Lyon is the second largest city in France and well worth a visit. Seemingly a place that is unfortunately just one train/plane/bus too far for American tourists – as we did not hear or see many here. The Lyonnaise boast that Lyon is more quintessentially French than Paris. Which makes sense, cuz it’s in France, but compared to Paris, which is really very international (and huge), it has a small city feel with great food and a ton of Gallic character.
We started our stay at a really nice apartment directly in the middle of the Old Town restaurant and bar area [http://le-carre-merciere.hotel-in-lyon.com/en/#photo]. It was beautifully decorated and we liked it – but it was falsely advertised as having air conditioning. Really problematic, because it was mid-August and very hot – about 95 in the day and warm at night.
The owner of the place, when asked about the A/C, said that since the building was a UNESCO heritage site (I think the entire Old Town is UNESCO), she couldn’t install A/C, but there was a Dyson fan. In the middle of the first night – 3:45am actually – Shawn sent a text to the owner saying that we could not stay there. Way too hot to sleep. And if you left the windows open – which we did – there we people partying all night just outside, making it too loud to sleep. In any case, the next day after multiple calls to booking.com – where we booked the place – and to the owner, she quite reluctantly let us out of the week booking. We were so relieved and very tired.
Being a bit frazzled, we decided to upgrade and caught an Uber across the river and up the hill to the Relais & Chateau listed Villa Florentine [https://www.villaflorentine.com/en/restaurant.html].
Nothing like 5 star therapy to cure the ills of being on the road for a long time. We arrived without a reservation, but by mentioning the name of our wonderful travel agent, Tammy Cane [http://www.theartoftravelbytammycane.com/about/], and her agency, Virtuoso, they gave us a terrific suite for the price of a regular room and offered complementary breakfast, which BTW was awesome. The staff were genuinely nice and the service was fantastic. We absolutely loved our week here.
Besides the Old Town – apparently the largest “urban” UNESCO World Heritage Site – which is full of excellent restaurants, bars and shops, there are lots of cool things to see. We took a Segway tour of the city and the lovely Parc d’Or. It’s like a Central Park with a free zoo inside. Really nice park with lots of people enjoying the great sunny day.
Other sites included the Lyon Cathedral and the Louis XIV square. Very fun to ride the Segway – I’d never done it before – but my feet did start to go numb after about 90 minutes. You can cover a lot of ground on the Segway, but not as much as a bike.
We did one other tour, this time on e-bikes. Unfortunately, there was a mistake between the booking agency – Viator – and the actual tour provider – Lyon Bikes – and we ended up on a tour that was entirely in French. No matter, the tour guide was great and provided just enough English info for us to enjoy the sites. The other 6 French people on the tour were great too. They were all from the surrounding area and were super nice.
As mentioned earlier, you can cover much more ground on a bike (especially an e-bike) and the 8pm start time was great too, because the temperature at night was just right. The e-bikes carried us up the hill to the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourvière – which dominates the skyline – and along the Saone river. We learned that Lyon was a huge producer of silk in its early days and that many of the old apartment buildings have really high ceilings because they were required to house silk making equipment that was very tall. The silk workers did revolt in the 1800’s – but that is another story. Our tour was awesome!
We also had some great meals. Cafe Epicirie is a great place for dinner. It shares a kitchen with the Michelin starred restaurant at the Cour de Loges hotel. Great food, a bit expensive. [http://en.courdesloges.com/#!lyon-hotel/lyon-stay]. We also had a wonderful meal at a really nice boutiquey restaurant called La Nef Des Fous [http://www.la-nef-des-fous.com/mobile/index.html]. Also fantastic, was the Michelin one-star restaurant in the Villa Florentine, Las Terraces de Lyon. Very pricey – but if you’re staying at the Villa Florentine, a must.
Overall, we really loved our stay in Lyon. It was a great place to just relax and regroup while enjoying some of the best of France.
Heading to France next month, Lyon is now a must do! Thanks for the fabulous tease.