Our first full day in Lyon!

 Thursday, December 24, 2015

Bonjour!

Our flat is just above the white car, on the left!

Me at the Saone river, right across from the flat

I have to admit, I slept like a log last night, after several not-so-great-nights in Paris. (Which reminds me – how exactly DO logs sleep??)  In fact, I didn’t get up until almost 9 a.m. – wow!  Into the shower, and it’s really lovely.  Today at some point I am also going to figure out the washing machine … but that’s for later. 

Our first priority today was to get in groceries.  We do have a dinner reservation for tomorrow night, but we’re figuring that basically everything will be closed, and we didn’t want to go hungry.  So … out the door and headed for our first Lyon transit experience!  We were able to catch a 31 bus just across the river, which took us down to Bellecoeur, which is a huge public square in the heart of the city.  From there, we caught a metro line and came up right in front of a Carrefour City.  The problem is, the Carrefour City isn’t really like a regular Carrefour – which is usually a huge superstore, with anything and everything in it!  In this particular store (more like a large 7/11), we couldn’t even find fresh meat!  Very disappointed, as we’re going to have to find a butcher. 

However, Clothilde had mentioned a farmer’s market that happens every day (except Monday) on the Saone side of town, not too far from us, along the river. 

Basilica of Fourviere on the hill

Fourviere on top, overlooking the Saone

So, we metro’ed back toward Vieux Lyon (where we’re located: Old Lyon) and walked a few blocks, and WOW!  A fabulous market!  Let’s just say that except for beef, they just about had everything else!!  There were florists, produce stands, olive stands, bread vendors, cheese mongers, and fish sellers, and we just went a little bit crazy.  We found a lovely aged Comte cheese, and some great Papillon from Roquefort.  We also found sun dried tomatoes, olives of every description, flowers and tiny little Christmas trees.  We bought some wonderful French bread and decided that while cereal may be fine for breakfast sometimes, we actually prefer cheese/ham/salami, etc. for breakfast.  

Place Bellecoeur ferris wheel

"Our" farmer's market!

Finally, we had so much “stuff” that we just needed to get back to the flat and set it all down!  For dinner tonight, we’re going to have a wonderful roast chicken (which is beginning to smell SOOOO good as it reheats in the oven!), roast potatoes, and fresh haricot verts.  (Still need to find a pot, but the kitchen is so well equipped, I know I won’t have any problem!)  Then, having divested ourselves from load 1, we headed back out, this time to find wine and water and a few other things.

Clothilde’s instructions sent us to another market, just a few minutes on the other side of the Saone.  We still didn’t see much meat, but were able to fill in with a few things.  A bottle of prosecco to celebrate Christmas, and then some red wine for dinner. And, oh!  The shop right below us in the building is a gelateria – and that gelato definitely looked good!

So, back to the flat for “breakfast” – even though it was already almost noon!  Opened some cheese, salami, prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes, and had a wonderful meal along with the bread we found.  YUM!  

Me buying sun-dried tomatoes and olives

R and "breakfast"

Decided after that that it was “time” to tackle the laundry.  The washer here is Bosch, but actually has a top loading horizontal basket.  We haven’t seen one of those since our stay in Le Marche in Italy on an agriturismo!  What fun!  We loaded it up, and were actually able to figure out how to get it started – and the cycle is “only” 44 minutes long, so we count that as a big success.  

At that point, I needed to put in some time on a Desert Museum project, so I spent the next several hours posting event information to local-Tucson calendars. It seems odd to be doing it so far away, but with computers, it’s not a problem at all!  R took the opportunity to nap, which sounded like such a good idea to me, that when I finished working, I grabbed the very comfy couch for a nap myself!

We do love to picnic!

Happy and full!

Up about 5-ish, and low and behold, the first load of laundry was done!  Yeah!!  Now have a second load going.  It is nice and warm in our flat, so I’m sure that things will dry well on the super-huge drying rack.  There is also an ironing board and iron, which will be getting some use tomorrow, as well.  It’s just a few minutes after 6 pm, but it is pitch dark outside.  Our plan (hopefully) will be to head to Forviere (the mountain just down the road from us) about 10-ish and take the funicular to the top to see the view and the lights!  

So, Joyeux Noel to everybody, and our very, very best wishes for a wonderful holiday!

R pouring wine for dinner!

Roast chicken, haricot verts and potatoes!

Much love,

m

xxx