Happy New Year! Bonne Annee!

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Hello!

We awoke to a rainy and gray Thursday morning.  Not terribly cold, but certainly wet!  This time, I went to Chez Jules for croissant and pain au chocolat.  Clothilde left oranges and other fresh fruits, and as we were out of O.J. R used the juicer in the apartment, which worked very well.  (Which was good, as the boulangerie had only Orangina (like pop!) And yogurt-based drinks, none of which we wanted.) 

After breakfast, we made up a grocery list of things that we wanted to get today, as tomorrow most everything will be closed.  We’ve decided to do a repeat of the roast chicken tonight that was SO good, and potatoes and green beans.  (We’re not too worried about finding a restaurant for dinner tomorrow, though, if Christmas Day is to be followed.)  Especially as here, in Vieux Lyon, a lot of people seem to be visiting. 

(Oh!  I remember writing earlier that our flat was right above a glacerie which seemed to be doing a fair amount of business.  When we went out to dinner last night, there were people inside eating ice cream.  When we got back, the place was entirely deserted – and stripped of all tables, chairs, light fixtures, etc. – we were amazed!  Today, we saw some life, but when we got back from grocery shopping, the windows were all painted over!!  So – the shop has a sign that says they have been in business since 1929!  Hope it wasn’t something we did!  Very sad!)

First, we headed to the street market on the far side of the Saone. It was almost 9 a.m. (and supposedly they were open since 7 a.m.) but the chickens weren’t done yet. 

On the way to the market!

So, we bought more green beans and dried tomatoes, and then headed to our closest Casino market for a few other things.  Then back to the flat, to put everything away.  As it was raining now, and there was no sense in both of us getting wet, I went back to pick up “our” roast chicken.  Boy, does one chicken make the entire apartment smell SO good! 

Shopping mall at train station

Interesting decorations!

Lights and people everywhere!

Having gathered most of our supplies, we decided to head down to the big mall at Part-Dieu Train station that we had seen from the T1 tram.   Very interesting place!  Not exactly as spacious as many American malls, but full of people and lots of holiday decorations.  Not being big shoppers, we did a fair amount of looking around (Oh! Right now, R is managing the boiled potatoes and green beans for dinner tonight, and he is making the same kind of anti-electric-stove comments that I favored the blog with a few nights ago!) and realized that it was just about lunch time.

R suggested pizza, so we made our way to Pizza Del Arte, which turned out to be a lovely restaurant with working pizza oven that was all fired up and ready to go! 

Pizza Del Arte

R's pizza -- note the egg in center!

My plain pizza -- no egg!

I had a pizza margarita (plain cheese pizza) and R had the pizza Sicilian, which came with artichokes, pepperoni as well as an egg broken in the middle!  [Sorry, but Sicilians don’t put eggs on pizza! – R] Just exactly what we both needed on a very cold and wet kind of day.

There was one more store that I wanted to visit, called Fiducial.  I had seen it from the T1 tram, and it looked like a very interesting paper and supplies store.  So, we got on the tram heading to Perrache train station, and found the store with no problem.  I do have to admit that I did pick up a few “fun” things as well!

Then, back to the flat for a rest, before I realized that stores were closing early, and I wanted something bubbly to celebrate New Year’s Eve!  So, back across the bridge to our local Casino (weren’t we just here?) for a bottle of French champagne.  I have no idea how good it is, but we’ll see fairly soon! 

By this time, it was time for some ironing and reading, as well as a few more hours on the computer for the Desert Museum.  I’m now only 12 hours short of 1,000 hours and my silver kangaroo rat pin!  So, I will wish everyone a Happy New Year’s, and close for the year!

Much love,

m

xxx

PS – Robert was looking up the place where we ended up yesterday, heading down into a gorge, and I thought I’d include the description of the road: “Roads in the area are very poorly maintained and are only wide enough for one vehicle. In order to pass the landform, a dangerous, but exhilarating, road which weaves down into the valley and clings to the sheer cliff face on the way back up must be braved. This journey is one of the draws for tourism in the area.”

An Overnight to Saint-Affrique!

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Hello!

We are now safely back in the apartment in Lyon after our overnight in Saint-Affrique to visit friends!

