Lyon part deux…
We totally indulged (read: pigged out) in Lyon! Our second day there was pretty incredible from a culinary standpoint. We had two very rustic regional meals – lunch was Southwestern French cuisine at Le Bistro de Saint Paul, while dinner was at mainstay Lyonnais bouchon named Garet.
At lunch we shared a salad of sliced artichoke hearts topped with foie gras, and wild mushrooms with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic reduction. Main course was a cassoulet – an oven baked dish of duck, sausages, and pork belly covered in saucy white beans, slightly crispy brown on the surface. This hearty comfort food beats a mac n’ cheese any day!
For dinner we headed to Le Garet, a ninety year old bouchon in the opera house neighborhood. This was a pretty unforgettable experience which I’ll sum up with this: tripe & veal feet. I tried everything (even if it was hard to swallow) but some of the other stuff we had was pretty tasty – sausages, lentils, scallops, baby goat, and of course more cheese!
A little about the city… Lyon is totally a place I could see myself living in. Nestled among a few steep hills and two rivers – the Rhone and the Soane – Lyon is home to people who are serious about their food, art, wine and shopping. It has the cultural atmosphere of Paris but just a bit smaller and much more relaxed… kinda like San Francisco v. New York.
