Week 1 in Lyon

We left Paris on Sunday afternoon, and after a gorgeous train trip, we pulled into the Lyon station in the early evening.  I had been looking forward to Lyon since we found out about our coming here back in October, and as we traveled across the beautiful river, I found myself grinning in anticipation of the time we would spend here, the places we would learn to love, and the memories we would make here.    

Regrettably, my glow of excitement began dying out, when Fox decided to cry the entire cab trip (thankfully it was only about 10 minutes) to our apartment, and as we approached the location of our apartment, the neighborhood didn't look particularly great.  Suddenly, my excitement about being here, was replaced with a quick moment of dread.  What if I didn't like Lyon?  What if we were in staying in an unsafe neighborhood?  What if I felt like I could never take my baby out? What if I can't understand anyone because my French is pretty rusty? These concerns ran continuously through my mind that night.  

My mom has told us for years that "everything is worse at night," and sure enough, the next morning I was feeling far more optimistic.  We got unpacked and settled in our cute little studio apartment, and Adam headed off for his first day of work.  After a good nap, Fox and I headed out for a walk by the river, and I began feeling excited to explore this new city!  

The neighborhood is not as lovely as some of the more historic parts of the city, but is very central, and fantastic for getting around.  We are literally 200 yards from a metro stop with several different lines running through it that can take you almost anywhere in the city.  There are also tons of mom's with babies in strollers around in our neighborhood, and that made me feel much better about the area. Overall, we are in a prime location, and I am feeling good about our choice of apartment.  

A few highlights of this week were: 

Our trip up to Parc Tete d'Or (or Park of the Golden Head).  This park is spectacularly beautiful!  It has a large lake with a small island in the middle.  They have a free zoo that has some wonderful animals in it, including giraffes, lemurs, monkeys, crocodiles and red pandas.  They also have some lovely botanical gardens which I want to get a closer look at.  We only saw them from a distance on our first visit there, but we plan to visit this park many more times on our trip here.  

We went to the Saint Antoine Market along the Rhone (one of two rivers running through Lyon).  There Fox got to try his first strawberry.  It was love at first lick.  I can't blame him, though because they were some of the freshest and most delicious strawberries that I have ever tasted.  

We had more than our fair share of delicious pastries this week.  This first one is a caramel covered chocolate mousse with a cookie crumble on bottom, and a guava-lemon cream in the center.  An odd and spectacular combo.  The one came from a little shop in Les Halles called Delices Des Sens. 

I have been dying to get some legitimate French macarons since we arrived, and we finally got four delicious flavors from Bouillet.  From left to right flavors were salted caramel, blackberry, raspberry and vanilla.  

 A chocolate and raspberry pastry from Bouillet.  They make the most beautiful pastries that I have ever seen, but the caramel mousse two photos back was better than either of these.  Because of our trip to this patisserie, I now only want to make gorgeous food.  By the way, that little pieces of white/gold on the pastry on the left is a tiny bit of gold leaf.

Our lunch at Le Nord.  Paul Bocouse is a very well-known and revered chef in France.  Chef Gusteau from Pixar's Ratatouille is based off of this famous chef.  He has a 3-Michelen Star restaurant here in Lyon, but he also founded 3 'pub' type places that are much less formal.  Adam really wanted to go to one, so last week, we decided to try this restaurant out!  Many restaurants have a lunch special that is significantly less than their evening menu, and most restaurants don't start serving dinner until about 7PM, which is when Fox goes to bed, so lunch was perfect for us.

I ordered a brioche with a pistachio sausage inside it accompanied by a green salad.  It was perfection!  Such a delicious combination of flavors and the brioche was so buttery and delicious.  I also ordered a beef dish that I didn't recognize, and Adam wasn't entirely sure what it was either, and when it came out, it looked so much like tomato sauce, that I thought maybe they had confused my order.  But when they brought the fries out with it, I knew it was the correct dish, and nd it was delicious!

A carpaccio beef with parmesan, tomatoes, and a green salad on top.  I googled the dish when we got home, I discovered that I had just eaten an entire plate of raw beef (I guessed that when they brought it out, but figured I would rather not know at the time, and ate it all anyway).  I am sort of thrilled that I ate something so daring and different for me, but at the same time, I am not sure that I would intentionally order raw meat again...

Next up is our weekend trip out to Perouges, a medieval city, and some time in Beaujoulais (wine-making country)!  I am working on editing the photos, and should have it up on Wednesday!  Thanks for following along!  - xoxo