Lyon, France : Part Two

Last week I took a detour back to the US of A, which it lasted about 72 hours. It was a whirlwind adventure where I took just about every mode of transportation that you could think of. My posting took a back seat and then when I returned I was in a time zone haze, then it was a 4 day weekend! So here I am again. And here is the rest of our trip to Lyon...

We spent the majority of Saturday walking around the old part of Lyon; our first stop was near the Hôtel de Ville. We found a cool fountain which for some reason had a couch floating in it.

Then we found an awesome place to have lunch. It might have been a bit touristy but Jim was in heaven.

Cafe Leffe was a total random and awesome find. Leffe is from Belgium and is Jim's favorite beer. He could drink it for the rest of his life I think. In the US they started selling Leffe Blonde a few years ago but his favorite, the Brune is still hard to come by. For Jim's 23rd Birthday I purchased a 1/4 keg of the Brune and they had to special order it which took 2 weeks. This restaurant had SIX kinds of Leffe (check out the place mat above). Including the Radieuse and Ruby which I had never tried. I think the Radieuse is my new favorite. I'm not great at describing flavors but it was delicious. In addition to the great beer they had a great burger, something hard to find in Europe.

After lunch we headed in the direction of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. The basilica is a spectacular building that overlooks Lyon from a hill. We took the cable tram up to the top, walked around the church and took in the amazing panoramic view.

After the basilica we walked around some more and found another one of Jim's favorite things...candy.

candied fruit

Biscuits in every flavor

Literally a kid in a candy shop....look at that face!

We stopped for a drink, and decided to head back in the direction of the hotel. We took the bus to the impressive entrance of the Tete d’or Park and walked our way through all the way back to the hotel. It took way longer than we thought, but it was a beautiful day and despite being tired, it was fun. The park has a botanical garden, a zoo, a lake, a velodrome, boat rides, kid rides, open space for play, numerous running and biking paths and its FREE! There was a lot to see, but it never felt too crowded or overwhelming. The map is fairly easy to read and you can really set off to see it all or just one thing.