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Kristina, I'm really enjoying your report, and descriptions of dinners - yum! I'm getting homesick for Paris! I'm also looking forward to your Lyon report.
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Thanks Kristina. I love the food descriptions.
Like Sue4 I'm looking forward to Lyon. |
Day 4:
I woke up feeling sick at about 2:30 in the morning. Nauseated, I thought, "I must have had too much to drink today", so I drank some water and went back to bed. In the morning, I still felt sick and thought, "maybe I just ate too much fatty food, too much cheese and fois gras." No such luck. It just got worse and I spent the entire day in bed sleeping. It was definitely some sort of food poisoning. D ended up with it too, albeit in a milder form than mine. So, we never even left the apartment and lost an entire day in Paris. Roamer, Sue, and Indy-Lyon comes next! |
Day 5:
We needed to be at the Gare de Lyon by 10:30 AM to catch our train to Lyon. Fortunately, we already had our tickets as I had bought them in advance on the SNCF web site and printed them out at home. I still felt sick but pushed through, packed up some clothes to take with us, and we went downstairs. Unfortunately, I got sick before we even left the building. Thankfully, I had a supply of plastic bags and there was no one around at the moment. I really wanted to go back upstairs and back to bed, but since we were going to visit D's father, we had to leave. As we walked to the metro, I looked everywhere for a cab, but there were none to be found. So, down into the the metro, D carrying the luggage (only one bag, the other was back in the apartment) and me clutching a plastic bag. After two changes of metros, we made it to the Gare de Lyon without incident. The TGV was great. We had assigned seats in 2nd class, on the top floor of a double-decker car (what they call a "duplex"). There are two seats on either side of the aisle, much wider and with more legroom than airplane coach. It was very comfortable and we arrived in Lyon after whizzing through 350 miles of gorgeous countryside in a short 2 hours, on time. T was there to meet us at the Lyon- Perrache station. From there we took the metro 2 stops to Place Bellecour and walked across to his apartment which was right on one corner of the Place. After we dropped our bags, we walked back across the Place to have lunch at Le Comptoir des Marronniers. Le Comptoir is a Jean Paul Lacombe restaurant, one of 10 different restaurants he owns in Lyon, including the grand three-star Leon de Lyon. Since I still wasn't feeling well, I barely remember what I ate. I know it was roasted pork with a crispy skin and was very tasty. T had steak tartar, which he said was wonderful, but raw beef on my delicate stomach did not appeal. Le Comptoir des Marronniers is located at 8, rue des Marronniers, one block off the Place Bellcour. Lyon turns out to be a very beautiful city with a nice feel to it. It's the second largest city in France and often gets ignored by travelers in favor of smaller towns in the region. The older center, however, sits between two rivers and up a hillside and is charming. It's also a university town with a lot of "young" energy. After lunch we took the metro a couple of stops and then walked along the river. We exited the Metro near the Opera house, an interesting mix of 18th century and modern architecture. From there we walked through the Place with the Hotel de Ville which has a fantastic, huge fountain complete with a river goddess atop four rearing horses. The fountain was created by the same sculptor who did the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi. We saw some buildings along the river where the entire side has been painted with a facinating faux finish, quirky and fun. Across the river we could see Vieux Lyon, the oldest part of the city dating back to as far as the Roman Empire or, more "recently" the Renaissance. We planned on exploring it further the next day, but decided to go back to the apartment and rest again before dinner. |
Kristina:
So sorry that you were ill. Do you think it could have been the food at les Coulisses? Anyway--I hope you are fully recovered by next post! Lyon is lovely--before our first time there, I read a quote from someone: "The last time I say Paris, it was in Lyon." The Lyonnaise would surely agree! |
Nice report! We spent 2 days and one night in Lyon a couple years ago and loved it. I would like to go back again.
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Yes, it certainly was a bummer to be sick. It curtailed my appetite for about 3 days, including the upcoming 3-star meal.
