Lovely Lyon

Day 2: Walk with a Lyon Greeter, Beaux Arts Museum, "no reservation" and a fun bouchon

Before we left I submitted a request to the Lyon Greeters for a walk.  It came through at the very last minute but our Greeter, Nathalie, was lovely.  Having that in-country phone was helpful for making our plans to meet at the Place de Terreaux by the Fountain.  We bought an all day metro pass and took it to Hotel du Ville.  The marathon was going on so we got a little turned around trying to find the Place de Terreaux.  It was turning out to be a pretty day.

I had asked to see traboules, trompe l'oeil murals, Vieux Lyon and Notre Dame de Fourviere.  Starting at 1030am, we saw all of the above.  The trompe l'oiel mural was astonishing--a really impressive work of art.  We walked across a bridge to Vieux Lyon and into a square near where Nathalie lived (pretty), we passed by Le Sathonay where we had reservations for dinner that night, we walked by the busy shops and went into the Gadagne Museum for the rooftop medieval garden, a nice surprise. 

 

It was a beautiful morning

 

 

Rooftop garden at Gadagne Museum

Rooftop garden at Gadagne Museum

 

We walked down to the miniatures museum and admired the intricate sets on display.  I was a bit grossed out by a display of the silk worms hanging out at a nearby shop. At some point we went through the "longest" traboule, the only one we saw on this tour (which was ok).

The miniature scenes were amazing

Silkworms at work

Silk

Nathalie showed us the Roman Ruins behind the Cathedral St. Jean.  It was just a block off the main drag but quiet and peaceful.  We walked about in the church which was pretty.  The square had the most beautiful cream colored building with blue shutters. 

Roman ruins

Roman ruins

Cathedral St. Jean

Notre Dame de Fourviere on her hill

I loved this color combo

Inside St. Jean

Some of the stained glass at St. Jean

We took the funicular up to Fourviere and toured the Basilica of Notre Dame.  It's a much newer church than most we've seen and we both really liked it--it's filled with light and had a very happy vibe, to me.  The view from the terrace was gorgeous. 

The Basilica and Chapel of the Virgen

Light and airy interior

The Black Madonna in the Chapel of the Virgen

St. Jacque de Compostella

Saint Catherine, I think

The Chapel of the Virgen is lovely

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Entrance to Chapel of the Virgen

Gorgeous views of Lyon from the Basilica terace

We headed to our last stop with Nathalie, the Roman Amphitheatre.  She pointed out the "oldest road" in Lyon and then took her leave of us.  We thanked her profusely because we really enjoyed our walk and saw more than we might have on our own.

Oldest road in Lyon

The amphitheater (as seen from the museum)

Nathalie, our lovely Greeter

Since the Gallo-Roman museum was right there we toured it.  Very interesting building and beautiful displays.  It was somewhat confusing but that's par for the course with us and museums.  The mosaics were outstanding and I loved that we actually got to walk on one! 

Afterwards we walked back to Notre Dame to get a few more pictures and take the funicular back down to Vieux Lyon.

Our selfie game needs work!

We were hungry by now so stopped for a leisurely lunch at Le Krepiot where we had delicious crepes, cider and beer. 

We crossed the river, looked at the trompe l'oeil building again and made our way to the Musee Beaux-Arts.  We only had about 1 1/2 hours before closing so did the blitz tour and very much enjoyed the gorgeous displays.  It merits much more time that we had but we were glad to see what we did.

Musee des Beaux-Arts

Sculpture by Rodin

Gorgeous ceilings

Cool doors in the Decorative Arts Section

Belle Epoque furnishings

Monet

Monet

Degas

I was captivated by the baby's eyes. :)

It was now 6pm and time to relax before our 8pm dinner reservation at La Sathonay.  We took the metro back to the hotel and husband set out to find the Hertz rental car counter.  He had no luck because it's not in the train station itself like Avis, Europcar, or Sixth.  We asked the day concierge and thankfully he knew that it was located outside the terminal on the opposite side of where we were staying.  It was not as convenient as the other agencies, truthfully, and I'd rent from Avis on a return trip.

We refreshed then had drinks in the bar (nice Nacer gave me a free glass of wine) before heading back out for dinner. We took the metro again and got to La Sathonay just at 8.  I had made the reservation online via tripadvisor and received confirmations and reminders but the staff at Le Sathonay had no record of our reservation and could not (or would not) accommodate us, even after I showed them the email.  They weren't rude, just blasé, and didn't seem to want our business.

So we took it elsewhere and ended up having a very nice time, and enjoying the food, at the busy Le Laurencin in Vieux Lyon.  We had green salad, meats and pickles and onions salad, fish with rice, beef steak with delicious potatoes, cheese plate and crème brulee for desert.  All good and filling.

Le Laurencin

Interior

Rustic decor

Salads

My fish and husband's beef and outstanding potatoes

He cleared all the glasses from a table for 16 in one pass!

Yummy crème brulee

After dinner, we walked back to the Hotel du Ville metro stop (we didn't have a map with us) and back to the hotel to crash.  It had been a busy but fun and interesting day in Lyon.

Takeaways:
1. City Greeters are wonderful.
2. Lyon really deserves more than one day.
3. Even with confirmed reservations, sometimes you're turned away.  Have a back-up plan and don't sweat the small stuff!

Next: Finding Hertz, we have GPS!, signs signs everywhere there's signs, not dead in pretty Sarlat