Ou est Le Barge?

So after un cafe in Dijon Wednesday morning (which was dead) and then checking out of our hotel and having heart attacks regarding the fact that the owner of our apartment has suddenly decided to sell after 3+ years of no contact, we hit the road.


We set sail for Beaune, heading through a trail of small towns and miles of green vineyards. Such beautiful countryside.... We arrived in Beaune and parked the car for a quick stop and baguette to eat and a couple of emergency emails to put out the real estate fire that was a-blazing at home.

Basilica of Notre Dame on top of Fourviere hill in Lyon

From Beaune we headed straight to our next destination, Lyon. Ryan is brilliant at handling the European roads - I don't know how he does it but I'm in charge of navigation (which is a piece of cake, thanks Google). Anyway we high-tailed it down France's amazingly well-kept but expensive freeways to Lyon, France's 3rd largest city. We checked into our hotel (which was amazingly modern for the price) in Croix-Rousse, an old silk weaving area on top of a hill in Lyon. We dumped our bags in the room and headed down to the heart of Croix-Rousse.

Giant meringues in every flavour right next to our hotel

If you have been following our blog, you will have noticed that no expense was spared with our wining and dining in Paris and Champagne, so once we got to Lyon we did a quick budget check over a glass of vin and then had a massive freak-out so pretty much sent ourselves straight home with a quiche for dinner for Ryan, and a meringue for dinner for me.

Some more examples of the French sweets which are expanding our girths

The next morning we realised the budget was actually OK, and we could afford to continue to eat, we just didn't need to accompany every meal with a bottle of France's finest champagne. So we headed out into a cool and somewhat drizzly Lyonnaise morning in search of our routine cafe, and found a place that served little pound cake type things with the espressos (or noisette, as I have been getting)! Over the road, the Croix-Rousse markets (which are the biggest in Lyon) are open 6 days a week (quite unusual we've found, in this nation which seems to have an aversion to working). We had a stroll through them and looked at all their fresh looking produce neatly displayed in individual bowls, and Ryan found his trusty old chicken man dripping chicken juice onto potatoes underneath. It was still early so Ryan wanted to kill some time before ordering his beloved chicken leg and chicken juice-soaked potatoes, but didn't want to venture too far because sometimes these Frenchies will pack up their stands quicker than you can say hot potato.

The panoramic view from the Fourviere hill

So another "un cafe" nearby, in what was turning out to be a bit of a miserable morning in Lyon, was enough to pass the time until we could go back and get some chicken and potatoes, which has become Ryan's favourite French dish (watch out Eveleigh markets, Ryan is coming with a rotisserie van to you soon!)

View over Lyon from top of Croix-Rousse hill

Since it was colder and more les miserables than we had anticipated, we took said chicken back to the hotel to get changed, pick up an umbrella and consume the chicken (I only had some of the potatoes, and which to be honest weren't as mind-blowing as the ones I had in Paris). Better equipped, we then got the metro to Bellecour station. We were both impressed with the efficiency of the public transport system in Lyon and Ryan nearly threw himself off the top of the Fouviere hill when I told him Lyon has a population of around half a million people. (Note: get it together City Rail).

Ryan's favourite guy - homme de poulet et pomme de terre

We walked through the large square of Place Bellecour, which in the rain, isn't the greatest, then over the Saone river to the old town, which I thought was extremely pretty - little narrow cobblestoned streets which I have become a sucker for. Now I'm not a huge fan of museums (refer back to my Louvre review) but I had read about this particular one, Musee Miniature et Cinema, which caught my eye, and I must say it was some of the best 7 euros I have spent! Five levels of props from landmark movies (Bruce, if you're reading, you would have died), as well as explaining how movies are made and then a number of miniature scenes, things with tiny little props (some you needed a magnifying glass to see) - some which have been used for movies and some which have just been made for their amazing-ness!

Tilt-shift pic of Place Bellecour from Fourviere Hill

By the time we came out of the museum, the rain had stopped and the sun came out, hooray! So we took the nearby funicular up the Fourviere Hill to the impressive Basilica, which has an amazing outlook over the whole of Lyon. So we spent some time up there enjoying the vista and taking some pics before heading back down to the river.

Ryan enjoying un vin on the Rhone on Le Barge

Lyon is situated on and around two rivers (the Rhone and the Saone) which converge just south of the heart of Lyon. I had read that there were some barges which had bars and restaurants on the Rhone river, and so after heading over to the Rhone and randomly looking for some barges, we found one (called "Le Barge") which was situated literally on the water and serving drinks and tapas, which is all Ryan and I ask for in life (watch out Sydney Harbour, we are coming with a le barge bar to you soon!)

Crepe Suzette (flambe!) for dessert

After a lovely evening drink on Le Barge on the river, we headed back to our neighbourhood where I had read had a great crepe place. I'm glad I'd done my research because it was out of the way and pretty quiet, but cheap and delicious! Better crepes than we had in Paris actually (which are meant to be Paris' best!) - just the right amount of crepe to filling ratio! And that was the perfect end to day 1 in Lyon!