Lyon, lunch and loos

We were fortunate to have a final trip abroad before the madness of 2020 kicked in, you’ll remember that we went for a few days in Lyon where I think we ate at least twice our body weight while we were there. I’m not kidding, the food was gorgeous and it was definitely a gastro trip, so much so that looking back it’s a surprise we could actually run through the airport. The incentive of potentially missing our flight must have helped.

When we’re away MOH always scours the area for good restaurants, and his searches rarely disappoint. One day we decided to head out for lunch instead of an evening meal, and the plan was to head for an authentic ‘bouchon lyonnais’. He settled on the Café Comptoir Abel and we set off on foot - well it was the least we could do, but in truth barely scratched the surface of any calories we were about to consume.

The red and white table cloths and traditional wooden furniture are typical of an authentic ‘bouchon lyonnais’ along with the typical dishes of Lyon. Once we arrived at our destination we knew exactly what the website meant. Even the walls in the corridors we were led through were red and white checked.

And it was a glorious setting. Just look at the top of that bar.

Unusually I even managed to remember to snap pictures of our food, or our starters at least. MOH opted for the salad lyonnaise, while I went for the saucisson chaud aux lentilles, which was lovely but huge - we could have shared it. I’m pretty sure chicken supreme followed, but usual service resumed and no photos exist.

But still, that bar - I got a closer look. Every time I look at these photos I see something new.

It’s only now that I’ve realised that an old cigarette machine has been repurposed as a miniatures cabinet. It’s a great use of a vintage piece, especially if everything else is lost.

On our way to our table I’d spotted these stairs, but it was only later that I learnt the loos were up them. And you know I wouldn’t miss a look at those.

They didn’t disappoint, though I’m not sure what face I’m pulling in the photo below.

And as you’d expect, it was so very French. It’s been a bit of a bathroom filled week. Our rearranged bathroom refresh took place this week, and it didn’t go quite to plan, but that’s for another post, another day.

A garden by the beach

We’re virtually travelling again in this post, this time to Sesimbra just outside Lisbon. We visited in July last year, and like many other things it feels such a long time ago. We’d had a few days in Lisbon before starting a walk from Sesimbra, but while we were there we explored a bit. There was a suggested walk up what looked a very steep hill, so instead we messed around on the beach, took some photos with the ‘town letters’ - that’s for another post though, and stumbled across a garden by the beach. And with sculptures too.

I think after a pretty grey week here I needed that burst of colour. I remember at the time I couldn’t quite get over the the vibrancy of them. And that was even before I spotted the unusually shaped, white building.

Looking back towards the beach the orderliness amused me, only now looking at these again am I reminded of the decorative posts at the top of Hunstanton’s cliffs. More uniform, but not as artistic though.

And with sand.

You can feel the warmth in the picture below, can’t you?

And isn’t it great!

We left the beach wandering through a zig-zag path. Only when we were at the top did we spot the statues, neither of us were very sure about them.

But the views, they’re something special and took our breath away. And won’t it be nice to be able to travel again properly, whenever that is?

Shops of Lyon

We are one of the fortunate ones who managed to get away, albeit briefly, before the first lockdown back in March. For Valentines weekend we headed for a few nights in Lyon - you might remember that getting back was more stressful than it needed to be as we almost missed the flight. Even now, just typing this, I’m reliving the feelings that brought - we will never cut it so fine again for a flight. Given this year, it will be a fair while before we go anywhere near a flight, I’m sure, but even so.

Lyon was lovely though. We did the usual thing of arriving ‘close enough’ to our hotel and then wandering, or rather, marching through the streets in search of where we were staying. I say marching, as at the start of a break, somehow we always walk much more quickly, by the end and when it’s time to leave everything is a bit more leisurely. More so than normal it would seem on this break, ahem.

I’d booked a hotel in the old part of town and so we walked past these shops many times - it was no hardship at all really, though.

I wanted to peer into each and every one of them. Perhaps this one especially…

Even those which were no longer in use and full of faded glory drew my attention.

Sometimes it was the content more than than the shopfront that caught my eye.

I still haven’t worked out the significance of those human figures, but if they had a price tag on then I’d be more than interested in acquiring them. And isn’t it peculiar, this is probably the closest I’ve got to browsing shops this year, but it’s something I’m missing - even though it’s not something I do a lot! Probably linked to the fact that we can’t at the moment, and absence making the heart grow fonder as the saying goes. Though I’m sure I’d also hate wandering around a packed shopping area too.