Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/reLNLdor817wfCq17
The main reason I wanted to visit Lyon was because it is considered the culinary capital of France. To be honest, I had low-ish expectations… I thought the food would just be “good”, much like Bologna, the supposed culinary capital of Italy. I gotta say though, Lyon was amazing. I would honestly place it just below Delhi and Amritsar in my all time food cities. The only negative was the price, but that’s because this is France. A 4 course meal (with cheese, of course, being a course between the main dish and dessert) was roughly 30-35 euros, but 100% worth it.
The most famous type of restaurant in Lyon is called a bouchon, of which there are only 22 certified ones in the entire city. Though almost every restaurant in the gorgeous, renaissance-era Old Town serves the same type of food. A bouchon, for me, is characterized by the tablecloth decor, and the absolutely delicious and fatty meat heavy courses, all of which are from more “exotic” body parts, like guts, liver, and head (so I assume brain?). My first night, I met up with my friend Alice and went to one of these 22 certified bouchons, Le Bouchon Des Cordeliers. Alice is a medical student in rotations, and was in my 7 day El Mirador jungle trek in Guatemala, so we spent a large part of that night just reminiscing about that awesome experience. She was also the cinematographer of the video of me with the tarantula in Tikal, and of me taking a shot from the skull of a monkey in Utila (this was the skull another friend, James, found during the Mirador trek). One random fun fact – turns out that she knows the NFL player Chris Conley since her boyfriend and Chris are apparently very good friends who have gone surfing together multiple times over the past two years.
Anyways, the dinner at this bouchon was outrageously good. The fatty meats quite literally melted in my mouth the moment I bit into it, and it was so rich and heavy that I felt (in a good way) bloated afterwards. The stereotype of French cuisine is all prim and proper, but these were gut-busting meals. Alice actually struggled to finish hers so I gladly mopped up, loosening my belt by a notch to help squeeze the food in. As amazing as the food was, the highlight was the dessert dish. Alice recommended getting the Praline Tart as that is apparently a Lyonnaise specialty. It was so good that it was the only dessert I had in Lyon, having it after every single meal I ate in town.
After this incredible dinner, we met up with some of her friends and went bar hopping. I really loved how her friends perfectly fit the French stereotypes…I couldn’t help but laugh at the way they said certain words like “Mont Blanc” and “Vieux Lyon”. One of them even, casually in conversation, dropped an “ooh la la”. I guess stereotypes exist for a reason.
I ate at bouchons for every other meal in Lyon as well, but those were all “fake” ones that weren’t a part of the official list of 22 – you basically need reservations at these and Alice made one for my first night there. That said, they were all still excellent, but I do really think that the first dinner was the standout. I think it’s fair to say that Le Bouchon Des Cordeliers is the best meal I have had in 2021. But even the other bouchons alone were enough to vault Lyon in the Mexico/China tier for me. Lyon simply was the best meats I have ever had. My only non-bouchon meal was my very last meal, where I ate what is called a French taco before grabbing a bus to Strasbourg. The New Yorker actually had a giant longform article on this earlier this year, but the French taco is sort of a bastardized combo of a kebab, panini, and burrito – it is a burrito wrap with panini fillings (including French cheese) and kebab meat. It’s apparently taken off across France as a fast food fad in the past decade, but started off in the Lyon area.
Besides the food, the other highlight of Lyon for me was this really cool movie museum that had OG props from like 300+ Hollywood movies. There was just so much cool stuff and I only photographed a fraction of it. But personal highlights were a mask used by one of the orc extras in LOTR, the monkey head that Indiana Jones ate soup from in Temple of Doom, Daniel Radcliffe’s glasses and wand from Harry Potter, the giant Triceratops head from Jurrasic Park, and Marty McFly’s zapped sneakers and hoverboard from Back to the Future II. There were tons of other cool stuff, from things ranging from the original umbrella in Mary Poppins to swords and shields from Troy to the various guns in Men in Black to miniatures used in both Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton’s Batman movies. I actually spent like two hours in this museum, was well worth the <10 euro fee.
After Lyon, I took an 8 hour bus ride up north to Strasbourg. Took 2 day trips from here, one to Colmar and one to Reims, as well. Colmar was honestly magical. Like literally straight out of a fairy tale. So one note here – the region of eastern France where Colmar and Strasbourg are in, Alsace, is culturally German, and was a part of the German Empire until the end of World War I when France reclaimed it. The local language, Alsatian, is more related to German than French, and the foods are all basically German. And personally, when I think of a Christmas market, I think of Germanic architecture (ie timber houses, etc.) with stalls, so this was heaven. Colmar looks German, the food tastes German, and even the street signs are in German. But there’s also French street signs and most people speak French, not Alstatian. The food in Colmar (and Strasbourg) was OK – but that’s because German food as a whole is just OK for me. Probably a tier below Georgia and Armenia for example, but still decent food.
