Saturday, 1 July, 2017 – Weather Cool and Drizzly

So, another financial year has begun.

After breakfast, where of course smoked salmon featured again, we decide to go to the market along the river. We have been there before in our trips to Lyon. Each day is a different theme with crafts, clothing and today food. A number of my photos follow.

We depart the market, without buying anything but wine. In my view, Lyon is probably a better place for very small groups rather than a large group with lots of organised activities.

This afternoon the group is to have a picnic with food sourced from Les Halles de Lyon by Paul Bocuse market.

When we visited this market on one of our earlier trips to Lyon I wasn’t that impressed but it seems much better to me this time. There also lots of restaurants within. The group took a bus to get there but of course Julie walked and beats us all there.

We gather outside with Capo who assigns each couple a product for the picnic to purchase. We are given bread and we go to a shop that has a long queue. Talking to a girl in the queue she said this is one of the two best bread shops in all of Lyon.

We bought more than our supposed limit and Julie bought a flan that was supposed to be world famous. We then meet up with Kate and decide to settle in the outdoor courtyard nearby where there is concrete furniture. The original plan had been down by the river but there is construction and rain is threatening.

Slowly the various groups show up. There is our bread, cheeses including a stinky that tastes great, smoked salmon with blinis, cold meats, terrines, wines by Jeremy and the highlight.

Surprisingly, most of the food was eaten. Some of the sweets were taken home while we left the remaining bread behind for the homeless people. The rain had held out for most of the day but started up a bit on the way back. We took the bus again to get close to the Hotel, Julie walked with Eileen and Tony.

It was agreed to meet at 6:00 at the bar upstairs to “spend” our fines money that was collected by Toto yesterday. Because of the cost of the drinks, we all had to kick-in more including a second dip. When we arrived at 6:30, there was a good sized group of us with little room for others. Eventually a couple of tables left and we were able to combine into a decent area where all 21 of us could fit.

One very pleasing aspect of this scene is that Rob’s Chris is able to attend. She is slowly getting better.

We all are on our own for dinner tonight. Julie has talked to the Concierge to look for a Duck restaurant. He makes a reservation for us at a place about 6 blocks away.

The place was unusual in that there was only one staff. He was waiter, server and cook. He did a pretty good job of juggling the duties, especially when a couple of biggish groups arrived later.

Back to the Hotel and retire for the night.