LE GOÛTER: Lyon

Bastille Day!

Hi everyone. We just spent the last 6 days in Lyon, France. For those of you who don't know, Lyon is the food mecca of France so we were very excited to make the pilgrimage there. It did not disappoint! Unfortunately the weather was quite harsh during our visit. There were a couple of days that broke 100 degrees. Also the mosquitoes heard we were in town and decided to snack on us. Ben and Max got the worst of it each getting numerous bites. Ben also was knocked off his feet with a bit of a stomach bug, but is back in action now.
The city of Lyon was beautiful, the people were very friendly and excellent food! We celebrated Bastille Day, did a walking tour from the basilica down to the renaissance part of town, and basically tried to stay cool! One day we dined in a traditional bouchon-a casual style restaurant that serves very hardy food. Traditionally they started as a need to feed the silk workers of Lyon. Some of them are over 100 years old and they have to get approval from the government to be called an authentic bouchon. We had a great lunch at one where Don dined on lamb sweetbreads, Ben and I had pig cheeks, and Max chose the famous chicken from Bressè with a morel cream sauce on top. It was not a lite lunch! We also dined at a couple of Paul Boucuse cafes since we can't afford his flagship restaurant, and had some excellent razor clams at a tapas bar. I think we all definitely got our fill of escargot, bone marrow and foie gras. I better double up on my lipator. We are now off to Provence to rest from our vacation. I'm really looking forward to staying at a hotel with AC and no mosquitoes for the next few days!