But yea, Colmar was wonderful. I spent like 7 hours wandering around the old town, going down each and every narrow cobblestoned street multiple times. It was also a nice contrast to see the fairy tale charm during the day give way to a winter wonderland feel at night with everything bright and lit up. And of course, the constant blaring Christmas music was the cherry on top. I know that I tend to get bored of the typical European old town feel quite quickly, but this really was unique due to the Christmas spirit. I’m a firm believer that the best Christmas markets in the world are in this little slice of Europe – eastern France, Germany/Austria/Czechia, and maaaaybe Denmark and the Baltic States. It was almost like Epcot in real life – just picture perfect timber framed houses decked out in decorations. The music, the aesthetic of the Christmas stalls, the (highly overpriced) hot chocolate and hot wine – all of it just made it a great experience.
The following day, I took a day trip a bit further west, still in the state of Grand-Est (which Alsace is a part of), to see the town/city of Reims. Reims houses quite a magnificent cathedral (though in terms of Gothic cathedrals, I liked the Milan one more) where all the medieval and onwards French kings were coronated. Beyond this cathedral, there was also a cool, second Romanesque cathedral I visited. Romanesque refers to the medieval architectural period prior to Gothic. There’s a lot of rounded tops as opposed to pointy spires, and to me it almost looks Byzantine, and as a result, Islamic (due to the Turks borrowing from the Byzantines after conquering Constantinople). I actually liked this less famous Romanesque one slightly more, probably because it felt more remote and austere. In general, I love the feel of medieval cathedrals, where you hear the echoes while walking down, admiring the giant arched hallways and the flying buttresses, along with the beautiful stained glass windows.
The Christmas markets here were nice, but – going back to my earlier point – Reims felt 100% French as it was in the Champagne region, and for me a Christmas market really needs that Germanic setting to shine. One particular highlight in Reims was my lunch there. I had it at a one star Michelin restaurant, Le Foch – made a reservation for one the night before. The total meal was 41 euros, and I was actually so full from that lunch that all I had for dinner was a “Bretzel” (aka German pretzel) loaded with cheeze and meat for 3 euros at the Strasbourg Christmas market after getting back. I have had meals that were just as expensive in the US that were forgettably mediocre. Like most “nicer” places I have eaten in NYC or Chicago, where the appeal of going out is social and you go to some hyped up restaurant with good but forgettable food (like 95% of Manhattan, or pretty much every restaurant in Lincoln Park and River North in Chicago). So price-wise it was a lot but not a deal breaker. Also, Europe is great because the menu price includes taxes and there’s no tipping, unlike America where you need to mentally add like 30% + to the menu price to get an idea of what you’ll pay. The lunch special itself was 37 euros, and water was an outrageous 4 euros more.
I have been to three other Michelin restaurants, all in Chicago with my sister. Two of them, Topalabampo and Elske, were honestly ridiculously overpriced given the food quality. Like it was good but nothing worth remembering beyond the price point. The third, Spiaggia, is now sadly closed because of COVID, but is arguably a top 5-10 restaurant I have ever been to. Le Foch was no Spiaggia, but it definitely trended far closer to that than Topalabampo or Elske . They gave some fancy pre-appetizer snack prior to my entree, which was this really good escargot soup (in France, appetizers are called entrees, which makes sense. The US has somehow bastardized entree to be main course). Expecting a dainty meal, I loaded up on the free bread to mop up my soup. I was comfortably full after my main course and dessert, but then they followed up with a complementary 2nd dessert (Pippin would be happy) which I’m pretty sure was meant for two but I ate it all anyways. Felt gross but it was so good – not as good as the praline tarts in Lyon!
Strasbourg itself was very nice, but I was definitely spoiled by seeing Colmar first. I think i definitely would have enjoyed Strasbourg more had the order been flipped. It was basically a bigger Germanic medieval town center, though not *quite* as photogenic as Colmar was. The city bills itself as “The Capital of Christmas” and I do have to say the Christmas markets here were quite nice. Huge plazas covered with festive little stalls, all set to a backdrop of wood-framed buildings and grand Gothic churches, especially the stalls by the main Strasbourg Cathedral. This was up there with the Duomo in Milan for me in terms of the impressiveness of the Gothic exterior (interior was just OK). There was also a separate plaza from the cathedral one, with its own giant Christmas market, that had a massive tree that was fully decorated with baubles and lights.
Overall, this was a nice little trip to a slice of France. Combination of out-of-this-world food in Lyon, a nice side trip to Reims, and then some good old-fashioned festive atmosphere in Alsace. Gotta say, between this and my visit to the South of France with my family almost 2 years ago (right before COVID!), France definitely lives up to the hype. I’m headed to Paris tomorrow, and will be spending a week there with my little sister, who is flying out to meet me while “working from home” from 4pm-midnight Mon-Fri while she is here. Assuming there are no COVID-related hiccups, the plan is to see Paris and take some trips out to see Normandy and the Loire area (plus Amiens) with her and on my own. Have a few days after she flies out and tentatively planning on flying to Spain afterwards for a quick trip before hopefully heading up to Scotland and then England to end 2021 and kick the new year off.