So…to begin on Tuesday morning.  We had made arrangements to rent a car with Enterprise for the trip south and back.  We caught the C3 bus to the T1 tram, and got off at Suchet, which is the stop south of the Perrache train station. 

The stunning countryside around Saint-Affrique

Love castles on top of hills!

No problems getting the car, and by a few minutes after 10 am we were heading east out of town!  As we left Lyon, the weather, which had been threatening, finally turned to rain, which we had for much of our four hour drive south.  Cute little Nissan Diesel, which drove very nicely, but had the turning radius of a Mac truck! 

Got to Saint-Affrique, and Robert’s memory of our last visit was so good, that when Emmy, our GPS couldn’t find the hotel, Robert was able to direct me right to it! 

Beautiful Millau bridge!

Really do like that bridge...

We were given suite 208, on the second floor.  A really lovely, spacious suite.  Large bathroom with huge shower head, and very comfy bathrobes.  There was also a very spacious living/dining/kitchen area, with a big couch, tables and chairs, and a compact kitchen set up including a hotplate, dishwasher and microwave.  All the conveniences!  Additionally, there was the evidence that Nathalie had already been there, as there were two bottles of wine, LOTS of our very favorite Roquefort cheese, jam, bread, cookies and a Galette. 

We called Nathalie when we got to our room, and she came right over.  It was SO great to see her!  She explained that the Galette was a French tradition – the Galette des Roi (Galette of the kings) to celebrate the epiphany.  Whoever finds the “lucky” token baked into the Galette gets to wear the King’s (or Queen’s, in my case…) crown.  And I found it!  And thankfully didn’t swallow it!  The pastry contained almond paste, and was just delicious (although it did make a big of a crumby mess!)

Me in Suite 208 with all of our goodies!

Nathalie and me!

Our Galette (yum!)

I found the prize!

We visited for a while, and when it got closer to dinner time, we followed Nathalie on her bike, as she rode around the corner and down the street, to pick up her kids, Julia and Nathan, for dinner.  (Pascal, Nathalie’s partner, unfortunately, had to work!)  We all five managed to fit somehow into our little Nissan, and headed out of town to the restaurant.  Talk about down a back road!  How anyone could ever find this place is what amazes me!  

The restaurant is called La PourtAnelle, and we were a bit early for their opening at 7 pm.  We walked around the little village (which actually had numbers and head-phone sketches for audioguides at various points) so obviously there is a lot to talk about in this little village.  Apparently it started life having something to do with the Knights Templar, who were fairly busy in this corner of the world.  The problem was that it was REALLY getting cold, and Julia especially, was freezing!

Back and upstairs to the restaurant, which we had literally to ourselves for the evening!  Lovely meal!  It started with some small muffins with nuts as well as fois gras on bread, and then a really lovely cauliflower soup in a tiny shot glass.  (Do wish there could have been a LOT more of that, and in fact, Nathalie did get some additional soup for Julia, which arrived eventually!)

The menu was not large,   I ended up having a salad and galette of vegetables for starters.  R had a large crepe with veggies, as well as a salad himself.  For mains, I elected to stick with another salad – excellent, with nuts, Roquefort cheese, tomatoes and dried duck breast.  R had three tiny lamb cutlets with mashed potatoes and fennel.  Very enjoyable!  For dessert, I had “floating islands” with caramel butter (Yum!) and R had the tarte de fruits.  Excellent meal, and we really had a lovely time, but truly, inside the restaurant was almost as arctic as it was outside!  I do hope Julia won’t catch pneumonia!  But, in a way, it will be good training for her, as she will be going to school in Montreal starting in January and I expect it will be quite a bit colder there than it is here.

Julia, Nathan, Nathalie & me!

Fabulous soup!

and I think there were three of us wanting to order the gambas (shrimp) – only to be told that they were out of gambas … back to the drawing board!

On our way back to town, we stopped at the movie theatre that Pascal manages for a bit and opened the Christmas presents we had brought from Tucson.  Lovely to see Pascal again, and so sorry that he wasn’t able to join us for dinner!  Then all back in the car to drop Nathalie, Julia and Nathan off at their home, and back to the hotel and quickly to bed.

