{"id":464,"date":"2017-02-01T00:46:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T00:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=464"},"modified":"2017-02-20T23:54:31","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T23:54:31","slug":"dining-and-drinking-in-lyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=464","title":{"rendered":"Dining and Drinking in Lyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s say you want to go wine tasting in France.\u00a0 That\u2019s a\u00a0good idea but France is an awfully big place.\u00a0 The question then is where in France?\u00a0 If you go to Bordeaux, you get to taste Bordeaux wines.\u00a0\u00a0 In Burgundy, you get Burgundies.\u00a0 It makes sense, doesn\u2019t it? \u00a0But there is one place where you can have two totally different styles of wine to enjoy and that place is the city of Lyon.\u00a0 A half hour north is Beaujolais.\u00a0 The same distance south and you\u2019re in the Rh\u00f4ne Valley (at least the northern end of the valley with appellations like C\u00f4te R\u00f4tie, St. Joseph and Condrieu.<\/p>\n

The primary grapes of the northern Rhone are Syrah and Viognier.\u00a0 Beaujolais makes wine from Gamay.\u00a0 The vineyards in the Rhone grow on terraced mountains that seem from even a short distance to be sheer cliffs.\u00a0 Beaujolais\u2019 vineyards are on lovely rolling hills and valley.\u00a0 As we say, two totally different wine tasting experiences.<\/p>\n

And right in the middle of it is France\u2019s third largest city, its temple of gastronomy, the capital of the east: Lyon.\u00a0 Sure, go wine tasting all you want but leave time to explore this wonderful city.\u00a0 Of course, there are historic churches, grand plazas and elegant shopping.\u00a0 But if you are a wine lover, it\u2019s a sure bet that you love food, too, and dining in Lyon is, simply put, great fun.<\/p>\n

You can indulge yourself in the highest of high cuisine.\u00a0 Just twenty minutes\u2019 drive from downtown is the Taj Mahal of French cookery, Paul Bocuse.\u00a0 It has had three Michelin stars for more than fifty years and will surely continue to do so as long Ma\u00eetre Bocuse is alive.\u00a0 He\u2019s 90 now, so if you want to have a meal under his tutelage, go soon.\u00a0 It\u2019s expensive.\u00a0 If you can afford it, it\u2019s worth it.\u00a0 The wine list is also quite pricey but there are some bargains to be found if you search for them.<\/p>\n

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One step down are the bistros and brasseries in Lyon.\u00a0 Perhaps the best of them also have Monsieur Bocuse\u2019s name on them.\u00a0 Several of his associates have opened top-end brasseries named (with a certain lack of imagination) Est, Ouest, Nord and Sud (East, West, North and South).\u00a0 They feature the classics of French cuisine.\u00a0 Onion soup, anyone?<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need a fat wallet to enjoy Lyonnais dining.\u00a0 The city is full of little restaurants known as bouchons<\/em>, French for corks.\u00a0 In these places you can choose among numerous regional specialties like salade Lyonnaise (salad with big chunks of bacon and a poached egg), cervelas brioch\u00e9e (a hot dog-like sausage baked in brioche, chicken fricassee with morels, quenelles de brochet (a poached fish cake in a rich crawfish flavored sauce) all finished off some creamy St. Marcellin cheese.\u00a0 Don\u2019t even think about rushing your meal.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to take your time to enjoy the food, the surroundings, the French families at the other tables and, not least, the chatter of your waiter.\u00a0 In the best places, he\u2019ll speak English and if you speak French, so much the better.\u00a0 He\u2019s explain the menu, the weather, the history of France and a little bit of life lessons as well.\u00a0 Enjoy the show.<\/p>\n

\"leslyonnais1\"<\/a>
\nThe bouchon Les Lyonnais<\/em><\/p>\n

And enjoy the wine.\u00a0 While some bouchons<\/em> have broad lists, most focus on just the local wines.\u00a0 But when \u201clocal\u201d means Beaujolais and the Rh\u00f4ne, that\u2019s not too bad.\u00a0 Go ahead and order what you like, but the true glory of a bouchon <\/em>is the house wines, each served in a 40 cl. bottle called a pot<\/em> (pronounced poe).\u00a0 Pots are inexpensive, always good, never great and just not quite enough for a meal.\u00a0 So you order another \u2013 hey, why not, you\u2019re having a great meal in a great city in a great country.\u00a0 And you know what, two isn\u2019t quite enough either to have some to go with the cheese, so\u2026\u00a0 Three hours later, you waddle out of the bouchon<\/em> content and ready for bed.<\/p>\n

There are hundreds of bouchons<\/em> to choose from.\u00a0 Some are of relatively modern vintage, others are more than a century old.\u00a0 There is a web site of the organization that is trying to preserve the authenticity of these wonderful restaurants, www.lesbouchonslyonnais.org<\/a>.\u00a0 Even though it\u2019s in French it will give you lots of excellent recommendations.\u00a0 But don\u2019t restrict yourself to this list.\u00a0 Explore a little and you\u2019ll find that some are just as good.\u00a0 It\u2019s really hard to have a bad meal in Lyon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s say you want to go wine tasting in France.\u00a0 That\u2019s a\u00a0good idea but France is an awfully big place.\u00a0 The question then is where in France?\u00a0 If you go to Bordeaux, you get to taste Bordeaux wines.\u00a0\u00a0 In Burgundy, you get Burgundies.\u00a0 It makes sense, doesn\u2019t it? \u00a0But there is one place where you … Continue reading Dining and Drinking in Lyon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}