Lyon - not as great as we expected

MikeCunliffe · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:49 pm Post subject:

Viv and I visited France in July 2006 and after flying into Nice and collecting a car, and spending three nights in St. Raphael on the Riviera we headed north up the Rhone Valley to Lyon - France's second city.

The main attraction for us was the food - it's reckoned to be France's gastronomic capital.

We arrived via the main motorway heading in from the south (number escapes me now) but directions into the city centre were pretty good. However, apart from the two major rivers (the Rhone and the Saone) I cannot say there was much to impress me sights wise. There's loads of shops but didn't seem to be an abundance of restaurants.

Paris is way better architecturally and has, on first impression, a wider choice of eating places and more widely spread.

The Residence Hotel was centrally located, clean and reasonably attractive but with no private car parking facilities. We used a local multi-storey at about 15 euros per day).

We'd booked for two nights but both agreed after walking some miles around the city centre that first afternoon after arriving that one night was enough. We did find a street that was wall to wall restaurants - choice was impressive and prices naturally competitive. The quality of the food was high, service good, price middle range - wines OK.

Overall, I'd not visit Lyon again. We checked out after that one night and headed back to the Riviera where, I must admit, the food is generally better and the wines less expensive.

I can recommend the Hotel Residence as being fairly inexpensive, clean, good service and it you're lucky (or book a superior room) and get a jacuzzi bath - it's the best one I've ever sampled. It's a full body massage type - I was like a wrinkled prune after 45 minutes but so relaxed.

Mike