Lunch in the Sun on the Banks of the Rhône

Our plan for last Friday was to enjoy walking around Lyon in the sun and, perhaps, wandering around Croix Rousse for a while.   But, as we approached the river, we noticed the lovely weather we’ve been having seemed to have encouraged one of the barge restaurants to open early. It didn’t take us long to decide that “sometime” was now, and that lunch at a barge restaurant sounded like much more fun than our other plans.


Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea. The place was packed, and there were lines of people waiting for tables! We got in line and settled in for a wait and some people watching in the lovely, warm sunshine. The restaurant was clearly understaffed - not surprising considering the unseasonable rush.  But, we were in no hurry. Quite some time later, a harried, but pleasant, waiter indicated a table was ready for us. We had another long wait before he took our order and yet another long wait before our food finally arrived. But, the sun was out, the river was sparkling, and we could watch people as they rode bikes or just strolled along the river. We were enjoying ourselves too much to be in a hurry!


When it did arrive, our food was fresh and well-presented. We took our time as we ate and talked. And, we agreed the overall experience was delightful. Definitely much more fun than our original plans! Here are pictures I took of the restaurant and of David at our table while we waited to place our order. As you can see, it was a lovely day!

 

A Lovely Drive through the Countryside in Bourgogne

Dominique, Roger, and we have been talking about going wine tasting in the area around Mâcon for quite some time. But, getting the four of us together for a full day with pleasant weather has proved difficult. Finally, last Wednesday we pulled it together.



David was to do some research on wineries and wine areas, Roger was our chauffeur, and Dominique did research on restaurant possibilities in the area. (I got to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of their labors!) The original plan was to go to one winery in the morning, have a leisurely lunch, and visit one winery in the afternoon. After a bit of unplanned sightseeing, we settled on lunch and one winery in the afternoon.


But, let’s have David give some background on the wines and area before I continue with the narrative:
The southern part of Bourgogne is an area that produces both red and white wines.  Because we had both red and white wine preferences in our little group, I looked for wineries that produced both.  Because we got a bit of a late start, and as Anna mentioned, we did a bit of unplanned sight seeing as I attempted to figure out French country roads before we got out the GPS, we wound up in a different town from the one originally planned.  However, since the town we stopped in was Fuissé, one of the most famous white-wine producing towns in France, we decided to do our tasting there.  The area is famous for Chardonnay-based whites produced from a number of AOC areas as described below.  While I tend not to be a fan of Chardonnay, the examples we tasted were indeed remarkable, from several of the near-by appelations.  They revealed a variety of styles, from minerally to more fruit based-flavors.  Needless to say we came away with several bottles for our 'cellar' in the apartment.



Finding a place to have lunch turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We searched in vain through one small village for a restaurant. There were some, but an early-spring Wesnesday was not a day normally given to tourists, so they were not open.  Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to continue our search through the countryside. We drove past a chateau that has been converted to hotel and restaurant just outside Crèches sur Saône assuming it must be very expensive. But, Dominique found it on her list of reasonably priced, well-rated restaurants, and we decided to give it a try.

Château de la Barge turned out to be a great choice for lunch!  We had a pleasant table in the lovely, formal dining room.  And, we were all very happy with choices from the specials for the day on the “formula” menu (i.e. entrée + plat + dessert or entrée/plat + dessert).  The food and service were excellent!  Our lunches came with two delicious “amuse-bouches”; the one before the plat was mushroom purée with some sort of a cheese topping.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am NOT a mushroom fan, but I’ll happily eat this dish anytime!  I’m sorry I can’t remember what the one before dessert was, but I do know it was amazing.  After lunch we moved outside for coffee.

Then it was back into the car in search of a winery. We didn’t have to look far – Bourgogne is simply littered with them. We decided to back track to Fuissé and settled on Domaine Thibert, a winery with several AOC appellations, including Pouilly-Fuissé , Pouilly-Vizelles, Saint-Véran, and Mâcon-Fuissé. The Thibert family has been owners for a mere seven generations. Christophe and Sandrine Thibert, brother and sister, are the current owners; Sandrine was our hostess as we tasted several of their wines.



Here’s how the winery looks from the street:

And, here is the interior courtyard (the tasting room is in the door just to the right of the stairs):

And, here is a view of the countryside from the courtyard (note the beautiful, blue sky):

After we made our purchases, we bid fond fairwell to lovely sourthern Bourgogne.  At least a temporary fairwell – it’s just a short drive from Lyon, afterall.

A Small, Light French Lunch

We should know better by now, but we seem to be slow learners.



