LYON

PRE-FLIGHT

Hello everyone. This time we will fly to the second largest metropolitan area in France, Lyon. Lyon is a well established city with a lot of options. It is the capital of the Rhone-Alpes Region. Lyon is well known for two things. These are the famous light festival; Fete de Lumiere and Auguste and Louis Lumiere who invented the cinematographe in Lyon. Lyon has a decent airport, Lyon-St. Exupéry Airport aka Aéroports de Lyon. There are also flights to St. Etienne Airport though this one is pretty far from the city so you might want to prefer the first one.  

POST-FLIGHT

After our landing we quickly left the plane. The weather was fine and they did not make us wait in the plane .The airport was pretty good and it was very clean. It was almost noon when we landed so the place was not very crowded. The passport control was easy and bearable compared to other cities in Europe like Amsterdam. There were 2 main lines. As usual one for EU passport holders and one for the others. It did not take more than 10 minutes to get in and once again compared to other European cities the people who controlled the passports were rather friendly. 

After collecting the luggages you might want to eat something since there are pretty great cafés even in the airport or you might want to head directly to the city. Transportation from St. Exupéry to Lyon is a piece of cake. You follow the ''Rhonexpress'' signs and take the tram to the city. It takes only 3 stations to arrive and the terminal destination (terminus) is called Part Dieu.  The official site for this tram is www.rhonexpress.fr. Following the signs in the airport you will see two escalators. They will take you downwards to huge and I mean really huge black ticket machines for the tram. If you can not figure the machines out then you can buy tickets from the train personnel who will ask for your ticket after the train departs. The machines on the other hand are pretty simple. They have various language options such as French, English, Spanish, German... The problematic thing about these machines are that they do not easily accept your cash. The euros we had were in good shape still the machine gave us a hard time accepting them. If you are short on time or do not want to deal with these messy robotics anymore you might want to buy your tickets from the train personnel. You can check all the fares (tarifs) from the official website but note that a round trip costs less than a one way trip and the return ticket of the round trip can be used in a decent amount of time (around 7 days, you can ask for the specific information inside the train). The three stops of this tram are not long and it takes roughly 30 minutes to arrive Part-Dieu (and vice versa).  From Part Dieu, you can take a bus just like we did to your destination. It costs 2 euros per adult and the ticket can be bought inside of the bus.

SIGHTSEEING

Lyon is a beautiful French city and looks a lot like a less crowded more organised and smaller Paris. The rivers are incredible. All kinds of birds flying in the sky. Fountains and statues on every corner. Huge squares like Place Bellecour and Place des Terreaux. Sound of accordeon in the streets. People transporting on foot or on bicycles everywhere. It's almost too French! It feels amazing to be in such an atmosphere. For those of you who enjoy the rain, fall is the season to go. During our time in Lyon, the rain was relentless. It rained, rained and it rained again. The weather was chilly but it was OK. As usual, the shops close early and you will most definitely need reservations for restaurants if you are not planning to have a dinner at McDo's. There are a couple of McDonald's around the city and they are life savers for some lunch times. But I strongly encourage you to try new things on every corner because you will most likely enjoy the new experiences in French Cuisine (which is also our next topic).

CUISINE

French cuisine is always interesting to try. Sometimes you might hesitate since the look or the smell might not be very welcoming at first. Yet if you take a leap and actually try the food you might find yourself ordering the same thing the next evening. The first specialité I will suggest is once again the famous escargots. I will admit it, it's not for everyone. Dragging the snail from its shell with a fork is not necessarily appealing but the sauce they use is pretty good and it's definitely worth a try since it's not that expensive and I promise you it's not worse than you imagine. The next dish is a fish called Rouget. It is served with mashed potato. Another seafood to enjoy is moule, clams. They are really really tiny but they come in a big pot so don't worry, there is enough for everyone!

  

If you are not a big fan of seafood or say, snails, but you love to feed your inner caveman, then Lyon still has a lot to offer you. This dish, is the specialty for meat lovers. It consists of 2 pieces of medium rare alongside a hallmark of French Cuisine, Tartare de Boeuf. Tartare de Boeuf is basically raw meat with raw onions and raw eggs. I know it sounds raw-ful but it actually tastes raw-some. Sorry..erhm..Moving on to the last specialty. Made with a pretty expensive French cheese called Reblochon, this dish is Tartiflette. It is made with this specific cheese, potato, onions and bacon. It does not have a crazy detail like the other ones but it's an enjoyable one and the cheese is really something. It's part crunchy part melted. Its taste is also pretty unique. Also I would like to mention a restaurant called EDO right next to the Place des Terreaux. This Japanese cuisine restaurant is perfect for the fans of Asian food. You can enjoy the duck, the beef sauced cheese, the sweet soy sauce and especially the exquisite sushi. 

ATTRACTIONS

There is no doubt that Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere is the main attraction in all Lyon. You can see it from pretty much everywhere and it looks so magnificent doesn't matter where you look from. It's like a fairy tale castle on the outside, and on the inside it's a spiritual journey. The pillars in the Church are amazing.I really enjoyed the various artifacts inside. Also there is an excellent view of the whole city.

Lyon's symbol is Lion, obviously. So you can take a picture in front of the ONLY LYON (with a red lion). It's located at the end of the Place Bellecour, right beneath an artistic clock tower. Also there you can find the Tourist Information Center and inside there are Lyon branded souvenirs. Just so you know (if you are obssessed with collections as I am).

So I can almost hear the voices. If this is a European city, there must be an old town right? Yes, there is and it's a pretty good one, too. There is a James Joyce Irish Pub, a Medieval Shop, a miniature and Movie costumes Museum and more. It's pretty easy to walk to the old town and you can spend a whole evening there. If you are looking for a crazier night with bars and loud music and of course dancing, you should probably get to Place des Terreaux. All the bars and clubs are located in one place and they are accompanied by many fast food restaurants and buffets such as Turkish food and Indian food. There is also an option for those who'd want to carry their night adventure to the next level. Ayers Rock Lyon has a bateau (a ship) that sails during the night event. You can enjoy the party on a river or in the club, old school. For those of you who would prefer to go to goodnights sleep after a magical opera, the Opera House in Lyon is also available and ready to perform for you. 

GOODBYE

To be honest, Lyon may not have as many tourist attractions as Paris or Barcelona but still it has a lot to offer. I really enjoyed my time in Lyon and I hope you guys enjoy it as well as I did. 

Until next time...

PS. Yes, there is 30 mins of free Wi-Fi at the airport :)