Everyday Grandeur In Lyon

Lyon is the third largest city in France and one of its culinary capitals. It has a plethora of ornate buildings and several massive fountains. There’s a world class art museum and cathedral too. During our 4 weeks we also explored many pedestrian streets, old ruins, an awesome urban park, and plenty of vintage clothing stores. But most of our activity consisted of simply walking around gawking at the classic French architecture. That never got old.

Lyon is an ancient city that was settled over 2000 years ago at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. In the 2 millennia since, it has grown to a current population of just over 500,000 in the city proper, with a metro area 4 times that size. There are approximately 30 bridges traversing these rivers throughout the city, and we did our best to cross a bunch of them since they all have great views over the water.

Lyon is a very musical city. Public pianos are provided at the train station, malls, and even in some park gazebos. And they get used. It was common to see people sitting down to bang out a tune or two before going about their business. We were greeted upon arrival at the Lyon Part-Dieu train station by a couple dozen teenagers playing stringed instruments. We also caught a brass band performance next to the opera house and an evening keyboard concert in the main park. Even the subway pipes in music for patrons waiting on the platforms.

Lyon is probably most famous as a culinary capital, but if you’ve followed us here at Bonus Nachos for a while, then you know that dietary restrictions and love of cooking mean that we don’t really eat out. Because of that, I rarely post about food. Nonetheless, I will share below what we’ve been eating over the last couple of months as a consolation prize for skipping the prominent restaurant scene here.

Parc de la Tête d’Or

By far the largest park in Lyon is the Parc de la Tête d’Or, or the Golden Head Park. When we weren’t wandering down city blocks, we were exploring here. It was created at the same time as NYC’s Central Park, and at 117 hectares, it’s about a third of the size. That leaves plenty of room to house a zoo, botanical garden, multiple rose gardens, and even a velodrome. (Okay, we didn’t explore the velodrome, but I’m sure it would’ve been fun.) 

The name comes from a legend that existed before the park even existed. This area is next to the Rhône River and was formerly marshland. The rumor is that there was once a golden head from a Christ statue buried here. The reasoning behind that burial is a mystery though. If you ask me, it sounds like an excuse some guy made up to go drink booze in the swamp and avoid some chores. But that’s the story.

Getting around the park is done on multiple types of paths. The main ones are paved, wide, and are popular with joggers and kids riding bikes. The secondary ones branch off in all manner of patterns from the main routes and are a mix of dirt, crushed rock, or wood mulch. Much of the area is wooded and it’s quite easy to be next to 1000 people at one point and feel mostly isolated 5 minutes later.

Our favorite parts were the flowers and bird watching. Even in November there were plenty of patches of blooming buds. The rose gardens were less vibrant, but still nice. The large lake in the middle of the park is attractive to many water birds. We spotted a common kingfisher a couple of times, which is always a treat. We had no trouble finding large grey geese too. Much less aggressive than their Canadian relatives, they are actually fun to be around. The lake is also popular with moorhens, a close relative of the coot. The small island in the middle of the lake is a nighttime roosting spot for hundreds of egrets and cormorants. Once it starts to be dusk, they arrive in packs of a dozen or so from all over the area.

Starling Murmuration

Speaking of bird watching, our time in Lyon coincided with the arrival of massive flocks of starlings. On two different occasions we were able to catch them flow through the sky in a giant bird ball. Their silent bobbing and weaving is mesmerizing to watch. When they passed close enough, we could hear the flap of hundreds of small wings, but otherwise they were silent until they landed in the trees. Seeing a real life murmuration was really something. It’s not a short process either, taking at least an hour before they all picked a tree. My neck felt sore from the continual staring into the sky, like I’d just visited the giant sequoias. It’s quite the natural phenomenon. 

Fine Arts Museum

The one art museum that we enjoyed was tremendous. There were so many things to like about the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. First and foremost was the size and variety of the exhibits. We saw dozens of detailed marble statues, hundreds of amazing oil paintings, and scores of antiquities from Egyptians, Romans, and other ancient Mediterranean civilizations. 

We spent enough time there marveling at everything to leave the building exhausted. It really does take some effort to gaze at amazing art for several hours. It seemed like everything they have on exhibit is an excellent example of its genre. I think we still enjoyed the paintings the most, but it wasn’t a runaway like in most museums. 

