I can’t believe we made it through another week; they are just flying by! Luckily, we entered this one slightly more rested than usual, as it was the first time we all slept in our beds the whole week since September 27th! It is really nice getting out and exploring, but it’s also nice to take a break. The week did end up being a ‘Long Weekend Across Europe’ though because we split up and were in three different destinations; Germany, France, and Austria.
The week started pretty monotonous. No school was on Monday, but there was a flu shot drive on base. The schools here require the shot, so the kids and I ran up there for what we thought would be a quick process. However, we waited in line for over two hours only to discover that my file had been deleted from the registration system! I had to have been in the system at one point since the kids were loaded, so who knows what happened? At least the kids were able to get their shots, so it wasn’t a total loss.
The rest of the week passed extremely quickly, and dare I say it, it was pretty dull, which was nice.
On Friday after school, we said goodbye to Ryan, who was going on a ski trip with his ski club to Sölden, Austria. It seems like it’s early for skiing, but Sölden is a glacier, so they have had snow for about a month already. He was super excited because he was appointed as one of the trip captains for this trip and took his loading-up duties really seriously. He pretty much told us we needed to get out of there as soon as we dropped him off 😂.
Next to say goodbye was Brooklyn, who was going to a concert with her friend. They were leaving Saturday morning, but she spent the night with her friend Friday.
We had already dropped the dogs at the kennel, and with both kids occupied for the weekend, Matt and I set off on our road trip to Lyon, France. We chose Lyon because we wanted to keep our car with us over the weekend in case the kids needed anything. And, it is one of the last major destinations within driving distance that we wanted to see. We left right as rush hour was beginning around 4 pm. Once we were across the French border, we started getting hungry for dinner, so we stopped in Mulhouse for dinner at Pitaya. Eating there without Ryan felt so wrong, as it’s his favorite, but it was so good!
The total journey took almost seven hours, and we arrived around 11 p.m. We checked into the hotel and went straight to bed. We slept in a little on Saturday before heading out to explore the city.
Lyon is the third largest city in France and is located in the east, near Geneva, at the confluence of the Rhone and Saône Rivers. At one point, it was the capital of the Roman empire in Gaul and eventually the capital of the French resistance during World War II. It became famous during the Industrial Revolution for the fine silk it produced and is now renowned for being the gastronomical capital of France.
Our hotel was a bit far from the city center, so we rented scooters and rode along the Rhône River into town. One thing we immediately noticed was how many people were out running. So many, it was hard to get through the crowds at some points. Lyon is a really fit city and maybe its just because they love eating so much, they have to get the extra cardio in.
Our first destination was Place Bellacour, a huge plaza in the middle of the city center.
From there, we walked over to the Saône River and up its riverfront where there was a farmer’s market at Marche Saint Antoine. The market went on forever and was super busy with many Lyonnaise stocking up on fresh fruit and vegetables.
We had to laugh because it seemed like everyone had purchased a stalk of leeks and walked around with them sticking out of their backpacks. If you want to look like a local, you just need to do the same!
Then we crossed the river into Vieux Lyon, the old town. While a lot of Lyon looked similar to Paris, this part was definitely different because Paris doesn’t have an old town. When Napoleon was fulfilling his vision of Paris, he demolished all the old parts in favor of his grand Hausmann-style architecture. Vieux Lyon probably looks a lot like what Paris looked like in medieval times. We walked around and admired the old buildings and arcades for a little before it was time to hike up to the Fourvière district.
To get to the Fourvière District, we had to climb a steep staircase of about 300 steps in the middle of the city. Once we reached the top of the steps, we continued our journey by hiking a steep and winding path. By the time we reached the top, it was getting pretty warm, and we were both sweating.
At the top of the path was a panoramic terrace with views across the city. On a clear day, you supposedly can see all the way to the Alps. Unfortunately, it was a very hazy, foggy day, so we couldn’t see very far, and what we could see wasn’t very clear. It was still a nice day and a beautiful spot, so we stopped for coffee before continuing our walk.
We saw the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière and then walked over to the ancient Roman ruins and amphitheater. Lyon was once the capital of Roman Gaul and has extensive Roman ruins that can be explored for free. I imagine on a clear day you would also be treated to amazing views.
We were getting hungry, so it was time to hike back down to Vieux Lyon. We had a couple of restaurants in mind, but by the time we arrived, they all had a ‘Complet’ sign on the door. It’s very common in France for restaurants to close their doors to new patrons once they’ve met the quota for the day unless you have a reservation.
We continued to search for a restaurant that still had space. Luckily, because it had warmed up, many restaurants were offering outdoor seating, which meant they had higher capacity. We found a cute restaurant near Place Des Jacobins called L’Empousa.
It was nice enough for us to sit outside on their terrace, and they had the awning open to the sky, which was just starting to clear up. I had a delicious French onion soup, and Matt had a great pulled pork burger. Even the wine was excellent and served in the cutest little jars.
When we were done eating, we walked over to Place Des Jacobins, where some nice ladies offered to take our picture together, one of only two we have of ourselves from the whole trip.
Afterward, since we had seen almost everything on our Lyon list, we scootered back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. We got up a few hours later, got ready, and headed to our dinner reservation at Le Poêlon d’Or. I picked the restaurant because it had been recommended on a couple of different blogs that I had read. It opened at 7:30, and we arrived slightly beforehand and found a huge crowd waiting outside to get in. I was really grateful I had made the reservation! Once they opened, we were taken straight to our table. The meal was excellent. Even simple dishes, like a Lyonnaise Salad and chicken with mashed potatoes, are just so much better in France. For dessert, we tried the pink praline tart, a Lyonnaise specialty. It was something we both expected to hate but ended up loving. I wish we had more pictures of the food, but we were too busy enjoying it.
