Day 28 Paris to Lyon

We had to set our alarms to wake up this morning. We had quick showers & checked out of our hotel (admiring the dining area as we left).

We met Nick outside his apartment at 8:30am after stocking up on chocolate croissants, brioche & almond pastries at our favourite bakery to take on the train. The rain had cleared & looks like a sunny day ahead for Paris.

Pleasantly surprised that Nick was on time & we caught the metro to Paris Gare de Lyon. This is one of the bigger stations in Europe so we allowed ourselves plenty of time. The place was crowded....no room to move. Not sure if it's normal for a Saturday or whether it's the start of a holiday break for schools as well. We were very pleased to have Nick as all announcements were in French & while they weren't announcing anything unusual, you never know when you don't understand the language.

Our platform number appeared on the board 20 minutes before departure & we found the platform quickly. Finding our carriage however took quite a lot longer as the train was incredibly long. The carriage numbers started from 1 to 9 & then changed to 18 down to 10.  A bit confusing but we worked it out & after a long walk got to our carriage 17 & found our seats upstairs (a double decker train).  By the time we left all the seats were filled so we had a stranger with us in our section of 4 seats. We were happy to have small bags as there was not much room for luggage & struggling with a bag in the crowds would have been a pain.

The train trip was incredible smooth & once again didn't feel as if we were going as fast as we were. We expected high speed trains to feel really exciting, but they are only just another train. This one was a bit more modern than the German ones though.  We scoffed all the food I had bought & felt uncomfortably full.  Nick got a bit sleepy

- it was warm & not much to see. We past a few cute little villages, but before you spot them they have passed. Most the scenery was nothing special.

We got to Lyon exactly on time & slowly made our way out of the station caught in the crowd.

We weren't sure which exit to take - had a 50% chance of getting it right, so we got it wrong of course!  Had to go back into the station & out the other side. From here our hotel was just to the right & easily in view. 

We checked in & our room was ready (hooray), but the boys were disappointed to find they have to share a queen sized bed.

Don't think it will kill them, but hope our next hotel has the 3 seperate beds I have booked.  Our room is fairly basic, but tidy & clean. Disappointing to not have a fridge though. Bathroom floor is different, with lino that looks like grass.

We hung our washing out in the bright orange shower...

checked the wifi worked & then headed out to find the nearest metro. 

We caught the metro to the old town area - was good to be able to leave it to the boys to work out our route & where to change train lines - I just pay for the tickets!  Almost straight away we were in front of Lyon Cathedral

and this led to the most charming lanes of the old town....so cute! The streets were lined with bakeries, cafes, restaurants, gift stores & heaps of candy/bonbon stores & chocolatiers.  

Everything looked delicious & so tempting...especially the smells of crepes & waffles being prepared outside. We walked the cobbled lanes as I oohed & aahed a lot.....everything was asking to be photographed (or eaten).  The castle up on the hill nearby looked gorgeous too, but we decided to save that for another day as we have plenty of time.

We weren't feeling especially hungry yet, but it was after 2pm, so we searched for a cafe for lunch. It was hard to choose but we selected one that had a fixed price deal for 3 courses that included my favourite onion soup.

Cam & I both ordered the soup for entree

&  special Lyon sausage with potatoes in red wine sauce for main.

Nick had to be different  & he ordered sliced pork with terrines & onion jam for entree

and veal head with vegetable & a caper sauce.

He enjoyed his entree but struggled with the fat on the veal head & found the strong meaty flavour a bit much. We all chose different desserts so we could taste test them...

floating island, praline tart &

pannacotta (which was probably the best).  We felt incredibly full again & keen to do some walking. 

First we paid to go into what is called the Miniatures museum...it is actually a lot more than that & had props, costumes, sets & original items from many French & European films. We had read it was worth seeing and it certainly was far better than you'd expect.  It is housed over about 6 levels of a unusual old building which was cool in itself. We were surprised how many films & TVs series we recognised & there was so much to see.

We probably enjoyed some of the more gory ones the most.

The last few rooms contained the miniatures section & they were truly incredible.

Most miniature sets were in boxes around 30cm square but had such intricate detail they looked like full sized when filmed.  Probably took too many photos of this as you won't be able to appreciate from photos.

We wandered back to Lyon Cathedral & took a peek inside...

When then decided to just wander as attractions would be closing now and the sun was starting to set. We crossed a bridge & came upon a square which gave nice views.

Then saw masses of people coming from a side street so decided to go see what was there.

It was a fairly long shopping street with shops for me to once again longingly walk past.

At the end of the street was a large modern railway station, so we turned around & headed back to the square this time another block over.

This lane had incredible homeware, antique & art shops...many that made me gasp & unlike I'd seen before. Some looked almost like museums & there were so many things in the windows i'd love to bring home. 

At the square we headed in another direction & came upon the river on the other side...just as sun was setting. Lovely!

We then wandered a few more lanes but there just seemed to be more & more shops & restaurants,

And some lit up fountains

& looking up the hill was lit up too.

Time to find a metro station back to the enormous mall near our hotel. Apparently it's the biggest mall in Europe & I was getting excited planning to spend a few hours here tomorrow while the boys go to football... But not my lucky day...turns out it is closed on Sunday... How ridiculous is that!

We struggled to find a supermarket in the mall as it was so huge but we found one to buy some drinks to take to our room. Then looked for something to eat...we weren't terribly hungry but it was nearly 8pm and the mall was closing so needed to find something. Got a couple of large panini type things with cheese and ham heated inside...so took these back to our room to share.  We like Lyon a lot so looking forward to a big day tomorrow.