France (Winter 2023) - Lyon (Day 1)
Bus from Milan to Lyon
Plane tickets were kind of pricey and the train was not an option because apparently the tracks across the Alps here have not yet been repaired from previous storm damage.
The journey started off okay but the weather made the travel slow and there was a very long backup at the border. Even though there is no formal border crossing, the French police still checked every passport just matching your face to your documents.
It was a long bus ride.
Fete Des Lumieres
I wanted to visit Lyon since it was a city I’d never been to and I heard it had a more French feel than Paris. I was wondering why hotel prices were so expensive since this was the off-season. I didn’t realize that I booked my visit during this famous light festival that people from all over pile into the city to see.
Because of this, we stayed on the outskirts of Lyon for a few days before we moved to a hotel closer to the center of town after the festival ended. The neighborhood we started in was called Monplaisir and this worked out fine because the metro works great and it was a neighborhood we might not have explored had the festival not driven us out there.
We actually did explore the festival a little bit on the first night but I will lump all of the festival photos into the post for the second day in Lyon.
Lyon Metro
The ticket machines have this heavy metal scroller to make your selections instead of touchscreens - I guess they really wanted this thing to be durable
When we arrived on a Friday night, there were so many people coming into Lyon that the metro was free. A security woman let me know when she saw me trying to buy a ticket at the train station.
The system itself if pretty good. It gets you where you want to go, it’s efficient and very clean. For a city that is actually not that big, having a transit system like this makes this city great in many ways for both locals and tourists.
The subway metro had gates where you put the tickets in and they spit them out to open the gate. The surface trams had these ticket sensors near the doors where you scan your ticket on board but as far as I could tell, no one checks. I was probably the only person actually scanning my ticket on the surface trams.
Bistrot 96
After checking into the hotel in the Montplaisir neighborhood, we were starving from the day of travel and found this place within walking distance. This turned out to be a great find. Just locals in here and the shop seems to be run by a husband and wife with a chef in the back.
They put out the limited daily menu on an easel next to your table for you to order and the food was excellent.
I also discovered pastis here and it became a thing for me that I enjoy a lot now. It is popular in the south of France and is an anise flavored drink that you dilute to your liking with water on the side and typically you drink it before a meal. It is a clear yellow and becomes cloudy when it mixes with water. I keep a bottle of the stuff at home now.