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.

Cappuccinos & Lattes…

Today was really crappy weather...since last night it had been raining and it persisted through the morning. I got up just after 8 and since Andrea had to leave at 10 to catch her bus I made us both bacon and eggs. Strangely enough I haven’t seen streaky bacon or back bacon here; they only have lardons which they sell in the supermarket. So it was that and some scrambled egg which is very un-French but I still can’t really have bread or pastries for breakfast. It just makes me feel so sluggish.

Had my protein shake, 2 cereal bars and a little chocolate dessert after that and then we just chatted while Andrea did the dishes and then prepared to leave. Even though she left around 10 she still ended up missing her train as had been her bad luck on her trip so far...she told me that she had almost missed every single one of her trains by mere minutes. Ha-ha so at least she got some more time to chill and have a pastry and a croissant.

French people don’t seem to have cappuccinos or lattes from what I’ve seen. It’s usually an espresso or an Americano (allonge a francaise). I don’t know why this is; it’s just how they roll.

Around midday I decided to get off my ass and get out a bit. I had been planning to walk around a bit and look for a place to do some running or some callisthenics before I start to get a bit of a boep [beer belly] from doing sweet fanny all. I have to draw money every day from a specific ATM (to add it up and pay my rent) as I can’t do international transfers via my internet banking even though I have Fatima’s IBAN and BIC because TIA...while the world went there we were like “no its fine, we’ll get you there...just going to take a sho’t left”.  [a detour]And only 1 ATM I found can give me cash even though I can make payments with my card because I have no clue why. So I walked towards the ATM which is maybe 7min walk from my place. On the way I could smell some pork being cooked as I walked past the extraction unit of a bistro and then further down the road I smelled caramelised onions. Man it was soooo good. And the previous day I had smelled some sort of lamb stew or tagine...it’s so like food porn.

Ok so I got the cash and then walked back and picked up some groceries from “Casino”, there version of a woollies/spar. The other brands are Carrefour which is more like Pick and Pay (a national retail store in South Africa); and Monoprix which is more like a spar. Generally I’ve been having some sort of pasta dish for lunch as its cheap and filling and I can feed myself for about 3 days for the price of going out and having a burger... that way when I do go out I don’t break the bank.

Walking back past the market which had had almost finished by 1pm (here in France they don’t say 1pm, but 13:00. They work with a 24hour clock only, not a 12 hour one) I saw that the produce vendors who had some spoiled stock would just leave it in a crate in the square. I have no idea who clears it up if at all.

My brother gets here tomorrow so then we can walk around a bit. If I do it on my own I’m just going to mission and not take time to appreciate everything.