Next Station: Lyon-Part-Dieu
In my previous post we spent four nights as a bit of a break in Italy, eating pesto and laughing at abysmal wax figures of serial killers in Genoa, then moving on to Turin for pizzas and more pasta over a quiet Easter weekend, all the while dealing with perpetually unreliable trains along the way. Now we had taken another one to spend a few nights in Lyon, France for Anna’s conference, all but one of which joined by our friends who had come over to celebrate a birthday. This wasn’t our first time in Lyon, we were there in December, 2021 when we were finally able to travel again after Covid so I won’t bore you with the background details about the city in order to keep this shorter, that’s all in that other post if you’re interested. Anyway, let’s get this show on the road:
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Yet again our train had been delayed and we got into Lyon late the previous night so not much had happened, however, we knew how today was going to start — Last time we were here we ate at Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse and during that initial visit we realised that we could happily eat there every day and buy back something from every market stall if we had the time. On this occasion time wasn’t an issue so would we end up eating there each day? Only time would tell, but that was where we were starting and we already knew exactly what we wanted to eat. Once inside, the food hall looked identical to how we remembered it from over four years prior and it just so happened that we entered where we wanted to be, directly in front of Baba la Grenouille, or Baba the Frog, the first place we stopped off last time for some fried frog legs, as well as picking up some burgundy snails and oysters from some other nearby stalls while being complimented on my Andre the Giant t-shirt to kickstart our day.
The weather was a lot better this time, more conducive for looking around the city, one made up of three main prefectures divided by two large rivers with most of the action being in the one where we were staying as well as the next one over so that’s where we hung out, strolling around the winding streets so Anna could take advantage of the most free time she’d have in Lyon to do some shopping and exploring before she had to make her way back to the conference to sign in and do the regular meet-and-greets Initially she thought she may even get to meet Emmanuel Macron as he was in Lyon for some related meeting, but unfortunately not, his was in the next building. The conference centre was close to where we were staying so when Anna had to go about her thing I found a bar to kick back at while I waited for our friends, Andy and Hayley to Arrive. The last time we saw them was two years prior when they came to hang out with us in San Sebastian, Spain (and me staying on a little longer to go back to Germany with them so Andy and I could go see Monster Magnet play in Cologne). They were driving down from Germany and before long I received a message from Andy asking where I was and that Hayley was tired from the drive and would be joining us later so I sent him the details and we were soon catching up over a couple of beers. I had selected a pub that was easy to get to for all of us, but it wasn’t all that happening so we started looking up other places that were relatively nearby and soon found a place that ticked a lot of boxes for us so we paid up and walked about 10 minutes to Beer King Pub. It wasn’t long after that Hayley messaged Andy to ask where we were so he sent her the details only to receive another message once more asking where we were sitting. It turned out that he had sent her a pin for the wrong place and apparently it wasn’t in one of the nicer parts of town so when he fixed his error and Hayley arrived at where we actually were, she was FURIOUS, even telling us that a man had yelled something at her as she walked under a bridge! She eventually calmed down and Anna was able to join us later on the first attempt so we spent the night chatting over drinks and snacks
Lunch, around Lyon, and how we spent the rest of the night:
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Today was Hayley’s birthday and her and Andy are usually up earlier than me and like to do outdoors stuff, plus Anna was presenting her poster at the conference so I was left to my own bidding. Naturally that meant that after getting a cup of coffee I would go to the food hall for lunch again, this time opting for a slice of a smoked salmon and cream cheese pie, but I also wanted something to snack on while I’d be out so I wandered around the market stalls, particularly the cheese and salami ones. I found one stall that had a bowl of what looked like thimble-shaped pieces of varied hard cheeses, Google Translate telling me that they were ‘Cow’s Appetizer with Flavors from Around the World’, perfect for munching on while I roamed around so I bought a container and was on my way.
We still had a couple of days left so I mainly stayed in the larger part of the city, walking around some of the areas that I had with Anna the previous day to have a look at some stores that I hadn’t wanted to waste her precious time with, as well as trying to find some vintage and record stores around while grazing on some dry, thirst-inducing hard cheese nuggets. Andy and Hayley had gone for a hike up to a castle and when they were done and Anna was free we had some drinks once more before Hayley’s birthday reservation at ART Restaurant. One of her absolute favourite dishes is beef wellington, that is what this place specialises in and it was pretty spectacular, even if there is now a bit of a stigma around it in the region of Australia where Andy and myself come from. Once dinner was done there were a few celebratory drinks before returning to our respective hotels.
Quite a bit of eating happened that day:
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Thursday was a pretty standard day that started with my regular lunch spot. Anna had the afternoon off so she had her mind set on shopping in the main areas so that’s how the other three spent their day, whereas I had done a significant amount of time where they would be, however, there were a few record stores that were a fairly long walk away so I headed to a new location and bought some pretty cool stuff. Andy must’ve got a little tired of shopping with the girls so he eventually messaged me to have a drink before dinner and after we ate we spent the night sitting around once more, drinking and chatting, particularly about possibilities for Hayley’s new upcoming work location.
Friday, April 10, 2026
It was the last day in Lyon for all of us, Andy and Hayley would be driving back to Germany, while Anna and myself would be flying to Milan, Italy that evening to spend a final night, returning the following afternoon to spend two days in Singapore before jetting off on another adventure. This was the final chance to take the pair to somewhere they hadn’t been yet on their stay, to join me as a part of my daily ritual of getting a coffee and a small bite to eat at the Paul Bocuse Food Hall before their long drive home to Wiesbaden, Anna also taking the opportunity to stock up on cheese and salami.
Prior to checkout Anna had been left a small cake so she ate that and we did one last lap of the city and a final snack before catching our incredibly tiny plane back to Italy, one so small it was hard for my skinny legs to fit between the seats while crouching down the aisle and we could even see what the pilots were doing just metres in front of us, but we made it in one piece. We arrived at around 8:00pm and needed to catch a train to Milan, however, once again it was delayed so it was quite late when we arrived. Fortunately there were still a few restaurants and bars open so we had dinner in a fantastic seafood restaurant down the canal from our hotel, Anna taking the opportunity to have one last pasta dish in Italy, and a final night out a little further up.
Wrapping up our last day in Lyon and dinner in Milan:
We left Italy the following morning, factoring in extra time for the inevitable train issues and not too long later we were on our way back to Singapore.
A big thank you to Andy and Hayley for making the trek down to Lyon, I hope Hayley had a great birthday, but an even bigger thank you to you both for my new toilet book, a first edition of the self-published, typo-ridden tome entitled I am the King of All Kings!!! by Jorel – The Crying Gentleman. It is proclaimed to be a “Spiritual-Action Novel” that begins in ancient Egypt with the erotically described Pharaoh Rahnun walking his far less attractive, yet still good looking best friend through the desert and teaching him about self love. From there it devolves into some even weirder shit and even has a QR code for the book’s accompanying soundtrack! There is one sole review for I am the King of All Kings!!! on Amazon:
AGENCY – THE DREAMCATCHERA clear recommendation to buy!
Reviewed in Germany on 17 February 2025
Coming up next in our packed April, five nights in Shanghai, China.
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