Lyon, France

A blend of culinary cultures

Great meals needn't bust your budget

Author: By William A. Davis, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, March 8, 1998

Page: M13

Section: Travel

The country's second-largest city, Lyon is located at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers, something that has made it a thriving commercial center since Roman times. Location also explains why Lyon is a magnet for lovers of good food.

Two hours from Paris and an hour from the Mediterranean coast by high-speed (TGV) train, Lyon straddles the invisible border of two culinary cultures. It is here that the butter-based cuisine of the north meets and marries with the olive-oil-inspired cooking of the south. It's a happy marriage.

The Lyonnais boast that their city has more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in France and a much higher ratio of places to eat to population than Paris. Some of the greatest chefs in France, such as Paul Bocuse and Alain Chapel, live and operate restaurants in the Lyon area, and have simplified and revitalized haute cuisine by returning it to its roots in the countryside.

A meal in a three-star French restaurant is unforgettable but budget busting: A tab of $200 or more per person is not uncommon. Happily, thanks to a beloved local institution, the ``bouchon,'' it is possible to dine well in Lyon at very affordable prices.

Originally a simple inn -- the name refers to the bundle of straw hung over the door to show that horses were stabled -- ``bouchon'' now means an unpretentious and usually family-run restaurant serving local dishes and regional wines. Beef, pork, fish, and fresh vegetables -- all are abundant in this fertile area. And the Cote de Rhone region to the south of the city and Beaujolais just to the north produce some of the most esteemed wines in France.

I dined one fondly-remembered evening at a popular bouchon, Cafe des Federations on Rue du Major Martin. Like most of the 30 or so bouchons in Lyon, the cafe is small, convivial, and cozily old-fashioned with red-checked table cloths, strings of sausages hanging from the ceiling, and a compounded aroma of delicious cooking smells that permeates the whole place.

Had I wished (and had the courage), I could have eaten calves' feet, tripe, or chitterlings. Instead, I opted for a local sausage (plump, pink, and sweet smelling), Lyonnais salad (which contains lard, boiled eggs, and croutons), and quenelle (a large dumpling flavored with pike from the Saone, morel mushrooms, and truffles). There was cheese from Saint Marcellin, and a nice but not pricey Rhone Valley wine to wash it all down. The bill came to well under $30.

A metropolis of 1.2 million people, Lyon offers a visitor many other things to do besides eat. The city boasts no fewer than 27 museums, for instance, including a Museum of Fine Arts with a collection that rivals the Louvre in size.

Lyon was founded in 43 BC on top of Fourviere hill by the Romans, who called their town Lugdunum and made it the capital of Gaul. The restored Roman amphitheater, which held 10,000 people, is now used for concerts and other outdoor summer events. Nearby is the Gallo-Roman museum, a modern building contoured to the shape of the hill with exhibits that re-create everyday life in Roman Lyon.

Across the Saone from Fourviere is the hill of Croix-Rousse, which also has Roman remains. However, Croix-Rouse is best known as the silk weavers' quarter. In the heyday of the silk trade, roughly from the beginning of 15th century to the middle of the 19th, the quarter was home to as many as 25,000 silk workers, known as ``canuts,'' and their looms.

Demonstrations of silk weaving are given daily at the neighborhood museum, Maison des Canuts, a former silk weaver's house on Rue d'Ivry. Superb examples of the weavers' art can also be seen in the Textile Museum, which shares an 18th-century townhouse on Rue de la Charite with the Museum of Decorative Arts.

Silk looms required high ceilings, and Croix-Rousse is known for its unusually tall houses. The hill is now a trendy part of town, filled with cafes, clubs, and bouchons, and many of its high old buildings, once home to several families of poor weavers, are now fashionable residences.

But the real center of local chic is Old Lyon, the neighborhood on the right bank of the Saone below Fourviere Hill. Once considered a slum, Old Lyon came close to being bulldozed away in the 1960s. Fortunately, preservationist prevailed, and the neighborhood today contains the finest concentration of restored Renaissance architecture in Europe: more than 300 buildings built in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

Most of the restored structures -- which now contain boutiques, cafes, restaurants, and expensive apartments -- were the mansions of wealthy merchants and bankers. Typically built around a central courtyard, these buildings are interconnected by covered passageways called ``traboulades.'' The best way to see Old Lyon is simply to poke around, sticking your head into courtyards, wandering down intriguing-looking traboulades, and taking frequent shopping and sidewalk cafe breaks.

At the heart of Old Lyon is St. Jean Cathedral, which was begun in the late 12th century. It's a fine example of a medieval church, but the big attraction is the animated astronomical clock. At noon and 1, 2, and 3 p.m., the clock strikes the hour. Then, a cock crows three times, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, a dove comes down, and a long-bearded Jehovah blesses the onlookers.

Another notable and very visible Lyon church is the Basilica of Our Lady on Fourviere Hill. A massive domed melange of various 19th-century revival styles (mostly neo-Byzantine and neo-Romanesque), the church was built as an expression of gratitude for the city's having being spared from destruction during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. From the basilica's northeast tower, so it is said, on a clear day you can see Mont Blanc in the Alps.

Like most second cities, Lyon chafes at its ranking and not so secretly yearns to be number one. Paris is a hard act to surpass, but Lyon keeps on trying.

The capital has the Eiffel Tower, but Lyon has an almost exact copy: the Tour Metallique, built in 1893 and now used as a television transmitter. And, like Paris, Lyon is also a ``City of Light.''

Every night from sundown until 1 a.m., 100 monumental sites -- churches, theaters, government buildings, statues, fountains, and bridges -- are illuminated. That may not transform Lyon into Paris, but it's still pretty darn impressive.