I don't know if it was les Coulisses or not. It could have been the raw oysters. Or, just someone who didn't wash their hands properly somewhere. Food bourne illnesses are funny that way, people always assume it's the last thing they ate (probably because that's what comes up first), but that's not necessarily the case. Everything I ate certainly tasted good. :-) |
Day 5-Evening
For dinner, we walked across the river to Vieux Lyon to go to the Restaurant Lysaio (4 rue Ferrachat). This is a funky, offbeat place, filled with original artwork and owned by a mother/daughter team. Both attended to all the tables in the restaurant which seats maybe 35 people. Their business card says, "cuisine traditionnelle, produits du marche" (traditional cuisine and market products). The menu seemed to a an eclectic, modern, attempt on traditional French food. Lysaio had an 18 euro menu and a 27 euro menu. I had the smallest menu and D and T both had the larger one. T ordered a bottle of Ch. Clement Termes, Gaillac, 2002. We all received an amuse bouche of pumpkin-cumin soup which was really tasty. My appetizer was a mascapone and tuna mousse with a tomato-basil coulis. D's was pate de fois gras with a quenelle de fig "maison". I can't really say I enjoyed the tuna mousse, but the fois gras pate was very good. Then, each of us received a lime sorbet with vodka which I just could not stomach. My main course was "salmon-trout", otherwise known as Artic Char, which was perfectly roasted and served with a chestnut flan. D had a Cote du Beouf served with carrot-cinnamon puree and mushrooms. Dessert was a selection of chocolate items, which, because I was still not feeling well, I did not eat. As we walked back across the bridge, I prayed I would feel better by tomorrow night when we had reservations to eat at the gastronomic temple of the Michelin three star chef, Paul Bocuse. |
waiting for the report on BOcuse, have read so many great things about him but also negative. Those latter,think he's disneyland of cuisene.
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Gosh, what a shame to feel sick in Lyon.
Sure hope you felt better before Paul Bocuse! I spent 2 days, 3 nights in Lyon in October, and also ate at Le Comptoir des Marroniers (a great meal). Is your husband's father French? How nice to have someone who lives there show you around. |
Are you recovered now, I hope?
And where do you think you caught that bug? |
Hi-
I am recovered now, thank you. It took me about 3 full days to begin to feel "normal" again. I have no idea how it happened. My husband's father is living in Lyon for a year for work. He's already been there for 7 months, so yes, it was really nice to have someone show us around. I didn't have to think at all, which was nice, given the circumstances. As for Bocuse, I have to say, we had a really amazing experience there, which I will detail later. I do understand the "disneyland" reference however, as the entire restaurant is an "homage" to the great man himself. |
Kristina thanks for continuing. I'm a real fan of dining in Lyon. I went last May and have regretted a bit I didn't schedule time there in March.
Your husband has the same name as I do. I wonder if that has something to do with the foie gras affinity. I've been typing my trip report for March the last few days. I'm almost, not quite, but almost embarrassed by the number of times my meal description begins with a foie gras starter. :-O By the way if you can find a travel doctor he can probably set you up. Mine keeps me stocked with Cipro. Literally one tablet will stop all but the worst bacterial food poisoning in its tracks. I did this before I started traveling heavily in 2001. Strangely enough the only two times I've used the Cipro for food poisoning has been in Nebraska. Go figure. |
Indy-Yes, we had fois gras with almost every meal. I think I've had my fill for a while now. My husband could eat it every day however. Fortunately, probably due to a combination of all that walking and being sick, neither one of us gained any weight on the trip, much to our surprise.
As for the Cipro, you could be right. Unfortunately, it wasn't really clear what the problem was right away. Plus, I would start to feel better, then it would return. Ah well. My mother thinks it was the oysters, as I know for sure I got sick from oysters in Paris back in '96. If anyone is interested, I'm posting a more detailed version of this trip, including photos, on my website. http://www.wired2theworld.com I just put up my pre-trip planning page and Day 1. |
about that mummified cat?
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Cigale-
Where, in the British Museum? |
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LOL! No. I thought on your site you said that you brought one home!!!!!!
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Really?? :-) That's funny. No, no mummy cat souvineers (although they really were interesting...).
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Hey! We're waiting to hear about dinner at Bocuse :-)
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