[ASU55RR]

et peut-être Montpellier ou Bayonne; recommandations?

*I speak English, Spanish, and Czech so I can usually put French together on paper due to the first two (looks so similar, but sounds so difficult). Anyway, most people here are using English anyway. Any advice is great the ime in south and South west France will be 5 days, and I move via Spain to Portugal so Montpellier->Barcelona or Bayonne-> San Sebastion are my logical steps/

[Gnafron]

If you've been to Praha you'll feel at home here in Lyon…

[ASU55RR]

so beautiful women, cheap beer (or at least decent wine?), and people speaking Czech everywhere?

j/k, although 2/3 would be nice. Any place in particular I should check out, or restaurant reccomendations?

[guignol]

panning across lyon from west to east, or chronologically from roman to modern times (which is the same thing)...

the amphitheatre on fourvière, and other roman stuff strewn around the top of the 5th arrondissement is worth looking at. depending on how much roman stuff you've seen or will see elsewhere, and how much your interested in antiquities, the aqueduct out at chaponost, even a run down to vienne (20km) may be in order. even if that's not really your cup of tea, the view from the basilica is not to be missed.

you get up there on an old cable tram, but it's a very pleasant walk back down to vieux lyon. the place got so decrepit that no one touched it for the longest time, in fact it almost got knocked down in the early 60's to make way for a freeway. all's well that ends well, and now it's one of the purest medieval cum renaissance quarters in europe. things to see there are st. jean cathedral and the twisting semisecret passageways called traboules... get a guide to them at the tourist office (or on internet). vieux lyon is a good place to stop for lunch, there are lots of places for all tastes and budgets. avoid le sol, since tapas are done much better where you're headed. if you are used to eating tripe and such, traditional lyonnais cuisine is done very well at la machonnerie. vieux lyon also has our best british style pub, the saint james.

any bridge over the saône gets you to the presqu'île, which is the center of town. lots of nice 19th century buildings, two big plazas: the place bellecour which is mainly just huge, and the place des terreaux, which has lots of cafés and a fountain by bartholdi, of statue of liberty fame. up the hill from there you get to the croix-rousse, a town within a town, which i know nothing about, but gnafron lives up there so it can't be too bad. note that in the presqu'île it's nice to have dinner in the rue mercière, which is almost one continuous sidewalk café. a lot of lyonnais look down their nose at it, which is their loss as far as i'm concerned.

if you keep heading west you cross the rhône, second of lyon's three rivers (the third is the beaujolais), which has very nice views, especially when everything's lit up at night. and you can rent a velo'v for a very nice ride on the banks from the parc de la tête d'or (a mini central park) and the parc de gerland. beyond that... well, even though i've always lived rive gauche, there's not much there for tourists, except the part-dieu and the train out of town. bon voyage!

[ASU55RR]

thank you/ merci!

One more question, are there any Lyonnais specialties I should try if I eat at a local cuisine place? I hear nice things about the city, and it will be my first time to France.

[guignol]

lyonnais cuisine can be divided into two categories... categories hell, it's like two different universes.

first the grand tables: bocuse, orsi, lacombe... this is traditional french cooking at its richest, most subtle... and most expensive. the real experience from apéritif to digéstif runs about 200€ per person!

then there are the bouchons: traditional working-class restaurants where the specialties tend to center on what's loosely called cochonailles (every part of the pig except the squeal) even though the two best-known specialties andouillette and tablier de sapeur are made from veal tripe: not for every american's tastes. there is one dish on every bouchon menu though that's sure to please: the quenelle sauce nantua. roughly it's a big baked dumpling that when done successfully is so airy and yet rich that afterwards you'll say to yourself, "now i know what the angels in heaven eat!"

of course the two universes do meet. for example, le bistrot de lyon in the rue mercière is owned by j-p lacombe of leon de lyon fame, and is perhaps the one place that you can't say you know lyon restaurants if you haven't been in at least once. and then there's the case of cazenove... where they put grattons (lyonnais style pork rinds) on the table with the apéritifs.

cazenove is a curious little place. it's owned by pierre orsi, and is tucked into the alley behind his flagship restaurant with which it shares kitchen and cellar. the atmosphere is much more comfortable and feutré, and you eat almost as well as at orsi, for half the price (still not cheap but you only live once). and i don't know just how to go about getting one, but the tour of their cave is mind-boggling if you know your wine. jereboams and imperials of fine margaux, the way they've cornered the market on la landonne (a great côte-rôtie), just to set you up. then case after case of romanée-conti in the aging cellar gets your knees wobbly. the knockout punch is the sauternes: Ch. d'Yquem right back to the 19th century! bring your smelling salts!

[AfrcnHrbMan]

I recommend staying away from the andouillette.....

[guignol]

andouille!

andouillettes are sausage looking things but are stuffed with tripe instead of meat. i remember the first time i was served one, it looked and smelled sooo good, but after a couple of bites i was saying "what the heck???"... it's definitely an acquired taste. when someone i'm eating with has one i generally ask for a little piece, but really can't put down more than a bite or two. it's the same with liver for me, i like it but in very small doses...

except at the bocuse brasserie l'est... one time i saw the veal liver at the next table, had to order it, and every time back i've had the same thing.

[Gnafron]

It reminds me of the famous joke about the haggis by Fernand Reynaud:

- Au début j'ai cru que c'était de la merde, après j'ai regretté que ça n'en fût point…

[ASU55RR]

Hello everyone;

Just saying thank you for the information, I was in transit of course and then resettling now in the USA (Washington, DC). I really enjoyed Lyon; in particular the Gallo-Roman Museum and the Fourviere (sp?). The city is quite nice, and the people were very welcoming. I was so impressed with the city I visited the Gerland and picked up a OL shirt.

Anyway, just letting you know the assistance was appreciated. All the best!