Lyon, France Day 5

September 29, 2023

We got ready and packed our bags and left the apartment before 9am to get some breakfast. Bob and Heather had left before us to go get some pastries for their breakfasts. Pogo and I stopped at a little café by the market and had coffee, fresh pressed orange juice and croissants. Pogo thought our waiter looked like my brother. What do you think?

The market Les Halles was in full swing with all the stalls opened inside as well as tons of them outside. Besides the amazing food everywhere, they were selling anything you could think off outside: purses, shoes, underwear, books, soaps, antiques, baskets, flowers, etc. Pogo bought some dried pears, peaches and cinnamon apples. The market is opened 3 times a week and the place was packed with customers pulling their bags on wheels or their baskets to do their shopping.

We left Dijon around 10:30am and drove through the countryside in search of châteaux and vineyards. We stopped at Château du Clos de Vougeot and did a tour of the premises. The beautiful venue is used mostly for events nowadays.

We drove through a few more gorgeous medieval villages and arrived in Beaunes to have lunch at Le Coq Bleu. It was another incredible meal with a nice glass of Pouilly Fuissé. Still trying the local dishes, Pogo had poached eggs in a cheese sauce plus a salad with grilled chicken. I had coq (rooster) with a mustardy cheese sauce. Heather had rabbit with the mustard sauce and Bob had the beef bourguignon. There was a lot of drooling over the food.

We walked around town for a while then drove to a vineyard called Château de Meursault. We tried 3 wines and each couple bought a bottle.

We started driving towards our final destination at 4:15pm and arrived in Lyon at 6:15Pm. Bibi, the owner was waiting for us and was very welcoming. She had a pain d’épices and some chocolate for us. She said we were welcomed to all the beverages in the fridge except for the wine, which we could buy. The apartment was beautiful but, just like the apartment we had just left in Dijon, there was only one toilet to share, by the entrance. Both bedrooms had a shower and sink but no toilets. So strange.

Another interesting fact is that our 2nd floor apartment was really what we would call the 3rd floor back home. The first floor is not the main floor. When we were in Dijon, we had to walk up four floors to get to our 3rd floor apartment, same thing in Paris. And no elevators to be found anywhere.

We walked to Daniel and Denise, the restaurant I had reserved and it was only 3 minutes away. Daniel and Denise was a bouchon restaurant, meaning that their specialties were Lyonnaise dishes. The bouchon restaurants are only in Lyon. We had pâté, eggs maurettes (poached eggs in red wine) for appetizers then we had sausages stuffed with pistachios, trout amandine and veal. I can’t even talk about dessert because I might throw up just thinking about it, I’m so full.

We walked around town a little bit and we saw young adults everywhere, at restaurants, in bars watching rugby or just hanging around.

We stopped to buy some milk, yogurt and fruits for tomorrow’s breakfast and went to bed at 11:30pm.