Art & Food as Art

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We only had two things on our schedule for today: Musée des Beaux-Art and the Paul Bocuse Market. Even with only two things on the schedule we were still up at 6 am to get ready for the day and have breakfast. The breakfast here was pretty classic French breakfast, bread, cheese yogurt and fruit. The addition here was some sliced meats, mainly nice French ham, and hard-boiled eggs. The coffee was not as could as Hotel de Champs du Mar and the croissants were not as light and flakey., still better than anything back home. Today’s blog is going to be fairly short as I don’t have a great deal to say. We spent a few hours in the museum, which is in what was once a Benedictine Abbey dating back to the late 16^thcentury. It did have just about something for everyone, from ancient roman to cubism. There was a small impressionist section, with one very small Van Gough, Monet, Degas, and the others. The religious art was fairly intense and a lot of Renaissance. It was obviously school field trip day at the museum, from grade school to high school. If we would have been able to understand French, we would have had a free guided tour.

Outside the museum is Place des Terreaux, a large square with a fountain designed by the same person that designed the Statute of Liberty in the center. The square is flanked on one side by café’s, the other City Hall and the museum. Around the corner was the Opera and the metro stop. To get to our next stop the direct route was a bus as the Metro would have required about a ½ mile walk. The bus dropped us off directly in front.

The second half of the day was planned for exploring the large indoor market on the opposite side of the Roan from where we were staying. Unfortunately, all of the markets were closed and apparently are only open on the weekends. There were a few that did open, but most of what was open were the restaurants. We had planned on having lunch there any way, so we walked around to find the spot we wanted. The vast majority of the places were all about oysters, which is definitely not for us. We did find Les Garcon Bouchers (The butch guys) all about meat.

Before I go into lunch, a brief note about the market. It was created by Paul Bocuse, perhaps the most famous chef in Lyon. I would tell you more about him, but other than the is a multiple Michelin star chef, we didn’t find out too much else about him. The market is large, in a modern building and in the central business district. It is easily accessible by bus, and if up for it, is also walkable from the center of the city.

We went with what we thought would be a lighter lunch, since dinner was going to be at a more upscale restaurant. What we had was not light and very rich, fortunately we did split everything. We started with, yes, a Salade Lyonnaise. Just in case you can’t tell from the pictures, Lyonnaise is pretty much a bacon and crouton salad with a few lettuce leaves and a poached egg. But it sure is good. Our plat was gratin d’andouillette. This is a very rich pork belly sausage baked with cheese cream and topped with breadcrumbs. Very rich, and we could not even eat it all. Even with the pot of white wine to help counter the fat.

That is pretty much the day until dinner. We did walk back on to the Island, and then took the Metro for one stop back to our hotel. The Metro is clean and can get you many places but you still need to walk a fair amount even if using the Metro.

We got back to the room in time for a brief nap, yes, I nap now on vacations. Jerry was out and about looking for some wine and water for the room.

Epona

Dinner was in the Epona which is located in the Intercontinental Hotel. Originally the building was a hospital, but the entire building has been renovated and updated. The hotel takes up most of the building. It is of course where the rich and famous likely stay when visiting. We are neither rich nor famous, so unless I have enough IHG points, we won’t be staying there any time soon.

The restaurant is very, for lack of a better description, very trendy and nouvelle. The cuisine while French is in the nouvelle cuisine style. Meaning the plating is almost as important as the food, hence the second half of the title of the entry “Food as Art.” The service was outstanding and the food good. I can’t say as much for many of the other quests, Americans, who didn’t know how to order, behave or dress in a restaurant of this caliber. That aside, let’s move to the meal.

Champagne, of course to start. Jerry started with Asparagus (Asperges Vertes du Vaucluse Oeuf Pafait, with sauce vin Jaune du Jura. First, it was the dish of the day. The translation is poached asparagus with a Jura yellow wine sauce, stopped with a perfect egg. I had (green soup) actually Le Cresson, watercress soup, with fennel, leek and basis marinated in Gin. It was good, I would have done a light sauté on the fennel and leeks, instead of raw, but it was still good.

For the mains, Jerry is still stuck on beef mode and had Beef Filet in a Gioacchino Rossini sauce with roasted potatoes. On top of the beef was seared foie gras and it all sat on top of nicely toasted brioche. I had Langoustine over peas with a curry sauce (very French/Indian fusion). It was good, just light on the Langoustine.

Dessert was a play on carrot cake for Jerry and a Chocolate Banana concoction for me.

That was the day, back to the hotel and crash. Tomorrow is cooking class, probably a short blog entry but hopefully lots of pictures.

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