Lyon, Day II

On Sunday, we took the tram to the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation and took a breakfast stop at a little pastry shop on the corner. The museum was all about famous people in the French Resistance during WWII, especially influential women who risked social criticism and death threats to help Jews and restore many of the lost cultural items of the country. One woman in particular re-captured much of the artwork taken by Hitler; she moved to Germany to become a spy and kept in contact with many museum cultivators who were constantly recuperating missing artifacts.

For lunch, we went to Pizza Pai, a “buffet” type restaurant that had great pizza and an amusing ambiance similar to American restaurants. The goal was to whet our indulgence for Americanized international food, or maybe it was simply that we didn't want to pay that much for lunch. I was constantly surprised that in all of the restaurants in Lyon, they had water sitting on the table when you got there or it was automatically brought out when you arrived. I wish they gave free water in Switzerland….

We spent the last few hours in the city at the fine arts museum – which had a temporary Picasso and Matisse exhibit – and the museum of miniatures and movie props. The fine arts museum was swarming with locals wanting to see the famous Fauvist and Cubist paintings. We managed to access the entrance from the inside through a courtyard, where we just missed a line that stretched from the door to the end of the block. Instead of having to wait in line to pay for our tickets, we again flashed our city cards and they gave us our free tickets. The exhibit was very crowded, and I was constantly worried about women with their oversized purses because they always seemed to stand dangerously close to the paintings. I’m surprised they weren’t more closely monitored, considering their significance in art history.



There was an enormous fountain outside the museum that was beautiful and majestic. This was the Bartholdi Fountain built in the late 1800s, depicting a woman who controls the four rivers of France (symbolized by the four horses).



We took our last hour to tour the museum of miniatures, where they had costumes, masks, and stand-ins from famous shows and movies like Star Wars, Men in Black II, V for Vendetta, Terminator, The X-Files, and Planet of the Apes. Some of the props were pretty gruesome with blood and guts and rotting monkeys and such. It was really interesting, however, how they created such realistic props for horror movies. We also saw some amazing origami and incredibly small paper cutting and sculptures.

We took the 6pm TGV back to Geneva and had another late dinner at about 10pm.

Lyon, Day I

The next morning, we took the InterRegio to Geneva and then the TGV to Lyon, France. We arrived with relatively little sense of direction, only basing our orientation on Rick Steve’s suggestions. Since there were about 10 exits out of the Lyon Port-Dieu train station, we struggled to find the direction of our hotel, despite the fact that it was the Radisson, the tallest building in the city. I stopped to ask an official about directions, and then we walked 15 minutes with our bags to the hotel. It was odd, there. When we arrived, the concierge was on the ground floor, but he said that the check-in was upstairs. Thus, we took the elevator, only to find buttons for the ground floor and the 32nd floor. After a brief bout of confusion, we decided to press button “32” to see if this was the right place. Evidently, they don’t use the first 31 floors. Who knew? There was a separate elevator on the 32nd floor to get to the rooms. What a bizarre use of the building….

After having settled our things in the room and laughing at the small cup of mini-bar M&Ms that cost 7 euro, we asked the concierge about good dinner spots and how to buy our day passes. The city of Lyon offers a great tourist opportunity where you can buy a day pass that allows unlimited museum and public transportation access. You can take the tram, metro, bus, or electric car anywhere in the city, and you don’t have to wait in long museum lines. They just hand you your “free” ticket and you walk right in. Easy as pie.



Speaking of pie, we were quite hungry for lunch when we arrived in the city centre – Bellecour. We took the advice of an avid food blogger and tried le Giraudet, an all-natural bistro that sold the famous Lyonnais “quenelles” in a cup and some delicious soups – mom chose a chestnut soup with bitter cocoa powder, and I ordered carrot with curry and coconut milk. I also had a salad with roasted tomatoes, parmesan, and fried quenelles. Our lunch order included one of their hand-made desserts, so I indulged in a chocolate pistachio cake, and mom got fromage blanc with mango coulis (like yogurt with fruit purée on top). We were so pleased with our choice that we bought bottles of both soups to take home.




In addition to museums and transportation, the pass included a free walking tour and discounts on shopping and special tourist activities. We took advantage of the tour and saw the St. Jean cathedral with the moving rooster clock, Vieux Lyon with the museums and Middle Age housing complexes, and streets devoted to the sale of different foods. To explain, since people were largely illiterate during the Middle Ages, they named streets after the good that was sold there; for example, “Cow Street” was where butchers sold all of their beef. They also had a fish street, pig street, cheese street, etc. Since the people couldn’t read, they also put statues of the animals or the foods above the street names to indicate the good sold. Not a bad idea.



We ditched the tour a few minutes early to visit the puppet museum (le musée des marionettes), which had different puppets from all over the world. They showed famous clips from old television broadcasts and performances. They were all unique and expertly crafted with hand-sewn costumes. The end of our museum visit left us hungry for dinner, so we took a stroll in the bouchonnerie quarter. The history behind the name of the famous Lyonnais restaurants is that “bouchonner” means to brush horses, and the workers, after a hard day, needed a place to eat simple food for a low price. Thus, this type of restaurant was named after the profession of its clients, and they remain relatively inexpensive and absolutely wonderful. We went to St. Josef, a recommendation of my French roommate, Marie. I had grilled salmon and my mom had sole with some kind of sauce. For dessert, I had a pear pudding with strawberry coulis, and she had apple tart. After our dinner, we walked around and saw Hippo (a restaurant that reminded us of a funny experience in Paris) and bought French soap from a department store. (I know, the peak of shopping excitement).

Mom's arrival!

Mom arrived today, and we first went to my apartment to unload her stuff. She brought a huge hard-cased suitcase just for things that I requested: snowshoes and poles, crochet hooks and yarn, etc. I was hoping that a lot of the things she brought would be useful for time-occupiers during my three week vacation. We then bought train tickets to Vevey to see Ada. We had lunch with her – salmon and spinach pastry with hollandaise sauce and a salad with winter greens. It was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, she fractured her leg the week before, so she couldn’t accompany us to the thermal baths in Lavey.

After our lunch, we bid our farewell and took the train to St. Maurice, where we walked for about a half an hour in the snowfall to the baths. When we reached Lavey, we saw the steam rising from the pools and started to get excited about three hours of relaxation in the pools and the saunas. We even discovered something new from my first visit. In the indoor pool, there is underwater music every hour for 15 minutes, and the idea is to relax your body with sound waves. You lie on these flotation pads (or on your back), and you stick your ears underwater to hear dolphin calls or classical music, and it is supposed to have a relaxing effect for body and mind. After our three hours of rejuvenation, we walked back to the train station in the freshly fallen snow. While we were on the trail, two unleashed dogs approached us and started barking manically and mom was worried that they would bite, as she had previously bad experiences. In the end, though, the owners were rather friendly and asked us if we were okay or if the dogs frightened us. Fortunately, we received no dog bites that evening. The rest of the walk was tranquil and refreshing – a nice transition from hot water to cold, fresh air in the snow.

We arrived in Lausanne rather late – about 9pm – and ate a quick dinner of peanut vegetable soup and polenta with marinara sauce that I had made earlier in the week.