Maman et Lyon

15 to 27 September

15 September

Jer was up early to go get Laurie from CDG, while I went to work for the day.

They hung out around the house and our neighborhood until I got home and we made dinner.

They went to her hotel (Hotel Hameau de Passy) to make sure her reservation was good since we wouldn’t be getting back from Lyon until late Monday evening. Sometimes with smaller hotels, they don’t have someone to check you in after a certain time at night. All was good.

16 September

We were up early and made our way quickly to Gare de Lyon for our train to Lyon for the weekend. When I say quickly, we got on the train and it left 2 minutes later. We were pushing our luck for sure.

We arrived without issue around 9:00am in Lyon and boarded a bus to our hotel (Lyon Marriott Hotel Cite Internationale).

Once we arrived at the hotel they had one of our rooms ready so we checked in and put all our stuff in there. Once we got settled and then made our way into the city by bus.

We walked our way through the new town area and made our way to the local market along the Saône (one of the two rivers in Lyon). After exploring the market we made our way across the river into the old town area and found an antiques market. I just love markets.

After walking around the antiques market for a while we started to get hungry so we started looking for a place to eat. As we were looking around we made our way into a “pathway” between the buildings which Lyon is famous for and Jer found a place that he had been back in 2006 when he was in Lyon. The pathways were key during WWII as the resistance movement was very powerful in Lyon because the locals new how to navigate these hidden passageways to escape from the Nazis. It was like taking a walk through history.

We ended up picking Sol Cafe for lunch. We sat outside next to a school courtyard and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. While we were having lunch, a wedding party passed by in old cars, beeping their horns as they drove through the streets of old Lyon!

After lunch we made our way up to the top of the hill, via funicular, in old town to visit La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. I just can not get enough of the old churches throughout Europe.

We then made on our way back down we also stopped at the Roman Theatre, which was not far from the church.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at a Silk Factory in Lyon. It is tucked down an alley by the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts. Inside, you can get a tour of how the silk is made and dyed. There are also the most beautiful scarves for sale and I still regret, to this day, not getting one.

There was, of course, a strike of the buses which we got caught up in so it took us quite a while to get back to the hotel! It isn’t a true French vacation for guests if they don’t experience some type of strike!

Once we finally got back we got ready for dinner and headed back to old town for a traditional lyonnaise restaurant (Bouchon Les Lyonnais). We were lucky and got the last free table in the entire place for the night! The traditional lyonnaise food is heavy but so delicious.

After a wonderful dinner we enjoyed some of the sights along the river on our way back to the hotel for the evening (and to burn off some of the heavy food we ate).

Step Count: 23,068, 15.8km

17 September

Our first stop in town again this morning was the market again because we had seen something we liked the day before but didn’t buy. We then we spent some more time walking around old town doing some shopping and exploring.

As we were making our way back to new town to explore some of the museums (with the weather not being great) we stumbled upon an art market that was wrapping up, but not before we got to take a look around!

After a little struggle between the rain, and finding a place open for lunch with it being Sunday, we settled on Laureline’s Corner for their brunch menu. It was the cutest little place, where we luckily again got one of the last free tables.

After lunch we went to The Lyon Museum of Fine Arts for some tremendous artwork. We happened to be in Lyon on a weekend when all the museums were free which was a wonderful surprise!

We continued our day of museums after making our way down to a new area of the city that we hadn’t been to yet at Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs.

After exploring this museum for a while we decided to head back to the hotel to let Jer pack up since he was headed back to Paris tonight because he had classes this week.

Before we got back to the hotel we stopped across the street at the rose garden at Parc de la Tête d’or which was incredibly beautiful even if it was still raining a little.

Once we got back to the hotel we got a few snacks and drinks at the lounge while we tried to figure out where we were going to eat dinner.

It was hard to find a place open on Sunday that could fit us in so we ended up at the hotel restaurant, Zucca.

Jer left around 9:45pm so he could get to his 10:30pm train back to Paris.

Laurie and I called it a night and Jer ended up back at the apartment just after 1:00am thanks to just missing the last metro on line 6 and having to walk all the way back from Étoile.

Step Count: 18,078, 11.9km

18 September

Today I had my training to teach while Laurie explored the city some more.

Jer made it to class this time since he wasn’t quite as late returning as last week.

I met up with Laurie after training and we caught our train back to Paris.

Jer met us at Laurie’s hotel with the rest of her stuff so we could all call it a night not too late.

19 September

This morning was pretty normal for both of us even with Laurie in town as I still had to work and Jer still had his classes.

There was however one new and interesting thing added to our day as Jer had an interview for teaching English after his class!

Since we were both busy Laurie spent most of the day exploring the city.

Once we were all done with our days we enjoyed a homemade dinner after eating out all weekend!

20 September

I again went into work this morning and Laurie explored more of the city and its many museums.

Jer continued his possible English teaching with a learning session at one of the schools he might possibly end up teaching at.

Tonight we decided to order in thanks to Deliveroo from a local Thai place called I Love Bo Bun.

21 September

Today was another usual morning me to work, Jer to class, and Laurie out in the city.

After work we decided to get some Moroccan food at Timgad because Laurie loved the place we went to last time she was with us in France. It did not disappoint.

22 September

Work again for me today and some more exploring for Laurie, while Jer had work to do for his basketball trip in October.

We decided to have another home cooked meal tonight so we all went to Monoprix after I was done with work and we settled on having paella! We were also treated to a pretty amazing sunset as we enjoyed our meal.

23 September

This morning we were off to Porte de Vanves for our favorite antiques market which we found last time Laurie was here and vowed to return to!

After spending nearly 2 hours there again (and this time buying some things) we headed back to the apartment to drop off our finds and grab some lunch.

After lunch we headed towards The Marais and back to one of Laurie’s favorite shops, BHV. I also wanted to stop by a jewelry store that I had found (Delphine Pariente) for some Christmas shopping (we need to have it all done by the time we go back to the US in October).

To finish off our day of shopping today we headed out to La Defense because we needed to make our normal stops at Decathlon and Castorama and Laurie had not been out to La Defense yet.

Once our shopping spree had finally finished we headed home to drop everything off and decide on where to go for dinner.

We decided on Framboise, our trusty crêperie!

Step Count: 17,565, 12.2km

24 September

Today was another Sunday with visitors in town so of course it was another Sunday at Marché Bastille!

After walking around and getting food for lunch and dinner, as well as Laurie buying some jewelry, we headed home to eat lunch and get ready for the big thing of the day!

Grease le Musical at Théâtre Mogador!!!! I was so excited. The performers were so incredibly talented but it was in French and English so Jer and I could follow along with the French, to a point, but Laurie had some struggles. It was very interesting because they would be doing everything in French and then they would drop in ‘Grease Lightening’ in English.

After the show, we went back to the apartment for our dinner from the market!

25 September

Today was back to normal days for Jer and I with school and work again while Laurie was winding down the places and museums she wanted to see. We decided to have on last dinner together in the apartment.

26 September

Today was another normal Tuesday, except Jer was in bad need of a haircut so went to visit François after class.

After I was done with work we had made a special reservation for Laurie’s last evening at our favorite local Italian place Settebello. It never disappoints.

27 September

I headed out to work this morning after saying goodbye to Laurie while Jer got her through the metro and onto the RER B headed back to the airport for her flight home.

The reason he didn’t take her all the way out to the airport was today he started his job teaching English! He taught his first two classes at Dupanloup! It is crazy to think Jer is officially an English teacher now.