We have lunch with Estelle (our French daughter) every week to two weeks. However, but we hadn’t seen “her men” (Laurent and the boys, Paul and Victor) in quite some time, and David was anxious to practice his French with them. It was time to get together again. So, over lunch with Estelle, we worked out the logistics for lunch at their house on Sunday – what time, who brings what, etc. Our original plan was to bring everything and fix lunch there, but Estelle vetoed that idea. Instead, she said we would just have a small, light French lunch. We were to bring wine, bread, cheese, and dessert. So far so good.


The weather was absolutely beautiful, and our bus ride and short walk to their house was quite pleasant. Their yard was showing off its spring colors, and the French Windows were wide open. Really a lovely day to spend with some of our favorite people! And, we all had a great time. BUT, we did NOT have a small, light lunch. True to form, Estelle had prepared a delicious, multi-course meal –she even surprised us with an appetizer we had asked her about after seeing it on a menu. Over the next few hours, we all ate until we could eat no more. In fact Estelle sent us home with some of her white and dark chocolate mousse since we just couldn’t fit in another morsel.


Caught mid-chew after several courses and a few bottles of wine.


After lunch we had a leisurely coffee in the yard.  That’s when what we called “the floor show” started. I’ll spare you the details but it included a supersoaker (large squirt gun), David and the boys running around, and a very tangled roll of extension cord. Laurent and I watched with amusement as Paul, and then Estelle, and then also David struggled with the tangle. (How many people does it take to untangle a roll of wire that one person was so successful in tangling?) Suffice it to say everything was back in good order when we went back inside the house.

Took one to tangle but three to untangle!

When it was time to head to the bus stop, Paul and Victor wanted to show us their prowess on their razor scooters at the park along the way.  The park had all the ramps and so forth that skate board parks have in the US – but nobody was on a skate board. There was one person on roller blades and a few folks on the side on a unicycle, but everyone else was on a scooter. It was quite impressive to watch all the tricks and moves they were doing on their scooters! In fact one group was trying to capture one guy’s performance on video. Paul and Victor are quite accomplished and gave us a great demonstration performance! From there things progressed to the usual game of “you can’t catch me!” with David, and all three of them got a good workout!


At last it was time for us to catch our bus and waddle home and for the boys to hit the books and finish the homework they had been trying to forget. Another delightful day at Chez Neveu.

Tenth Annual Fashion Show at Part Dieu Shopping Center

Time for another fashion update!



We’ve mentioned that we live a couple of blocks away from one of the largest shopping centers in France. This place has every kind of store imaginable: Carrefour (think Fred Meyer Store on steroids), FNAC (a large electronics store), Decathalon (a giant store devoted to outdoor activities that sells everything from skis and bikes to many, many different kinds of gloves and socks – all at very reasonable prices), Decitre (a store that’s primarily devoted to books, but has other stuff, too), a movie theater, some great toy stores, restaurants, and, of course, a myriad of clothing and shoe stores. (I’m sure I’m leaving out something, but you get the idea.)


Apparently, every Spring for the last ten years, La Part Dieu has hosted a three-day fashion show. There are actually two different shows each day: the first features local fashion designers, and the second features several stores in the shopping center.  Here's what the venue looks like.  We watched from the second level.

We didn’t make it to the first show, but there has been a ton of publicity about it. I’ll share some of that with you here:

1. Les poupées, une ligne de vêtements alternative aux tendances d’aujourd’hui : colorées et décalées ! (alternative styles, colors, and designs to what we are used to today)

2. Alexander Shabanov, tout droit venu de Russie pour présenter des créations structurées et modernes à base de matériaux originaux tels que le plastique ou le verre (actually a Russian designer who likes to create ultra-modern styles and incorporate different materials – like plastic and vinyl- in his clothing. You won’t see much of his stuff on the street!)


3. Rose Carbone, des robes aux tons girly, rock et rétro (a line of casual wear, nighties, etc. that are light and “girly” with some retro and rock elements thrown in for good measure – note the retro flavor of the picture)


4. Les Tentativas, une collection de prêt-à-porter féminin chic et très élégante (a ready-to-wear line that runs the gamut from feminine and sensual to chic and elegant)


5. Les Gribouilleuses, des beaux basiques aux détails fleuris, des coupes tendances et des tissus de qualité 100 % français (I actually like this line ! Lovely, basic cuts/designs and quality materials)


6. Bonchicbonchien, une collection originale pour une mode canine hype !( yes that’s designer fashion for dogs)

The second show featured a variety of stores in the center: Tommy Hilfiger(this store's selection was pretty boring – nothing new or impressive), Gap (sound familiar so far?), Cyrillus, MonoPrix, Desigual, Mango, Lafayette, and Createurs. The outfits were shown store-by-store so each store could show their representative spring clothing at the same time. In spite of the wide range of clothing stores, there were some consistencies:



• Scarves! In every design possible, worn in many different ways (around the neck), and with a wide range of clothing styles.