After breakfast on Sunday, we returned to the car and headed out on a day trip. This time, our destination was Annecy, known as the Venice of the Alps. The weather was nice when we arrived. It seemed like the entire city, plus a couple of bus tours, was outside. It was so crowded! It was also market day, so the market stalls made things more crowded as everyone in the city was doing their weekly shopping.
We walked around the old town, then hiked up to the castle to get some views of the city and Lake Annecy. We soon were hungry for lunch, so we hiked back down and tried to find a restaurant that didn’t have the ‘Complet’ sign up. As crowded as it was, this turned out to be pretty tough. After we made about two laps of the city, we found a tiny, hidden Italian restaurant run by an Italian family where we had a delicious authentic pizza and caprese salad for lunch. I wanted to eat French food the entire weekend, but the pizza was so good that we were glad for the break. This ended up being a great meal.
When we finished lunch, the market was over for the day, so we finished our walk and took some pictures of the places that had been blocked off by the market stalls earlier. Done with our walk and shopping, we returned to the car by way of the lake. The sun was now out, making the water appear clear blue-green. Lots of people were out enjoying the park promenade and it was beautiful.
Annecy was a lovely day trip from Lyon. It was not as big as I expected, though, and there wasn’t much to see. If you had to come from any further away, it probably wouldn’t be worth it as an excursion. One other thing to note was the huge swarms of flies everywhere. The flies were tiny and didn’t bite or sting, but it made it uncomfortable to walk through town. Everyone was walking around waving hats and scarves in front of their faces. We couldn’t determine why they were there either because there weren’t any bad smells, slow-moving water, or marshy land. Maybe it was just because it was market day? We’re not sure.
When we returned to the hotel, we had time for a nap and then headed out for dinner. I wanted to visit Brasserie George, which is a famous restaurant that opened in 1836. The restaurant can seat up to 500 people at once, and the experienced staff can flip tables pretty quickly, making cleaning almost entertaining. The only way to make a reservation was over the phone, and I was afraid of having to speak French. According to the Internet, you usually don’t wait more than an hour for a table without a reservation, so we decided to try our luck in line. When we arrived, there were already about 50 people in the line. The line was quick, though, and as we were only two people, we were sat in under 20 minutes.
The restaurant is set up with long rows of booths, and we sat quite close to another couple. Although our tables weren’t touching there was only about three inches in between and we shared seats with them. It was different! Somehow we couldn’t hear their conversations and we weren’t interrupting each other, so it was fine. They ordered the beef carpaccio and the bone marrow, which are prepared tableside so we got to watch their presentations without having to order those menu items.
The atmosphere was lively, with everyone eating and servers working efficiently, but somehow, it was still intimate. This is a trendy place to celebrate a birthday. If its yours, they dim the lights, play happy birthday, are given a dessert, and then the entire restaurant applauds, which can get really loud with 500 diners in the restaurant. There were six celebrations while we were there, and they were super fun to watch. I wished it was my birthday!
The entire meal from start to finish with top notch. We were given pretzels and bread to snack on with our wine until the starters came. Of course, I ordered French onion soup as my starter. The soup was served with a cup on the side of madeira wine with an egg yolk floating in it. What in the world?! I was afraid! But, after it had “steeped” for the appropriate amount of time, one of the servers brought the rest of the soup, stirred up the wine-egg combo, and then added it to the soup. I was cautious about trying it but oh my gosh, it was by far the best tasting onion soup I’ve ever had. The wine added a little tartness to the flavor and the egg yolk made the texture thicker. I am still dreaming about it.
Matt’s meal came with pressed ham as his starter and a jar of pickles to dress it with. He wasn’t as crazy about his as I was about mine, but still said it was good. For our mains, I had a beef filet, which was good but at that point, nothing could compete with the soup I had just finished. Matt had pork ribs, which he said were really good.
We were already beyond stuffed at that point, but we didn’t want to miss out on dessert so I had a “Floating Island Praline” and Matt had an ice cream in a chocolate shell. My dessert was interesting; almost like a marshmallow in a strawberry syrup and pecans floating in it. It was definitely good but I liked the pink praline tart from the night before. It’s hard to mess up ice cream with chocolate so Matt enjoyed his as well.
We were almost waddling when it was time to leave. I’ve never eaten so much in one sitting in my life but it was worth the discomfort. It was definitely the best dining experience of our lives, so far! We will be back!
On Monday, I had ambitious plans of dragging Matt through the Beaujolais wine country for wine tasting, but it had started raining and was really hazy, so we decided to go directly home. We did stop by the famous Lyon mural, Mur des Canuts on the way out of town. The mural captures a life-like scene, and all of the characters painted in it are important historical figures from Lyon. It was really cool!
We got home around 6 pm, only a few minutes before Brooklyn. We took advantage of the extra time to unpack and get ready for the week ahead. Ryan didn’t get home until 10 p.m., and then it was straight to bed for all of us!
Brooklyn had a great time with her friend over the weekend. On Saturday, they went to Dusseldorf to eat at a Japanese restaurant called Naniwa. The restaurant is famous for its food and mega milkshakes. They went to Cologne for their concert on Sunday and had a great time!
Ryan spent the weekend in Sölden with his ski club. Unfortunately for them, it was warmer than expected, so not all the ski lifts were open, but Ryan still said it was a great time. He just got new skis as an early Christmas present and said he LOVES them, and they did great in the terrain park. The club even went to the Aquadome one night, which is a vast indoor and outdoor (heated) water park. He did great as a trip captain for the first time and is looking forward to doing it again!
Gilcrests Abroad 