Montpellier to Lyon

Today was a travel day. It is exciting to be heading to a new city, but also sad as you are leaving a city that you enjoyed, and where there is a feeling of so much more to do. We left the apartment around 10am and had a relatively quick and easy walk back to the main station - it had felt so much further when we first made our way to the apartment just four days earlier. We had breakfast at Café Paul and then it was nearly time to get down to the platform and wait for our train, which was coming from Barcelona. Boarding the train was fairly hassle free, although there was limited space for our suitcases, but we got it sorted in the end. The trip to Lyon was just under two hours and we had been in contact with our host, Odile, who said we could come straight to the apartment. We caught a cab from the station and Frédéric, Odile’s husband, was there to greet us and let us in. We were staying in the old town in a very busy street, Rue St Jean, but the apartment, which is on the 2nd floor had two sets of windows (one double-glazed), so was very quiet.

The apartment was very nice, stylish and comfortable, with beautiful exposed beams that are hundreds of years old. Once we unpacked, we headed out to get some supplies from the supermarket and we had a light lunch back at the apartment, as we planed to go to a traditional Lyonnaise Bouchon for a relatively early dinner. Packing and travelling, and then unpacking is very tiring indeed!

We did head out for an early dinner. I had tried to book a couple of places that Frédéric had recommended but, being a Saturday night, they were all fully booked. We ended up at a place just around the corner from the apartment. The meal was quite nice. I had a chicken supreme with mushrooms, and Ian had Quenelle de Brochet, a light and airy pike dumpling in a creamy seafood sauce, a local specialty. We even indulged in a digestive following the meal when the waiter looked a bit disappointed that we weren’t having dessert. We then did a little promenade around the area to check out some of the other bouchons and restaurants as possible options for this week, as well as some of the beautiful shop windows without the crazy crowds of earlier in the day. We were both tucked up in bed before 9.30pm.もっと詳しく