Europe Summer 2010 - Day 2

Day 2 – Lyon and Dijon

Saturday, woke up bright and early and checked out of the hotel. Packed everything into the car, and it was off to walk about! The weather that day was gorgeous – it was cool but the sun was shining, blue skies! Perfect for sightseeing.

beautiful river!
IMG_0057

they have bicycles for rent there. the gang checks them out.
IMG_0064

it's a scene we'll quickly get familiar with. closed shops :(
IMG_0067

Cam whored a little on this beautiful day!

Elsie looking cheerful, but mute from her bad throat.
IMG_0069

The sisters
IMG_0072

IMG_0071

We had pastries from an artisanal boulangerie first and it was yummeh. With a cuppa café crème. We realized that they don’t serve lattes in France. But it was top stuff, one of the best breakfasts we had in Europe.

Look at the selection of freshly baked bread. Who wants to go to Breadtalk after this???
IMG_0077

i tried to order a quiche + dessert + cafe set in french. i think i failed, but got what i wanted.
IMG_0078

other items that we shared!
IMG_0080

SALIVATES. best. tart. ever.
IMG_0083

the happy 6. (i am smiling behind the camera too!)
IMG_0085

It was onwards to the Old Town after! I love walking there as the architecture’s so authentic! There was also a Saturday flea market happening in front of the cathedral.

Exploring Old Town Lyon

Explored the rest of the old town, with the secret passageways, before climbing up the really high Basillica and the church.

Stairs and more!

It's really steep, groans. You can see the basillica from here.
The Climb

Nice houses along the way
Nice houses

Halfway up, you can see the cathedral that was at the foot
Halfway up

And FINALLY! We reached the top.

There was a panoramic view of the entire Lyon city.
Panoramic view of Lyon city

Took a lot of pictures of the church etc, but realised they looked quite similar to the one below, and are rather boring, so SKIP!

We had lemon sugar crepes as reward after coming down. (The guy behind is preparing a Nutella one, and yes he looks quite fierce.)
Sucre crepe!

Felicia with hers.
Felicia with hers

Next up, we went grocery shopping to buy a picnic lunch in the Lyon park! Apparently one of the biggest urban parks in Europe, it boasts of a lake and acres of greenery. There was even a zoo but we didn't go. People were sunning themselves and we joined them on the grass with our grocery-bought baguettes, cheese, hams, salads, biscuits, ovomaltine spread, yogurt and a kebab. Very cool, I love picnics!

Lunch at Lyon Park

Then it is bye bye to QY’s friend, who was with us. She’s on her way to France while we continued on to Dijon. It was a beautiful scenic drive with the clouds forming picturesque views! And the vineyards with the baby grape plants got all of us so excited we stopped to take a closer look.

Dijon!
Dijon!

Windows XP Wallpaper, v.2. haha!
Along the way

Super awesome cloud formations
Like a wallpaper!

Super good day

Last cloud pic promise. haha.
Awesome clouds

Paying for toll
Paying toll

Saw something funny on the way and I managed to capture it! Half a house!
Half a house!?

Baby grapes. Come August they will be delicious ones!
Baby grapes

Reached the town of Dijon pretty late at 7, so everything else was pretty much closed. Went to the little little hotel room to place our stuff and out we go to search for dinner in the town square.

Quaint little town..
Dijon city center

Found a place with my name in it! But we went to the restaurant beside and sat al fresco as the sun slowly descended.
My name on one of the restaurants!

This was our view as our seats were surrounding the plaza
The plaza

Bro with his GPS. Planning.
With the GPS, lifesaver

He ordered an aperatif AND a wine.
Aperatif and wine!

My order - beef bourguignon that comes with some egg pasta!
My Beef bourguignon with pasta

I could taste the wine in it and it was quite nice, if not a tad too salty
Beef bourguignon close up

Bro's cous cous with chicken, I think. Looks rather gross in the pic but its yummy, really.
Couscous with chicken

Fe has never tried a beef tartare, so she was determined to order one! It came, gargantuan, and had mustard in it which she did not really eat. But it was quite interesting, the raw taste of beef with the wasabi-ish mustard... A bit like eating sashimi.
Beef tartare!

Close up of the RAWness.
Close up, it was with mustard!

Da's carbonara.
Spaghetti

Elsie's salmon with veggies cooked in a plastic bag. haha.
Salmon with leek

The sun was slowly setting at TEN.
Sun's setting...

Yummy ice cream, salted caramel
Salted caramel ice cream

Apple tart with ice cream, yum too!
Apple dessert with ice cream!

View of the plaza as the sun finally decides to call it a day.
The plaza at night

Awesome end to an awesome day. Back to the hotel we go!
3 comments
  1. 1) Isn't it Sunday when the shops are all closed?
    2) Did you do the stitch manually? There're free programs to correct differing tones and exposures!
    3) "She’s on her way to France" - ???
    4) Food in the plastic bag - might be sous-vide cooking
    5) Is your company paying for your classes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha @gssq u're like the most frequent commenter on my blog posts, so nice! :) To answer your questions..

    1. yes Sunday all closed! damn sian. but also saturday mornings, they start at 10.30am or something, and we start our days at like 9am. slackers..

    2. ya i did it manually, lazy to use programs to stitch..

    3. The friend was with us in Switzerland, but left us that day to go to France to travel by herself! Spunky huh! She speaks pretty ok french though, she learnt it during secondary school.

    4. ah! now i know one more form of cooking. i ate a lot of dishes in europe without really knowing what they are called, haha.

    5. yes! :) i'm on to level 3 elementary now, and has since learnt future and past tenses. j'ai and je vais.. ur tweets are still too difficult to decipher though :p

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely pics! Nice food.. keke.

    *Like*

    Anyways, France serves Latte ah! I ordered before... keke...

    ReplyDelete