Laure and Quarup

In the last few years, I had heard rumors about a city that some claim to be the gastronomy capital of the world: Lyon, France. This is the type of rumor that calls for some on-the-ground fact checking.

So last May, Laure and I met up with our good friends Andy and Sarah to check out the food scene. We also sprinkled in with some sight seeing. At that point, Laure was pretty far into her pregnancy, and this trip worked out really well for us.

Lyon's old town, a.k.a. "Vieux-Lyon"

Bouchons

A bouchon is the title of certified traditional restaurants in Lyon where you can find traditional local dishes for a decent price. I've read that many of these bouchons have become tourist traps, but with some research, I believe (or hope) we were able to avoid those.

We had our first lunch at a bouchon named Le Bistrot de Saint Jean. It was a super casual place with friendly service.

Quenelle is a fish dumpling in a Béchamel based sauce. I thought it was a bit heavy for lunch!

My overall favorite traditional dish from Lyon was the Lyonnaise Salad. At first, I didn't bother paying much attention to it because it's "just" a salad. For that reason, I didn't even bother taking a photo. But as we realized how heavy most other traditional dishes are during our trip, the salad became a staple for many of our meals. I haven't been able to find it outside of Lyon, but it should be fairly easy to make it at home.

The Lyonnaise Salad became my favorite traditional dish from Lyon. Photo credit: recipe by Sara Kate Gillingham

Miniature and Cinema Museum (Musée Miniature et Cinéma)

Although we didn't want to make our trip about museums, there was one that piqued my interest: Musée Miniature et Cinéma. It turned out to be a worthwhile visit. The museum contains many boxes of miniature sets with amazing detail. I recommend checking it out when you are in the old town.

These half-meter long miniature sets contained amazing details. Even the lighting is done very well.

Miniature set of the museum in Jurassic Park.

There were several of these restaurant sets. Even the tiny guitar looks real.

Just kidding, that was actually a photo of...

Le Comptoir du Vin

For our first dinner, we decided to go to Le Comptoir du Vin, which is a small down-to-earth restaurant run by a chef named Daniel Perrier in a tiny kitchen with the help of a single waiter. We were surprised at the gigantic portion sizes, which we struggled to finish considering that traditional Lyonnaise food was not so light.

The massive beef tartar at Le Comptoir du Vin.

After dinner, we walked around Lyon and watched the crowds on the bustling Friday night. We came across a cool fountain statue named Fontaine Bartholdi by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the statue of liberty.

The horses of Fontaine Bartholdi look like they are snorting steam out of their noses.

Farmer's market and cappuccino at Presqu'île

We started our second day by checking out the farmer's market at Presqu'île, which is the heart of the new town area.

Farmer's market at Presqu'île

This was the first time I found macarons at a "farmer's" market!

If you've travelled with me and Laure, then you know that we like to start our day with a good cappuccino. We typically read a few blog posts written by coffee fanatics in order to find the best spots for coffee. In Lyon, the choices are much more limited than other metropolitan cities like Paris that have more quickly embraced the espresso coffee trend. But one place that stood above all others was Mokxa cafe.

Mokxa cafe provided a decent cappuccino.

Traboules du Vieux Lyon

Another cool touristy thing to do in the old town are the Traboules du Vieux Lyon. The traboules are labyrinthine paths through the old town that residents used to access the river and silk workers used to transport their silk without getting wet. During World War 2, some members of the Resistance against the Nazis used traboules to escape the Gestapo.

Traboules du Vieux Lyon

Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse

Now is as good of a time as any to talk about the legendary local chef Paul Bocuse, who is no doubt part of the reason some regard Lyon as the capital of gastronomy. Bocuse played a significant role in a then-new style of cooking named nouvelle cuisine back in the 60's. He has also taught many other very influential chefs that made their own marks in culinary history. Nowadays, many things in Lyon are named after Bocuse including...

Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse

Les Halles is an indoor market place in the center of town with many high quality food stalls. We took this opportunity to buy picnic ingredients including cured meats and cheeses.

We got good recommendations for our picnic cheeses.

Les Halles also has a few small restaurants serving prepared food. We took this opportunity to indulge in escargot and wine.

Buttery escargot.

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

After a quick nap, we took a funicular up to a popular basilica on the hill overlooking the old town.

Andy and Sarah...

and Laure and I at Place de Fourvière.

The basilica is ridiculously over the top flaunting the wealth of the Catholic church.

After snapping a few photos and checking out the basilica, we found a park bench where we could enjoy the goodies we bought at Les Halles market.

Picnic at the park.

Good food with great friends.

Le Canut et Les Gones

On our second night, we dined at Le Canut et Les Gones, which turned out to provide our overall favorite meal in Lyon. This cozy and thoughtfully decorated restaurant offers deliciously tasting and beautifully presented dishes.

