Lyon is just what I want from a French city. A major metro area with history, musees, cuisine, a subway, diversite. But unlike Paris, manageable, and not overrun with rich people. A young guy in a cafe told us there are rich people in Lyon, but they try to blend in. Much better.
Vieux Lyon where we stayed is a pretty well-preserved medieval quarter. Filled with restaurants, and most of them offering a menu for about 15 Euros. Our second dinner, at a place chosen at random, was superb. Truth be told, I'm not overwhelmed by French cuisine. Too much meat, too little spice and more so ceremonial it feels like every dinner is a Seder. In fact, I'd just been eating low-end Parisian food that was more show than cooking. I couldn't afford the good stuff. Not so in Lyon. My favorite: salad Lyonnais.
In our short stay we visited one museum: the Institut Lumiere, about the brothers who started the film industry. Wildly inventive, the Lumieres had adjoining mansions on the grounds of their studios. The museum is in the mansions, housing all sorts of early film equipment, video loops of early films, and biographical info. It was also cluttered, confusing and boring. Oh well.
I'd live in Lyon, if I could. But two days is all we had. So sad.
And then a TGV ride to Montpellier on the Mediterranean. Or rather a tram ride to the Mediterranean. A t very different city. Sand-colored stone, scruffier, no river. More Southern.
On the first afternoon, my old Rolling Stone colleague, and Montpellier resident, Ed Ward, gave us an exhausting tour around the city filled with history and architecture. It turned cold and drizzly. Ed, like so many of us in free-lance writing, is wrestling with the harsher market. He's still heard by 18 million listeners to his segments on Terry Gross' Fresh Air, though. We writers must endure so much. Don't people understand our greatness?
Of course we're suffering, too. Our hotel here is leagues below what we enjoyed in Lyon. Half the price, but definitely on the cheap, small side. Nice view of rooftops, but tiny. I demand luxury! But I fear Lyon was the high point, and it's all downhill from here. We'll see.
Today, Sunday, is election day. The first round of voting that will probably turn Sarkozy out of office... But who knows? Our hotel-keeper cautiously probed our political sympathies and when I told her that I'd vote for the Communist Melenchon, she agreed saying it was time for a change. Of course Americans voted for a change in 2010 not imagining that they'd usher in an era of fascism. People expect so much from electoral politics though, and are usually disappointed.m
Today we're wandering the old town, but without the marching. Lots of people out and about. Still cold, but getting warmer.
Tomorrow morning we pick up a car and head out int the country. Nous cherchons la France profonde. Deep France. I'm not sure I can handle it though. Less English spoken and more paysage. I may flee back to a city.
More to come.
You could have had a much more luxurious room on the other side of the hotel, you know, if you'd selected a "chambre de standing." But European hotel rooms are smaller than US hotel rooms, no doubt about that.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a river, the Lez, incidentally. You just never got close to it. And, since it floods from time to time, it never got close to you.