We let our tastebuds do the walking!

We headed off early to the meeting point for our food lovers tour of Lyon. We caught the metro, as Bronwyn had developed some blisters and we wanted them to heal before we started our main walking tour.

We met our guide Henrick and the rest of the group 10 am in the old city. Henrick gave us a little history of Lyon before we headed off for our first tasting at a Fromagerie run by the very passionate cheese man Cherie (Ed - Blessed are the cheese makers). He bought the store eight years ago, without much experience but brimming with passion for all things cheese. He took us through how he labels and colour codes the cheese, raw (or cru), semi-pasteurised or fully pasteurised. We then went to the back of his store to partake in a cheese tasting, accompanied by a Swiss dry white wine often used in fondues. The four cheeses we tried were a Rigotte de Condrieu (AOP), a St Marcellin (IGP), a Bleu du Beaujolais and a Fumaism (smoked) Briebis. (Ed - AOP and IGP are origin and quality certifications). They were all delicious. I even enjoyed the blue cheese as it was quite mild.

The next stop was a traditional Bouchon, Les Lyonnaise, where we had a pâté, crevelle de caunt (silk weavers brain, a mix of yoghurt, garlic, herbs and wine), a Puy lentil salad and a glass of beaujolais. It was all very nice.

After this, we stopped at a store called Le Sirop de La Rue, which translates to “children who run in the street”. The owner, Fred, was a very amusing man who only spoke French, so poor Henrick had to play interpreter. The store predominantly sells the local produce of Lyon - cured meats, a special syrup that Fred developed made from praline, and praline based sweets. We were given red wine with the sirop that Fred has developed while he gave us his back story, which was quite amusing. A lot of it involved not listening to his mother when she told him to learn English. We then went down to the cellar to sample the range of saucisson Fred sells in his store along with a glass of Côte de Rhône red wine. The saucisson (sausage) was delicious.

We then visited Bonnat Crozet, a company that currently sells spirits, wine and chocolate, although they are soon discontinuing the chocolate aspect of the business and focusing on the beer and spirits. They currently run a speakeasy in the cellar and want to expand their bar. We got to taste a dark beer with a 65% and 75% dark chocolate.

We ended the tour at the Luminarium café, where we sampled the infamous Praline Pie, the local dessert, with either an espresso or a tea. It’s packed full of calories - sugar, butter and cream - and not one to tell your dentist about. (Ed - I liked it).

It was a really enjoyable tour with a nice group of people, again, all from the US.Read more