Salmon as a perfect cuboid.

Juicy duck.

What I liked about Le Canut et Les Gones is how its dishes highlighted each individual flavor of the ingredients. In contrast, other restaurants with more traditional dishes usually merged a lot of flavors into a powerful combination, which is less interesting in large quantities.

I think this was an Ile Flottante, but I don't see the custard underneath.

So, is Lyon really the capital of gastronomy?

I don't believe any single city can really hold the title as the capital of gastronomy. Different cities have different specialties, and different people have different tastes.

That being said, Lyon offers hearty traditional dishes as well as more sophisticated modern dining at a nice budget. If you want to get fancy, there is also Paul Bocuse's legendary restaurant that has consistently received three Michelin stars for over 50 years. But you're more likely to find us at Le Canut et Les Gones instead.

Santorini is a place I had been dreaming of visiting for years. I can't think of too many other places that look more romantic than this island. It felt like the right place to end our babymoon because there was a chance we would not go on a romantic trip for a while.

A common way to get from mainland Greece to Santorini is by ferry - a long ferry ride. I wasn't going to risk taking a ferry while pregnant to Santorini and getting sea sick for the first time in my life, so we thought it would be best to fly from Athens. Getting from our hotel in Hydra to our Hotel in Santorini took 24 hours. A boat back to the mainland, driving to Athens airport to return the rental car, an overnight stay at an nearby airport hotel, a sunrise flight, followed by a taxi to our hotel made an exhausting trip. Thankfully we were now in the perfect place to relax and recharge.

We took our time driving back to Athens' airport enjoying the scenery that reminded us of California.

Our stay at the Marizan Caves & Villas exceeded everything I had dreamed Oia to be. Crisp white walls, outdoor staircases leading to rooms that cascaded down the hillside, colorful flowers throughout, bright airy rooms, views of the famous Oia sunset from every room's private terrace or hot tub and the most amazing staff I have ever encountered. The staff made us feel like old beloved friends, helped plan our stay, made reservations at restaurants for us, helped arrange all the transpiration, kept us informed of sunset times. On one evening when everyone thought we were going to miss the sunset due to overcast - the staff went around to ever room to inform guests that the skies cleared just in time for a surprise sunset! If the city wasn't so inviting to explore, we could have relaxed at our suite and still have had an awesome vacation.

Our spacious studio apartment at Marizan Caves and Villas.

We were greeted very time we walked of of the apartment to this view.

The property trickled down the hillside to more apartments and sunning terraces.

Crisp white paint and bright potted plants along the outdoor staircases fulfilled my vision of what I imagined Oia to be.

Plus, the hotel had one of the few hot tubs where you could watch the sunset from!

Looking back at the crowds of people watching sunset. Only guests were allowed onto the hotel property.

We were also a bit skeptical of Oia’s beauty. We have all seen the stunning photos of Oia and like many places, we thought these vistas could only be enjoyed from one or two spots. In reality, we found stunning beauty throughout the town. Instead of island hoping to nearby Mykonos for the day, we spent most of our days strolling the streets of Oia soaking in the sunshine and views. These photos do little justice to the beauty of the town.

Oia, Santorini

Along the main walkway in Oia, it's obvious when the cruse-liner tour buses arrive.

Within a few minutes from the main part of city, there are charming and quiet alleys to explore.

The small walkways between homes and hotels are very tempting to venture into for a photo safari.

Our evening walk to the main part of town for dinner.

The 7 month bump.

And like the rest of our Greek trip, the food was wonderful. With the help of our hotel, recommendations from friends, and our own online research, we had numerous memorable meals. I am a big seafood lover and was excited about eating fresh seafood, especially since we now live far from the ocean. Oh but pregnancy was cruel to me. While Q was raving about every fish meal, they all tasted bland to me. The pregnancy must have dulled my senses to fish.

We still couldn't get enough of the Greek salad.

Ouzo along the Agean Sea for Q

A simple bake is all one needs in order to taste excellent when the fish is this fresh.

We become regulars at Skiza for their pastries, iced coffee and Greek breakfast.

We did venture out of Oia for one day of sightseeing. We rented a car and cruised around the island stopping at the Red Sand Beach and Perissa Beach. High season was just around the corner and much of the island was still sleepy or just starting to prepare for the late spring's start of tourist season. Being out on empty roads and with the locals was nice but too lonely for our liking. 

Completely underwhelmed by the Red Sand Beach. Wasn't worth the walk down there to touch the cold water.

It wasn't warm enough at Perissa Beach to lay outside. But from inside, it made for a beautiful view.

Saying goodbye to Oia and the hotel stay was a little bittersweet. It was the end of my dream babymoon and the end of fast paced travel - at least for a while.

Oh, we are definitely coming back to Greece