Leon de Lyon and our last day in Lyon

Monday was our last day in Lyon, and we had a few plans which came to nothing. A lot of places were closed due to it being Monday (how civilised!) and/or Pentecost, so we were unable to visit Les Halles de Lyon and the Musee de Beaux Arts. We ended up returning to the old town and exploring a bit further south. As we walked along the river we noted once again the laid-back, more leisurely approach to life here. G described the traffic as "courtly" - it was a far cry from the road rage I witness on a daily basis trying to cross the cycle path of carnage by Tavistock Square.

This part of town was remarkably deserted yet still very picturesque.

We came across this wine shop, which seemed to be some sort of offshoot of Antic Wines, and spotted a load of vintage Madeira through the window. Sadly, it too was closed. Next time... We also passed Daniel et Denise which looked worth a visit next time round. Then we found ourselves back on the street where Antic Wines was.

We spotted this establishment and the sign with the magic word "Bonnat". Bonnat has become my and G's chocolate of choice over the last couple of years but we can only get hold of a limited range here. This shop had loads more.

We picked up several bars, which we've been enjoying, particularly the "Surfin" which always causes me to break out into a rendition of Surfin' USA when G gets it out. He may not allow me to buy any more of it ever again. 

Then we walked back along the river and made our way to our lunch destination, Leon de Lyon, a brasserie. We didn't have a reservation but we didn't need one, there was plenty of space and the clientele seemed to be mainly ladies of a certain age having lunch with each other or in some cases by themselves.

G had been in the mood for steak and chips but Lyon brasseries don't offer that kind of thing - it's more local specialities here. G had a pork thing while I had duck which came with lovely caramelised pears. The service was very efficient and our main courses arrived remarkably quickly.

To drink, we had this "prestige" Morgon from Georges Duboeuf, which was another of these heavyweight Beaujolais but to be honest we found it a bit international for our taste.

The wine cellar did look quite tempting though!

For pudding, I had this "Comme un vacherin" which I'd hoped was going to be a hilarious visual joke but turned out to be a meringue with loads of cream and pistachio ice cream. Anyway, it hit the spot.

We still had some time before the train left, so did some more walking round after lunch, visited Monoprix and returned to the Grand Cafe des Negociants for a final Ricard, where we sat on the terrace for a change. Then it was back to the hotel who had kindly looked after our luggage, and we took a taxi to the station as our suitcases were significantly heavier on the way back than they had been on the way out. Our taxi driver spoke English and was very chatty and enthusiastic about Lyon.

We were in plenty of time for the Eurostar back, which left at about 5.30. It's always slightly depressing to be going home but we were given more nice food, a coronation chicken type thing this time. The journey was fine except for everyone having to get off at Lille, complete with luggage, and we spent a rather miserable hour queueing in the cold station, passing through customs and security and then hanging around in a waiting pen for ages. G had done it before and told me it wasn't painful - well, not physically, but it was tedious and put everyone in a bad mood. I think part of the delay was that they needed to change our train over, I'm not sure why, but the people in front of us were very upset when they realised they'd left a hat on board which had disappeared when we returned. I was quite impressed when a member of Eurostar staff returned it to them a few minutes later. But (at the risk of sounding like Tyler Brûlé) if Eurostar want to make this service work, they'd do well to invest in some handheld technology that allows scanning of luggage without everyone having to get on and off the train. Failing that, they could consider saving the nice meal till after Lille - all we got was coffee and biscuits. Fortunately we had a half bottle of claret saved up but a bottle might have been better!

I don't want to end on a bad note though. We had a very enjoyable few days, it was fun to explore a new place together, we had some memorable meals and brought back some interesting wines which I'll be blogging about soon. And since we didn't get to do everything this time, we have a good excuse to go back!