la Republique, and the group indulges me while I pop into H&M and replace my stinky fish skirt with a brand spanking new one.  I had tried washing the darn thing twice last night, and only succeeded in making the entire laundry room also smell like fish.  It's a lost cause.  Within the store, I quickly locate the skirt and I'm up at the till.  The sales clerk asks me if I got a chance to try it on.  I answer back, very innocently:  "It's ok, I have this exact skirt already at home."  She gives me a strangely understanding nod.  I guess this is a common thing?   Back at Place Bellecour, Mel buys a beautiful new pair of sandals, and deliberates on whether to wear them out of the store.  She decides to carry them, and it's a good thing she did...

Only a couple of blocks later, Mel is on the ground.  Some lovely person had neglected to pick up after their dog, and Mel stepped right into a big pile of it.   Her thongs are covered in the stuff.   She sits on the ground barefoot, cursing in her best French (you can guess which word), before remembering that she has a pair of brand spanking new non-stinky shoes right in her bag.  The old ones go directly into the trash can, which is fortunately located... five feet away.  Son of a....

On this note, the day is finished, and we head for the car, which is parked back at the train station.  Of course, on the rest of the way to the car, many jokes ensue about the perfect stinky pair Mel and I make.  As far as who was stinkier, we came up in a draw... According to science, "tests showed that sulphur, [excrement] and rotting fish were universally perceived as being the worst odors."

On the way back to Chamelet, we stop in Oingt, because there is supposed to be a farmer's market this evening.  Mel is lactose intolerant, and has had her fill of cheese.  She hopes to buy some veggies at the market for dinner tonight.  Well... first, we drive through the streets of Oingt, with no luck.  Then we get out and start looking by foot.  We can't seem to find the market.  We stop at the Info centre, which is open (!) and... I am thrilled to find a new randonnée map!!!  I have been slowly destroying the one left in the gite, and am thrilled to figure out how to replace it.  I also pick up a cool booklet with longer randonnées in the area mapped out.  It includes distances, elevation, significant landmarks, and other points of interest.  I flip through them and can't wait to try them out.

The Info lady tells us, "Yes, the market is just down the street and to your left... but it is very small."  She isn't kidding!  There are actually only two stalls: cheese and fish.  Mel is speechless.  I can't help but laugh:  welcome to France!  Across the street, we see a wine shop that seems open.  We go in, and do what we've learned to do in France:  buy whatever we find!  Fortunately, the store has a large selection of "produits du terroir," including quenelles, an awesome black olive tapenade, and a local microbrew beer called l'Affoleuse I have been wanting to buy.  Dinner is made!  lol.  Mel and Jan also do an on-site wine tasting, and load up on whites and rosés.  Back at the gite, we sit on the patio, eat quenelles and drink a LOT of wine, and laugh about our "stinky" day.