LYON, THE UNDERRATED CITY!
Lyon was one of my absolute favorite cities in France. However, when I was reading other blogs about what cities to visit, it often wouldn’t be mentioned or would be mentioned only by the fact that it is rated the food capital of France. Yes, I said that. Not Paris, Lyon. But still it was glazed over.
We went to a wedding in Aix-En-Provence, which is in the very lower part of France and were ending our trip in Paris. So, we ended up “settling” for Lyon as another leg of our trip, instead of another city because it was a direct stop by train between Provence and Paris.
I’m absolutely thrilled that it worked out that way because Lyon has so much to offer.
As I said before, it really is the food capital of France. It also has amazing shopping, pastry and coffee places, a garden walk up to the most beautiful church I have ever seen, and stunning views.
FOOD
There are so many great restaurants that you really can’t go wrong. Here are just a couple of the cool places I found. Below is a wonderful restaurant called Diploid. It’s great for any meal, but we went there for brunch and it was definitely on my top 5 best brunches I’ve ever had. If I hadn’t found this place on our last day there, I would have easily gone back the next day.
Signe Extrait (shown below) was a really delicious coffee and pastry place. I’m a bit of a coffee snob and unfortunately French coffees are not all created equal, unlike say Italy where I could pretty much expect every cup to be delicious. I ordered a lemon custard tart and it was insanely good!!
Slake Coffee House was also an amazing coffee and pastry place. I had this rhubarb cake that was melt in your mouth good! I could tell you of many dinner places but there are so many great places, you will be fine on your own!
WHAT TO DO
La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière and the Rose Garden
There is an absolutely stunning church called the Notre Dame de Fourviere at the top of a hill. I’m not the type of person that gets overly excited about seeing a church, but this one was my favorite thus far to see. There are so many beautiful colors and lots of intrigue gold and glass work. It will be worth the visit.
To get there, you can either walk up to it or take a bus. My husband and I decided to walk up to get some exercise, and I’m happy we did because the walk up is like a garden museum itself. There is a rose garden (seen below,) many benches to look at the view over Lyon, and a gorgeous tree lined walkway up to it. It definitely wasn’t the quickest walk, but was very enjoyable. If for some reason this sounds like it may be difficult for you, you can always take the bus up and then walk back down, which was very easy. That way you won’t miss the gardens and view.
Rue Saint-Jean
This is one of the cutest little streets. It’s a great place if you’re looking for souvenirs for family and friends back home. There are lots of great restaurants, cool shops, and a really interesting museum that I will talk about next.
Museum of Miniatures and Cinema
This was one of the strangest things the run across while traveling, but it was actually super fun. It’s this museum that literally has all of these cool miniature sets that they used on movies. My husband is a Director and owns his own production company (totally plugging blackbeargrowls.com) so this was really interesting for him. But don’t be deceived when you get to the front of the building. It looks like a tiny whole in the wall, and it looks like it will take you 15 minutes to walk through. However, it’s actually really large with 6 levels of the museum. This would be really cool if you had kids and wanted to distract them for a bit.
There is also plenty of great shopping that you can do in Lyon, and I actually found it better and cheaper than Paris.
Hope you have a wonderful trip and I look forward to hearing of your own experiences and adventures! Please make sure to leave a comment or ask any questions.
