Lyon: Light, Color and Flavor
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Lyon, France is a city alive with light, color and flavor. Discover why it’s a city that fully engages the senses.
It’s no coincidence that great advancements in motion pictures were made in Lyon by the Lumiere Brothers and surely no degree of happenstance that the city surrounds you with light and color today.
No less can be said for the city’s food traditions – Lyon is in France after all. Brightly colored treats abound in the patisseries and markets, and the flavors are as vivid as the colors.
Les Halles de Paul Bocus
Lyon is a city devoted to food at all levels and there is so much variety of delicious food throughout the city. Renowned chef and restaurateur Paul Bocuse was based in Lyon. The main city market, Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse, carries the late chef’s name in tribute to his culinary contributions.
In addition to fancy restaurants and markets, there are restaurants of every level including bouchons such as Café des Fédérations, which we loved and will write about later. French desserts and pastries are everywhere, and we became partial to Voisin as well as the fantastic Sève.
Lyon at Night
The Rhone and Saone rivers sparkle at night. It’s hard to take a bad photo in this city.
Lumiere Museum
We arrived in Lyon, ready for a city experience and happy to be in one place for several nights. Our first stop was the Lumiere Museum, situated in the former Lumiere home and studio, a grand nouveau art building. Seeing the old film equipment and grainy old movies was a blast to the cinema past.
Lyon B&B
We then headed to our hotel where our hosts warmly greeted us with local wine, savory olives and city maps.
Walk to Dinner in Lyon
There was no rest for the travel-weary, so we put on our walking shoes and headed to dinner via a long walk along the Rhone and up to the Croix-Rousse neighborhood.
Dinner at Le Canut et Les Gones
We had good food and a nice bottle of wine at a non-touristy restaurant with kitschy decor – Le Canut et Les Gones. We were happy for the long walk home after indulging in three courses plus the amuse-bouche. We mosied back to the hotel after dinner, happy for the comfortable bed and ready to explore the city further.
Final Thoughts
After less than a day, we already knew that Lyon was our kind of city. In an odd way, it quite reminded us of our home city, Philadelphia. Both cities live under the shadow of other cities (Paris and New York).
Both are underrated cities, with much to offer culturally, culinarily and historically. Without doubt, Lyon is definitely our kind of city.
🇫🇷 Lyon Travel Checklist
those macaroons looks so amazing!
They were so delicious. We tried several including salted caramel and foie gras. We never had savory macaroons before.
Man that sounds incredible. Earlier this year I tried foie gras chocolate at an artisan chocolate shop in Dallas, Texas. It was truly amazing. i can only imagine how those macaroons tasted. Mmm!
Um, yum! I have a feeling nothing I eat tonight is going to satisfy me after looking at these pictures!
Us too!
How delicious every thing looks.Hope you are high and dry from ‘Sandy’.
Very nice post! And I love the colors of the desserts 🙂
Thank you! We brought a small cake home to a pastry chef friend, and she was impressed by both the colors and the flavors. They really know how to bake in Lyon.
I’m so so glad you liked Lyon! I’m in the city now, until December, and it’s starting to feel like home!
We had one of the best meals we have ever eaten in Lyon, in an unassuming restaurant. The food markets in the square were fabulous too.
My mouth is watering at all those treat!
Lyon is LOVE. Dying to go back!