Just chillin’

Today Nic and I were chilling ‘coz I was still sore from walking all the distance yesterday as I was wearing my red pumas which are flat and don’t offer much support for the ball or the heel of the foot.

Feel the pain!

We went out and walked through the market in Croix Rousse which was PUMPING today...so many old people too, being well, old. So that meant standing in the way, talking...with their basket taking up space too. The walkway is maybe about 2m wide between the stalls on both sides but people just bring their prams and baskets and the mother in law too and take up so much space. No one else seemed annoyed by this so I guess it’s just the way it is here.

This time I saw someone selling dried herds in big hessian bags which was something new for me. There were also a few more stalls and the smells were amazing as always and when we got to the end there was someone doing the rotisserie chickens but they were also doing some sort of curry or something and I just saw chickens cooking in a paella pan with peppers and chillies stuck up their asses. Seeing the potatoes cooking in all that lovely chicken fat made my mouth water...soon my preciouses....soon.

We bought some stuff at the store ('coz I’m a lazy ass) and some washing detergent. We came home and I put on some washing and we just chilled and watched movies and stand-up comedy all day and then later I cooked steaks for dinner and we had them with some salads that we bought earlier at the shop. Reminded me of the salads that one can get at Raith Gourmet.

Tonight an Italian guy, Marco is staying here in Fatiha's room.

Tourists for a day…

Today we had planned to do some walking around and seeing the city. Nic made some bacon and eggs and I had my protein shake and a cereal bar for breakfast. We then headed out just after 9 am. We walked from Croix Rousse to Vieux Lyon, passing through the market that I visited with the American students.

Once in Vieux Lyon we went to the museum of film and miniatures which was really cool, seeing props/costumes that were used in various movies and miniature sets, most of which contained an insane amount of detail, even at 1/12^th  of the scale. Some sets even had individually hand painted mini plates or frescoes or blown glass bottles or serviettes. The museum itself was housed in one of old buildings in Vieux Lyon so it was spread across 3 levels and various rooms. They also had some scenes from the movie “Perfume” and one amazing fact is that for the movie 13000 bottles were blown in total by one small polish bottle making company.

We then ambled around, looking at the different shops, stopping in one to buy some artisan jam (similar sort of award as MOF but for the jams) and some terrines. We stopped in a chocolaterie which had a really cool display of flavoured syrups (not sure if any were alcoholic) on a mirror on the floor to resemble a bowling alley so the whole thing had a really cool effect.

We bought some sorbet, I had orange sanguine (blood orange) which was flippen sick! Just as good as the pink grapefruit one I had before, and  Nic had the white peach which was nice but was quite sweet so left your mouth feeling quite heavy still whereas mine was almost like a sherbet doing a nice job of refreshing my palate.

For lunch we stopped at a bagel place and I had one with just some Philly cream cheese and some NACHOS with cheese sauce. Nic had one with Parma ham, goat’s cheese and honey (jambon cru, chevre et miel) and some coleslaw. The place seemed very American inspired, targeting maybe a younger market and reminded me a lot of the vibe of Clarkes in Brea Street, Cape Town. They also had some Duffy beer there (beer from the Simpsons) but I didn’t try it.

We then made our way back and by this time the streets were now thronging with people...it seems town only gets busy from around 11am or so.

The rest of the day was spent inside. For dinner I made pasta with marguese, bolognaise sauce and brie. And a gin and tonic of course.

Brother from Berlin…

Today was pretty average, I didn’t do much most of the morning and then around 10am I started walking from Croix Rousse to Bellecour which is really quick walk taking maybe about 15 min. Even though Croix Rousse is on a hill, there are some stairs that lead all the way down so it’s very easy to find your way to the city centre.

Just horsin' around...

I met Nicholas at the metro station in hotel de Ville and we walked back to Croix Rousse, stopping close to home to get some things for lunch (pizza) and some stuff for breakfast. Here I haven’t seen any sliced streaky bacon or back bacon anywhere, only stuff like whole pancetta or coppa. The closest thing you find is bacon lardons in the supermarkets which tastes like streaky bacon but obviously just in another shape. Some eggs, milk for my protein shake and some tonic for the gin (lekker papa!!!!) (Just what the doctor ordered!!!!)

A short while after we got home Fatiha gave me a call...she needed help carrying some canvases. She hadn’t thought about how she was going to carry them home from the bus stop so I had to help her...she’s a very cool person and a bit absent minded or “Loskop” as we say but she makes staying here interesting. She has a good sense of humour and a good spirit.

We just chilled for most of the day and watched some stand up comedy and then later we went out to eat at a local brasserie called “brasserie de l’ecole”. Nice little place, very accessible and varied menu. I had a perrache to drink which is like a radler (beer and lemonade) and Nicholas had un carafe d’eau (tap water ha-ha). As with most places you can order a la carte or you can have an entree+ main/salad or main/salad + dessert/cheese for much cheaper than the individual prices; which means it’s cheaper to have at least a 2 course meal.

I had a small Lyonnais salad which is a leaf salad with some tomato, croutons, bacon lardons and a poached egg. I had seen this a few times walking around and it looked pretty good and it tasted good too. I mean, a poached egg and bacon...all that was missing was the hollandaise sauce!! For main, we both had the confit carnard traditional which was a confit duck leg, pomme dauphinoise (slices of potato cooked in cream, cream and more cream), green beans cooked with some garlic and a roast tomato. It looked like less before I started but I just about managed to finish it...man it was so good. Just what I needed. Nic then had a crème brulee for dessert which was delicious, very light and not as heavy as they usually are with a thin crisp crust of caramelise sugar.

Our bill came to 33.5Euros with our food being 15.50 each and my perrache 2.5. We then headed back and walked to a viewing point about 2 min walk form the brasserie where you could see most of Lyon. As we got back it started to rain so we made it just in time. We just did our own thing for the rest of the day.