It’s no secret that the French love their art and they do a great job of encouraging the next generation of artists. We like to visit art museums on the weekdays because we can. Over our first couple of months in France, we’ve seen multiple groups of school kids on museum field trips. Early exposure to art isn’t limited to just observing though. While visiting this art museum, we saw groups of young school kids with their sketch pads. They all sat in front of one piece and each of them worked on drawing their own version.

Basilica of Notre Dame

Lyon’s Notre Dame cathedral looms over the city from the highest perch on the tallest hill. Its elaborate interior barely has a centimeter that hasn’t been decorated in some way. The floor is covered in marble and mosaic. The walls have multiple intricate mosaics and windows with stained glass featuring religious scenes. And of course the ceilings are brilliant. It’s truly an architectural and artistic marvel. It’s not as big as the Paris cathedral of the same name, but it’s every bit as impressive.

Theatre Gallo Romain

Just down the street from the Notre Dame is a large and well-preserved Roman amphitheater. I can imagine this was a place to see and be seen for the upper class of yesterday. Its giant seating area looks out over the entire city below and must’ve been quite fancy at one point. It’s free to enter and explore, and surprisingly allows people (mostly kids) to climb all over everything.

What We Ate

We’ve been eating A LOT of cheese. Everyone knows about Brie and Camembert, but there are many other options as well. The French love their cheese as the perfect pairing with their plentiful bread and wine. We have been doing our best to try a bunch of different kinds, especially of the soft variety. We particularly enjoy Coulommiers, which has a similar penicillin rind to brie, but with a sharper and slightly funkier taste. That goes great on toast, especially with dates or pomegranate seeds. 

A couple of our other favorites have been the fancy Saint Albray and Chaource. They are both excellent soft cheese options, although at more of a splurge variety. Honestly, there aren’t many that we’ve tried that we haven’t liked. But it’s hard to go wrong with the old classics. We’ve even been buying in bulk. One day we found an entire one kilogram wheel of brie for $6. That was a fun 10 days. 

We’ve been eating a lot of bread too, especially baguettes. What is interesting to me is how much I can tell the difference in baguettes from one boulangerie to another. They are all a little different, having a firmer or softer crust, more chew, or just slightly different flavors, probably based on salt levels. I always thought of baguettes as a monolith, but after a couple of months I can confidently say that there is a lot of variety that I never knew existed. And the beauty of that is that they are almost all amazing and super cheap. I think the most we’ve paid is €1.4.

Feasting on plates of roasted Amandine potatoes is a current staple to our diet as well. This potato variety is relatively new, at least as far as potatoes go. It was first registered in 1995. The flavor and texture are both great as it’s very silky and delicious. They go great with our regular baguette sandwiches or the small 2 person sized chickens that are for sale.

Lastly, we’ve been taking advantage of the pre-made puff pastry that’s available everywhere. Being cheap and plentiful, we have been making a few savory tarts and also tried a pizza. So far our favorite stuffing has been chard and fennel with some melty Monk cheese (chaussée aux moines). We do limit ourselves on the pastry dough, since it’s definitely not the healthiest. We place no limits on regular bread and cheese though. That would be silly.

Where We Stayed

We rented a small one bedroom apartment near the top of the hill in the Croix Rousse neighborhood. This gave us nice views and a good bit of exercise having to walk up the hill upon our return home each day. We really liked the living space as it had tons of natural light and comfortable furniture. The kitchen lacked a bit of counter space, but it was also very well stocked and had just about everything we needed. The bedroom was quite tiny, but at least the bed was fine. In general, we were happy with our choice.

What We Spent

Overall our spending in Lyon was pretty much in line with Grenoble, despite being a bigger city. Our Airbnb apartment came in a little on the high side at $1918, but our activities were all pretty cheap. Even with all of the cheese we consumed, our grocery bill was very much in the normal range at $508. The total amount we spent in Lyon came to $2799. Adding in our monthly bills for the visa, insurance, and other things brings the grand total for our 4 weeks to $3015.

Everything feels fancy in Lyon. The classical French architecture was always a treat, and there was no shortage of buildings with detailed facades. We appreciated the giant park with the large flower gardens and enough natural space to allow for bird habitat. The Fine Arts Museum was outstanding, although I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more art for us to enjoy. I guess most of that creativity gets channeled into the culinary arts instead. We did our best to create our own in that regard. Overall, it was a pleasant place to spend a month.