lyon love

I spent a sublimely sunny weekend in Lyon - the gastronome's capital of France. A blissful few days of good food, wine and lazy amblings up and down winding cobbled streets and along the banks of the two rivers which run through the city.
Lyon is an amazing weekend destination. Great bistros and brasseries, lively squares, good shopping and a beautifully landscaped park with botanical gardens, woods, a zoo and a lake in the middle where you can go boating and fishing. We went up to Fourvière, a district of Lyon located at the top of a steep hill reached by funicular, where you can take a look at the Basilica and breathtaking Roman ruins of an amphitheatre. Historically Lyon is a silk town, and the Croix-Rousse area (also on a hill!) is where the silk workers lived. Again, steep climbs through little alleyways but the view from the top across Lyon is phenomenal...

place bellecour



streets of croix-rousse

lions of lyon

Enough of the tourist office stuff - the main thing I want to lust over is the food. We made an effort to try the Lyon specialities while we were there, and kicked off our first lunch with a chilled glass of wine in the sun and some chilled brains… No, honestly. One of the region's dishes is cervelle de canut (literally translated as silk-weaver's brains) which is in fact, a yummy type of mild cottage cheese (but lighter and more whipped up) seasoned with herbs and shallots and served with toasted bread. According to Wikipedia, it's name is thought to reflect the low opinion the affluent in Lyon had of the weavers. Charmant. They did do good cheese though. Salade lyonnaise is a light traditional salad with frisee lettuce, bacon, croutons, a poached egg, and Dijon vinaigrette. All the flavours mixed together wonderfully, with the crunchy croutons giving added bite.

To spoil our sweet tooths we chose praline based desserts - a tarte aux pralines with chantilly cream and pain perdu with pralines. Pralines in Lyon are ground nuts mixed with sugar and dyed pink (not sure why), to create super sweet crystals. These are added to brioche, cakes, tartes and various other food stuffs to create sweet treats with a vivid pink or red colouring. It took us ages to work out what the pralines actually were, as they taste kind of fruity. The cream and vanilla icecream were essential accompaniments to offset the sweetness.

pain perdu & tarte

In the run up to Easter the chocolateries of Lyon were amply stuffed full of gorgeous chocolate eggs, chickens, bunnies, fish and all other manner of creatures good enough to eat. In one of the top chocolate shops, Voisin, we discovered the striking coussin de Lyon - vivid blue-green marzipan cushion shaped sweets, filled with a chocolate ganache flavoured with curacao. Back in the day, the aldermen of Lyon walked up the hill to Fourvière to implore the Virgin to save the city from the plague. They carried a seven-pound candle of wax and a gold crown on a silk cushion. This gave the chocolatier Voisin the idea of using the shape of the cushion to create the coussin de Lyon in 1960. It's since become one of the city symbols, and you can buy cushion shaped boxes of them everywhere. They look quite lurid, but are very moreish. Check out my fluoro pink nails against the aqua blue - colour blocking? Very à la mode…!


yummm

colour blocking

We ate at the fantastic Leon de Lyon brasserie on Saturday night. Cosy and quiet, a bit stuffy in the old school French way, with smart service, dusky low lighting and oil paintings on the walls. A quality establishment run by top chef Jean-Paul Lacombe, we opted for the three course menu for 30 euros a head. A very reasonable price for a delicious dinner. We chose the pea soup with rabbit toast and sardine rillette to start, followed by filet du canard with mushroom potatoes and baked salmon with vegetables. Rich chocolat fondant and a wonderfully tart rhubarb, apple and pear crumble pie rounded off everything nicely. The only bum note was my bitter camomile tea which tasted like a cross between dishwater and oil and prompted a giggling fit at how terribly bad it was - too many flower heads in the pot? Who knows but we'll let it slide…
All in all, Lyon is food paradise. Don't miss the Sunday morning food market on the banks of the river. Full to bursting with fresh fruit, veg, flowers, bread, cakes, meats and seafood I could happily have spent hours wandering up and down, absorbing the smells and sounds (and free tasters). A perfect Sunday afternoon could be spent in the park devouring your crusty baguettes with fresh goats cheese, roast chicken and juicy strawberries from the market. Along with a bottle of Beaujolais of course. It's regional innit. I also discovered this pastry thing in a patisserie - yes it's called William Tell. But what the devil is it?! I'm intrigued. Answers on a postcard please!

quoi?!