I’ve had a bit of writer’s block trying to think about this Lyon trip. I’m afraid that I won’t do Lyon the justice it deserves. Not because I didn’t really like it, but because I don’t remember it very well. We were a bit sick when we made our short venture up to Lyon and so all of my memories are clouded by a fog of Sudafed (or the French equivalent, which is way more herbal and way less effective, but that’s a rant for another time). I guess as long as we both know up front that this isn’t going to be so much of a traveler’s guide to Lyon as it will be a hazy string of events, it’ll be all good.
Shortly after Thanksgiving we planned a really quick road trip up to Lyon. I think back in my Thanksgiving post I mentioned that we were not feeling great. Nora was particularly down and out, and we actually considered cancelling the whole trip. But after some consideration, we decided to forge ahead. Nora spent most of the drive propped up on pillows half asleep. Paul spent most of the drive white knuckling the steering wheel. As we drove the temperature kept dropping and the skies kept darkening and before we knew it, we were driving through a full snowstorm, which ordinarily wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but we are from Texas, so totally unprepared for driving in snow and ice and we really weren’t sure how the car would handle. As always, we are grateful that Paul does the hard driving and lets Nora and I sit back and enjoy the views.
On our way into town, we actually debated taking Nora to the hospital. It wasn’t that she was that sick, but it was late at night and the next day was a Sunday and we knew nothing would be open. But we decided to give her a little time to rest and recuperate before making a decision. We checked into our cute AirBnB, which was right in the middle of the action above great shopping and lots of restaurants, and then decided to order burgers for takeout and lay around for the night.
We made the right decision because Nora woke up the next morning much improved. We went out to explore Lyon and found that it was really cold. I’m talking low 30’s and really windy, which meant we decided to duck for cover into a Bouchon for lunch. A bouchon is a traditional Lyonnaise restaurant, which mostly serves meat and potatoes. Now, and I know this is a controversial statement, but here goes: I don’t much care for French food (pastries and breads aside). So, I didn’t have high hopes for anything traditionally French. Turns out, meat and potatoes are right up my ally. We all loved our Bouchon lunch and would, in fact, find another equally delicious bouchon for dinner the following day.
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We did a little exploring after lunch, but then decided to take it easy to try to give Nora time to rest and we hung out around the house until dinner time.
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| Lyon across the Saone River. Lyon has two rivers running through it – The Rhone and Saone.
We had a reservation that night at Carmelo, a highly recommended Italian restaurant not far from our apartment. The restaurant was super cute with room after room of vaulted ceilings and adorably decorated walls. The food was pretty dang good too!
 Check out that burrata ooze.
  It was about this time when I realized Nora had recovered only to pass her funk on to me (gotta love kids and their habit of sticking their germy little faces right up to you and breathing their death germs directly into your mouth). I was steadily declining all through dinner. Thank goodness for the pasta and wine to keep me going (pasta and wine are my primary sources of energy, along with a fair amount of chocolate – lord help me when I get back to the States and have to pay the price for my European year off eating).
The next day we really set out to start sightseeing. Keep in mind that I was up all night going through a box of Kleenex and hacking up a lung or two, so if my description of this day is a little off, well…so was I.
We started by visiting the Lyon Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon), which of course meant hanging out at the playground onsite. Talk about a playground with a historic view! Construction on the cathedral began in 1180, so we are talking almost 900 years old. I’m sure it sounds a little simple of me, but how did they build such gorgeous churches that have stood the test of time 900 hundred years ago?!?! The Lyon Cathedral houses an astronomical clock, which I have to admit, I don’t really know what that is. Traveling Europe, we have come across a few astronomical clocks and I know they are big deals and I always photograph them as I’m supposed to, but I don’t really understand them. Regardless, it was another mind-blowing cathedral visit.
 
 
From there, we took a funicular (I word I didn’t even know before moving here and now, what would a city be without a funicular??), up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, an absolutely gorgeous church that overlooks the city. The Basilica of Notre-Dame is a relatively new church, built in the late 1800’s, but still has become an easily recognizable symbol of the city. As always, my pictures don’t do it justice.     |
Every year in December, Lyon puts on a festival of lights where they light the whole city up in an amazing spectacle. Of course we only missed it by a week, which is my biggest regret of the entire trip. But, we did get to see them practicing the lighting of the Basilica of Notre-Dame and it was so cool looking. Unfortunately, in my deteriorated state of mind, I totally failed to pull out a camera and capture it. Guess we’ll have to come back next year.
Another highlight of the day was going to see the ancient ruins of the roman amphitheater. Talk about not being able to wrap my brain around historic construction. This huge amphitheater, which seats over 10,000, was built in 15 BC! It was so cool standing there knowing that people from thousands of years ago had stood in the exact spot.
The next day started out as a bit of a bust (and not just because I was still on my deathbed). We started by trying to tour one of the famous Lyon underground tunnels (traboules). We put in a lot of footwork, hiking uphill and all around town and when we found it, it was hmmm…underwhelming to say the least. Maybe we had been led astray about which traboule to see, but we were all disappointed when we got there.
The hits kept coming after we made the long trek to the zoo, only to find out that the zoo is closed on Tuesdays (perhaps this is something I should get into the habit of checking in advance). We spotted a few flamingos and pink pelicans and that was about it. There’s only one thing that gets this crew feeling better one we are down in the dumps…drinks! Hot chocolate for Nora and some wine for the adults. We found a super cute restaurant to duck into (this is after hours of what felt like aimless walking in the freezing cold) and everyone immediately perked up!
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| She insists on “drinking” hot chocolate with a spoon. |
That night we hit up the Lyon Christmas market. Paul was so looking forward to visiting the market, but to be honest, it was also a little underwhelming and Paul was absolutely horrified that they piped pop music throughout instead of sticking with Christmas music. Still, we made do with traditional hot wine and marshmallow treats for Nora.
And the next morning we were off heading back towards home. I slept the entire ride, including the thirty minutes when Paul and Nora pulled over and built snowmen and had a snowball fight. I had used all my energy trying to zombie walk through Lyon and just had nothing left to give.
I think that I end every blog post wishing taht we could go back and spend more time wherever I’m writing about, but in this case, I absolutely do wish there was time to visit Lyon again. I just don’t feel like I got to enjoy the city like I wanted to.
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