Robert's heavy crepe with veggies

My galette with veggies and salad

R's lamb cutlets

My salad

Lovely hotel, and nice and warm room.  Up at 6:30 am as Nathalie was coming for breakfast (more galette!) at 7:45 am as we wanted to make it to the Chauvet Replica Cave, Pont D’Arc in a timely manner.  

Nathalie brought wonderful coffee for Robert, and we were packed up and ready to go about 8:30 am.  We were relying on Emmy, our GPS for instructions, and selected the route that she said was the quickest, and had “no obstructions.”  Well … I guess the GPS can’t be expected to know that Route Barree (road closed) signs would take care of two of the roads we wanted to be on.  In fact, we were diverted down a dangereux road, which was really pretty amazing!  Lots of very tight switchback turns heading down, and I’m just thankful that we didn’t run into anyone coming in the opposite direction!!  We covered the dangerous road of about 3 – 4 kilometers, got down to the bottom of one of the gorges and then headed straight back up the other side!  In all, I think we travelled about three hours, and didn’t really get more than 100 km or so from Saint-Affrique, if that!

Decided at that point, that we were not going to make Pont D’Arc (which gives us, of course, the perfect excuse to come back and visit…) and after grabbing a quick sandwich for lunch, we headed east to the motorway, and then north back towards Lyon.  Our beautiful blue sky and sunny day gradually turned dark and overcast, and we made it back to Lyon about 2:30 pm.  Dropped the car at Enterprise, caught the T1 Tram to the C3 bus, and voila!  We’re back at the flat!  

Pascal and Nathalie!

Nathalie, Nathan & Julia

Drive down a "dangerous" road!

Stunning scenery

Having had a simple lunch, we’re going to definitely find a good restaurant for dinner tonight.  Heading out in a few minutes; will report more later!

m

xxx

Back from dinner!  We went to L’Entrecote Lyon, which is similar to but not the same as the L’Entrecote we have visited in Paris. 

Heading down hill ...

Lovely little village!

This one, first off, is considerably cheaper than its Paris relative, and the “sauce secret” isn’t nearly as thick or good.  However, other than that – the green salad with walnuts to start was the same, and the entrecote’s were perfectly cooked and sliced – and the French fries were never ending!  For dessert, R had two very tiny cups of coffee (which I’d say are guaranteed to keep him up at least until midnight!)  I did have dessert:  Vacherin au chocolat.  This turned out to be whipped cream followed by three meringues, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream between the meringues, and hot chocolate sauce all around the base.  It was great, although the meringues were a little hard.  (Remember what I just wrote about R staying awake?  Wrong!  He’s asleep already, and we haven’t been back all of five minutes!) 

L'Entrecote Salad

Cute customer!

Lots of good food!

Hilarious dessert!

After this, we walked across the street and caught a C14 bus, which lets us off just on “our” side of the Saone and in front of the St. Paul station.  Very convenient!  This was an electric bus, with overhead wires – so now I think we’ve been on all of the various kinds of transport in Lyon!

So!  Goodnight all, and, a demain!

m

xxx

The beautiful Musee des Beaux Arts!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Hello!

Starting with Sunday night’s dinner, let me observe one thing:  I HATE ELECTRIC STOVES!  How’s that for an opinion?  So…the very well-equipped kitchen here in the apartment does include a very nice dishwasher, but also, an electric stove.  And, as neither of us has cooked on one in a really long time, it was like starting school all over again to figure out what to do … when to increase the heat, and when to lower it.   There are numbers on the stove, and it goes from 1 (coolest) to 8, and then goes to “H” which we means “the burner is off but it is still HOT!”  So…my objective was to make beef tips over rice, using the faux filet that we bought the other day at Les Halles Paul Bocuse. 

Me after the electric stove ...

That’s when I realized that there was a reason why I usually bring along a tablespoon measure and a plastic measuring cup … which I didn’t, for some reason, on this trip.  So … while R was able to pull up the recipe on the computer, I was going to have to eyeball all the measurements, as well as make the beef stock up out of a small capsule of beef-type gel!  Now that was a challenge!  I did find a large calibrated cylinder that I used for the stock, but other than that – oh, and did I mention that as there was no cornstarch, R needed to make a roux in order to thicken the base?  But, considering everything, I did manage to get both beef and rice and salad on the table at the same time, and incredibly, it tasted like it’s supposed to!  Wow!  So!  HA, I say to electric stoves!

