Biking Around Lyon – AND, the weather this year!!

David has owned an electric-assist bicycle in Lyon for two years.  When we are not here, it lives with Estelle and Laurent – our French daughter and son-in-law.   A side benefit is that Laurent also returned a detailed bike to David!  In return, we brought Laurent a number of bicycle items from the bike shop in downtown Kirkland, items such as a biking jersey, bike gloves and sox, and a Kirkland water bottle.

While being physically active, David does no biking at home in the US.  To get all the bicycle muscles up to speed in preparation for the annual week-long bike trip in France, David rides 30-40km per day three or so times per week in Lyon.  Sometimes he rides with our friend Roger, sometimes alone, and sometimes with a group coordinated by Roger that takes day trips of various length and challenge in the areas around Lyon. 

Beautiful Day from our Apartment

Rainy Day 

Looking Down from our Apartment - Wet Pavement

One problem this year is that the weather has been extremely variable, with many days of rain, cold, or both.  David is not into biking in the rain, so he has had to take advantage of the nice days.  Yesterday was nice, today is rainy…  So, David contacted Roger the other day, suggesting that we ride around a large park in Lyon and then ride out to Meyzieu, a town about 15km away and then have lunch at a restaurant that David had found on line.  We met at Roger’s place at about 9:30AM and headed for Parilly, the large park that has a few hills and a number of paved paths winding through it. 

Overlooking Lyon from a Hill in Parilly

After about 2-1/2 circuits of the park we headed off in what David thought was the correct direction, only to find it blocked by construction projects.  David changed directions and continued to head in what he thought was the correct direction overall, leading us both seriously astray!  Suffice it to say that this did not end well – after an hour of floundering around in which we found ourselves farther away from Meyzieu than when we started, Roger saved the situation by getting out his phone and looking at where we were via GPS.  The decision was then made to head back to the square near where Roger and Dominque live and where there are several restaurants.  In the course of our trip, we again found ourselves at Parilly, passing a small bistrot.  David suggested we try that, which we did, and had a nice meal and a new experience.

Last week, Ascension Day [May 9] was a Thursday, which followed V-E Day [May 8] Wednesday, resulting in what the French call a ‘pont’, where a holiday or two is followed by one day before the weekend, thereby creating a ‘bridge’, or the perfect excuse to take another day off, thereby creating a very short workweek and very long weekend. Roger assembled the around-Lyon bike group for a ride of about 40km around the very large park area called Mirabel.  The plan was afterwards to go to a restaurant at a flea market area.  However, that restaurant turned out not to be open that day.  So, we shifted plans to another restaurant on the outskirts of Mirabel, that many of us had been to before. 

The bike ride was along a set of scenic paths that has the advantage of being car-free.  On the downside, while it did not rain, it was COLD and the wind blew, resulting in many of us becoming very chilled.  We did make it to restaurant, and enjoyed a fun get-together which included the appearance of a bit of sun.

Hearing about the Menu from the Chef