Photos of the city of Lyon below, places that I visited while doing my walking tour in the snow!!! And also places that I went to with Lily when the weather was much better 2 weeks later. St Jean's cathedral below, where there is a Astronomical clock inside the church..

Looks pretty similar to the one in Prague huh... The only noticeable difference that I could see was that they didn't have a name day list compared to the one in Prague. I reckon Name day must be a Eastern European thing...

Second storey of the church. Apparently the stairs to the upper level are built into the columns which was a pretty cool thing for me...


Outside facade of the Church

Streets of the city... the windows below are a typical feature of buildings in Lyon, according to my guide...

Lumiere museum. The Lumiere Brothers invented cinema in the town in 1895. The Musée Lumière is there as a testimony, hosting many of their first inventions.


Outside the park gates with Lily and Angela. There's a free zoo inside the park, but unfortunately not one of the best we've seen. I wondered how these animals could stand living in the freezing winter temperatures, especially when Lily had told me that she had seen giraffes in the zoo during the summer... So no giraffes this time, just heaps of deer, flamingoes and those bulls below huddled together in a corner.




The next day, Lily suggested that we take a trip up the Bellacour eye as we called it. Seemed pretty fun and a good way to get a good view of the city.... BUT omg, it is definitely not for one with a phobia for heights. There were literally no safety belts, we were just holding on to the railings for dear life, in the hope that the winds would not suddenly flare up and tip us over... So as girls, to deal with pressure, we giggle... and giggle and take pictures at the same time... hahahha


Fouviere in the distance... and Lyon eiffel tower (telecom tower) in the distance


I've conquered the Bellacour eye!

Also had time to visit Lily's university where she's been having her classes :P

Lily's department :)

Took the furnicular up to Fourvière. Fourvière is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who is said to have saved the city of Lyon from the plague in 1643. A small church was erected in gratitude, to which the gilded statue of the Virgin was added in the mid-nineteenth century, to mark its bicentennial. Each year in early December, Lyon thanks the Virgin for saving the city by lighting candles throughout the city, in what is called the Fête des Lumières.


There were also some roman ruins on the other side of the hill as well, so Lily and I explored that and ate cookies on the steps :P.... We figured that this must be a pretty cool concert site in summer, though I disagree with her suggestion as a cool wedding venue... hehe

I ate a lot of nice things in Lyon, but unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job in documenting them very well... So alot of things I ate, I remember but I can't show them to you guys. So this is the food post of what I ate out in Lyon...
A typical food I ate in the cafes was this toast with various toppings on it. My personal nickname for it was open sandwich (big-sized). This one we ate in a cafe near Lily's university. Chicken salad topping...

Another kind of topping you can have on a big piece of toast.

French desserts... love them to bits

Vietnamese spring roll snack break in the Asian ghetto area of Lyon, aka the dodgy part of town where drug dealers hang out... of course... can't beat the mafia market in dear old budapest...

French buns with praline. Apparently a Lyonnaise speciality. I ate one of those, it's a very sweet bread baked with nuts in them too!

Lily and Angela, an exchange student from Auckland. Brunch at this cafe where you can order a bread set and they give you a million interesting spreads (eg: pear/plum preserve, praline, chocolate spread)... favourite was the cinnamon crunchy spread.

Had a fuller meal at that cafe: toast with ham, tomoatoes, eggplant and salad...

We were at this travel bookshop and tucked at the back of the store is this tiny cozy cafe which does lunch... Heh.. of course, I only knew of this place because of Lily...

Ordered a hot chocolate and was very intrigued with what they brought me. A big glass of hot milk and a chocolate block.... So you have to put the block into the milk and the milk, being hot, will melt the chocolate and voila... hot chocolate... how novel :P

Some nights we ate home at Lily's place too. Of course, not a very good representation of dinner, coz this is the one and other time we had a frozen quiche for dinner. Most times Lily cooked :)

Typical small pastries which I bought from a place near Lily's place...sooo good...

There was one night Lily organized a dinner out to a Lyonnaise restaurant called the 3 pigs.. (cute name). Met her colleagues there, and it great eating dinner with French speaking teachers coz I could get translations :P Had a 3 course meal starting with salad, mussels and a typical Lyonnaise dessert: prunes stewed in red wine...

It was quite interesting but when I looked around the restaurant I noticed alot of old French men and it seemed that the proportion of men over women was strangely overwhelming. Except for our table... it was just old men...even the service staff were men..


Lily's main dish..

Mine... I dunno why the picture refuses to be horizontal



Lily and I!


Drinks and chocolate at Lily's colleague apartment. Incidentally, this is the place Lily stayed at when she first moved to Lyon..


Lily having a pineapple lump for the first time