Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tour de Franzia

Big bonus points to anyone who spotted the title reference immediately. BIG bonus points.

I'm combining my visits to Lyon and Paris into a single entry, since I've visited both before, and the photos will probably make more statements more effectively than my writing. This is because - and I'm starting to notice it as a trend for my travel entries - the plot is a little thin.

So, here are the photos for Lyon.

And here are the ones for Paris.

Lyon was right between Grenoble and Paris and I'd be damned if I was going to miss out on traditional Lyonnaise food twice. So, the big draw for this visit was Le Musée, located here. As if the #1 rating on TripAdvisor (my go-to for eating when I travel... get your recommendations from them instead of me, and it's basically the same thing) wasn't enough to distinguish it, this restaurant is what they call an official "bouchon."

I mentioned these last time, but a little history lesson is appropriate (now that I actually know the history). In the Great Depression, a lot of (formerly) really rich households in Lyon had to fire their chefs. But, highly skilled cooks being what they are, they didn't have much trouble finding a new market: the public. So, they started up lots of restaurants - "bouchons" - serving good, hot food and just kept doing it. They're very NOT haute-cuisine, but more about a friendly, communal atmosphere. The food focuses on various... let's say "inventive" cuts of meat, so this is not the place to order "just a salad, thanks."

While Lyon is filled with places that advertise themselves as true bouchons, it's generally only the style and atmosphere they mimic, rather than the quality or price. There's a committee dedicated to going around every year and awarding certain restaurants (just under 20, usually) the title of "vrai bouchon Lyonnais" ("true Lyonnaise bouchon"). Which finally brings us back to Le Musée, where we couldn't get a table back in December, but for which I had a reservation this time.

Here's the restaurant. Very cozy.



First up: a piece of brioche bread with a piece of sausage baked in. It was made with love. Literally: I think they have a jar of the stuff, and they sprinkle a little bit on all of the meat they prepare, it tasted that good.




Main course: pig cheeks with potatoes gratin and a vegetable I've had before, can't remember the name of, and don't really like that much. Pig cheeks were delicious, and apparently are the leanest cut of pig you can get.




Finally, crème brulée:





...

Paris was surreal, as perhaps I already expressed here two years ago. I had a lovely visit this time: seeing good friends, eating good food, strolling, and getting my bearings again.

I also saw Chronicle, which was amazing. A really strong, original story with characters that were so close to real that I had to reassure myself I was walking out of a work of fiction at the end. This is in large part thanks to the cinematography (of which you get a good sense in the trailer above), which was thankfully more than a gimmick. In fact, it posed some academic questions I'm still having fun hashing out several weeks later. If you like superhero movies at all and are ready to be proven wrong in your (mostly rightful) preconceptions about high school movies, their characters, and the issues they explore, then go see Chronicle so we can discuss it.

So, as I toured Paris again, I'd have little flashes of my semester abroad and moments in certain places -- kind of like Ben Affleck in that movie Paycheck -- and by the end of three days, I was ready to go before this short vacation turned into really realizing I didn't really have a life here anymore.

So, I went to Budapest.

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