• Short Shorts. Again, in a variety of styles and fabrics – everything from worn denim to tailored suits. Sometimes worn with tights, sometimes without.


• Platform shoes. Both flats and heels and lots of sandals. Again, both casual and formal styles.


• Skirt length – two choices: short (definitely above the knee) or just above the ankle. Not much in between.


• Pants – the “capri” length seems to be gone. The pants we saw were ankle-length and either tight or quite baggy. Again, not much in between.


• As far as fabrics and designs…what I am calling the “patchwork” patterns were well represented, lots of bright colors, and lots of fabrics covered with small flowers (I’m sure there’s a name for this – I just can’t think of it.)

So there you have it - Spring fashion in Lyon!

Another Glimpse at those Enterprising Romans

So here’s the problem…you are Romans in the 1st century BC, and you have a growing community of thirsty people in Lugdunum (Lyon) your capital in Gaul. Fortunately, you have a great source of water, but it’s the Gier River on the slopes of Mont Pilat about 42 km (~26 miles) southwest of Lugdunum. And, to complicate matters, the terrain between the source and the destination is anything BUT level or even – in fact it’s full of hills, valleys and a small mountain or two. What’s an enterprising Roman engineer to do? How about building one of the longest known Roman aqueducts (85 km or ~53 miles long)?



The Gier Aqueduct includes 73 km of covered ditches laid with a concrete culvert 3m high and 1.5m wide, which is sunk as deep as 4m beneath the land surface. The aqueduct also passes through 11 tunnels, one of which is 825m long. Then, of course, you will need to include manholes to provide access for cleaning and repairs every 77m or so. And, the design requires 10 stretches above ground with raised walls and arches. The design also includes four “inverted siphons” which caused the water flowing through the system to become pressurized flow reliably through hill and vale. (If you are interested in more info on this system, let us know, and we’ll send it to you. I’m afraid it would put some of our readers to sleep.) Oh, one other complication… you will need to complete the whole thing before it can be used.


The resulting aqueduct remains to subject of scholarly papers and a source of wonder to tourists like us. Here are some pictures we took during three day trips to different parts of the visible aqueduct.

This section is at Plat de l'Air just outside of the village of Chaponost.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here's David standing by a section to give you an idea of scale.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here a section of the aqueduct provides a wall for a house on Fourvière Hill in Lyon.

This section is a short bus ride away from downtown Lyon.  Not sure if you can tell or not, but this is in a residential/commercial area and includes a rather busy street that divides two large sections of arches.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here's one family's solution for parking their car next to their home (which happens to be right next to a section of arches).  Note the bits of aqueduct caught in the fencing material above the car.

The Last Weekend, or Anna and David enjoy (almost) too much of a good thing:

We barely survive an excellent weekend in which we ate and drank French cuisine and wine for three consecutive days. It wasn’t planned that way; it was just one of the serendipitous confluences of happy events.



Too begin, you may recall a recent blog where we were guests at a reception for new residents of Lyon at the City Hall [see blog Reception….2/18/11]. While there we met a Frenchman, Pierre, who has returned with his family to France after working for many years as a pediatrician in Guyana in South America. While talking to him he mentioned that he had been well received on visits to the US. He also said he would like to return the favor by inviting us for a social event at his place. A day or two later we received a formally worded email inviting us to a dinner with other friends at his apartment near us. He and his wife, Michelle, speak some English,and Gilles, one of the other guests, who had spent his career working in Europe for an American company, spoke English well, and so helped to bridge the gap.


The table was beautiful – formally set, and after hors d’oeuvres and drinks, was the repository of an amazing meal. Many courses, with wines for each, including coquille St Jacques on scallop shells, and pot au feu made with a foie gras base. Everyone made allowances and assisted les Americains in French conversation with great conviviality. It was altogether a marvelous evening.


Saturday night, Anna and David decided to have dinner at a well-regarded restaurant nearby, Le Bistrot du Palais. (The family of Chefs have been cooking in Lyon for more than 100 years.)  Again, excellent food and wine, though not on a scale as lavish as Friday’s. For Anna, it was a leg of lamb in a white bean sauce, with David enjoying chicken in a morel sauce. Here are some pix of the restaurant to give you an idea of the setting.

 Sunday, we assumed would be a day of little or no activity after two days of strenuous eating and drinking. But, again, fate took a hand in ensuring that we would have yet another memorable experience. Shortly after a late and leisurely breakfast, the phone rang. It was our French landlords, Roger and Dominique, saying that they were preparing a lamb roast, and would we care to join them for lunch? [Tough job, but someone has to do it, n’est-ce pas?] Several more hours of eating wonderful food and drinking good wine followed.


Vraiment, le week-end merveilleux!!