After a nighttime flight from Bordeaux to Geneva, we were picked up by Allison's host sister, Elisa, and her husband Christian to head to their house in Bonneville, France. We had planned to visit Yvoire and Montreux on the 9th, but awful weather (theme of the trip) caused us to audible to a relaxation day.
Allison hung out with Elisa and her kiddos, while I slept for 15 hours and found some donkeys to hang out with during the breaks in the storm. I will say that I was quite sad today when I learned that one of my genius drunken inventions from earlier in the trip, my deli meat guillotine, was already a thing when I noticed one at the cheese store. One of these days I'll have my trillion dollar idea.
5/10/19
The following day, we drove into Geneva to walk around the lake and grab a quick bite to eat before our train to Lyon. The first thing we noticed was the Jet d'Eau, which is a giant water fountain situated in Lake Geneva since the late 19th century. It blasts water almost 500 feet high. It's pretty cool.
We later passed by the Brunswick Monument on our way to the train station. It was built in the late 19th century in honor of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick. He gave all his money to the city of Geneva if they promised to build him a cool monument. To me, it doesn't sound like the best of trades, but the dude's dead so he probably doesn't give a shit.
After an easy train ride, we arrived in Lyon in the middle of the afternoon and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, Cour des Loges. It's located perfectly in the middle of the pedestrian old-town area of the city, which is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, this "5 star" hotel wouldn't turn the air conditioning on, even though our rooms were 80+ degrees in the afternoon. Had to have them bring us multiple fans at 3 in the morning.
5/11/19
The forecast for our only full day in Lyon was partially cloudy with random hailstorms popping up without warning. We started our day by exploring Vieux Lyon, which is the pedestrian old-town area where our hotel was located. Easily walkable with tons of restaurants and places to grab drinks, plus there was a museum with The Penguin in it.
After grabbing lunch, we took the funicular (Can't spell funicular without F-U-N) to the top of Fourviere Hill, which overlooks the city. Upon walking out of the station we immediately ran into Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. It was built in the late 19th century in honor of the Virgin Mary, who is attributed with saving the city from bubonic plague, cholera, and invasions. It also has some pretty sweet views.
After checking out the basilica, we started making our way towards the Theatre Romains de Fourviere, which was built in 15 BC and is still used today. They were actually setting up for a show while we were crawling all over the ruins. God then decided it would be fun to blast us with a random hail storm while we were exploring, prompting us to escape to the funicular and return back down the hill.
Restaurants
The Cottage Cafe in Geneva is located in a little park next to the Brunswick Monument. We stopped by to grab lunch before our train to Lyon. It was a bit expensive, because Switzerland, but the food was excellent and the service was very good. Great outdoor seating.
Takao Takano is a 2* Michelin restaurant and I can definitely see why. The service was impeccable, the wine pairings were perfect, and the all of the different courses were amazing. There was some escargot + chicken soup thing they gave us that was the best thing I've ever tasted in my entire life.
Un Deux Trois is located in the pedestrian area near our hotel. Allison and I stopped for lunch after checking out Fourviere hill in the morning. The food is good and the wine is cheap. I had an escargot ravioli dish that was excellent.
Jeremy Galvan is a 1* Michelin restaurant in the pedestrian area near our hotel. The entire area is littered with Michelin stars. This was the most "inventive" dinner I've ever had. I guess that's the word for it. There are little soups in tiny corked bottles, edible table decorations, chocolate balls in birds nests, and random dishes on an gigantic old piece of bark. And it was all excellent. As usual, the wine was paired perfectly. Dinner at these kind of restaurants take FOREVER though. It was a 3-4 hours experience and we were super sleepy by the end of the final course. It was also very affordable for what is being offered.
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