Up this morning about 7 (and it is still SO dark then!) to another pleasant, breezy day. 

R at breakfast!

R went to our local boulangerie (Chez Jules) on the corner near the C3 bus stop, and brought back croissants and pain au chocolate, which we had with O.J. and lots and lots of raspberry jam.  Yum! We cleaned up the kitchen, and got ready to go out for the adventure du jour.  

Our favorite C3 bus!

Museum in former convent; cloisters in the center

Part of Egyptian temple doors

About 9:30 am we left the flat and caught the C3 which was just pulling in to the stop, and took it across the Saone to the Lyon City Hall and the Opera house, which are next to each other. 

Opera House

Stunning fountain

City Hall

Honestly, looking from Fourviere, the roof of the opera house more resembles a train station; it’s not a very attractive building.  But supposedly the acoustics are very good.  Walked around City Hall and in to the Place des Terreaux to their big fountain.  It’s HUGE, and reminds me most of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, as it looks like it’s just coming out of a wall, even though it’s free standing!  As the entire square is surrounded by high (4 – 5 stories) buildings, at this time of year, I’m not sure the fountain ever gets fully illuminated by the sun!  But R did take photographs, and it’s really quite amazing.  The story goes that it was originally built for Bordeaux, but proved too expensive for them – so it was purchased and brought to Lyon!  It’s really quite something, with its huge horses and streams of water.  (Wonder how they keep people out of it in the summer…)

On the side of the square facing the fountain, is the Musee des Beaux Arts, which is today’s musee of choice!  We were a bit early, so strolled around looking at shops, until 10 a.m. when it opened.  I had been researching the collection, and decided that we would start on the first floor, as the collection contained Egyptian, Greek, Roman and even a bit of near-east artifacts.  (I have read that this museum is one of the finest in Europe, and only second to the Louvre in France.)  

Very nice collection, all around!  We spent several hours going through the artifacts – just a piece or two from Nimrud and Persepolis,  (I am going to plan an Etruscan-Only trip at some point in the future!  All Etruscan All the Time!)  

More Egyptian gate

Wooden Osiris

Fragment from Nimrud

but a very good collection of Greek and Roman things, including an assortment of Etruscan work.

There was also a lovely exhibit of glass, sculpture and furniture from the Beaux Arts period.  There were some really terrific pieces!

We then stopped for a few minutes at the café for refreshment … me for Coke Zero and R for café.  Honestly, I would have loved a bowl of soup, as it was cool in the museum, but somehow, mushroom and snail soup just didn’t seem to go together for me. 

Small led sarcophagus

Greek Kore from Athens Parthenon

Stunning Greek vase

Then it was on to the second floor!

Beautiful beaux arts furniture piece

Loved this sculpture!

This floor contained mostly flat artwork (which is not my favorite), along with some sculpture, which was interesting. 

Etruscan make-up case!

Etruscan sarcophagus

Ancient duck weights!

Their collection of Impressionist work was excellent.  There were more than a few Monet’s, as well as work by Renoir, Degas, and Sisley, among others.  Very enjoyable!  There were also lots and lots of older pieces, but, as R remarked, I do tend to go pretty quickly through those rooms! 

Then, out the door and back to the flat for a late lunch, stopping for an incomparable French baguette along the way.  That, with the prosciutto, cheese and salami we already had, and unfortunately, our plans to go out for dinner may have been derailed – no more room for food!  

This Monet just glowed!

Fountain sort of in the sunlight!

Tomorrow, we are heading to Saint-Affrique (right next door to ROQUEFORT!) to visit our friends Nathalie and Pascal and their terrific kids, Julia and Nathan.  It will be wonderful to see them again!  We will be picking up a car at the train station, and then over-nighting in Saint-Affrique.  (It’s about a four hour drive from here.)  The weather calls for some rain, so hope we make it to the rental car place before that hits!  So … more later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx