Kevin was a hero and manned the eight passenger van like a champ, the streets are narrow in these old European cities! After dropping our stuff off at the airbnb, we headed to dinner at Brasserie Paul Bocuse L'est which was a really neat place situated in an old train station. The dinner was filling and delicious, and since we were eating early for French standards we basically had the place to ourselves. Yay! After a long dinner with our tired friends, who had just traveled 24 hours to see us, we headed back to our apartment to rest up for Saturday.
Our little birdies woke up early, and unfortunately a little "off". It was one of those mornings where the brother sister squabbles were hard to stop and grumpy kids were the order of the day. Ugh. Our kids have been really great for trips lately, so I guess we were due for rocky weekend, but man I did not see it coming and I was not prepared.
The weekend was full of highs and lows, we loved wandering through Les Halles Paul Bocuse and decided to grab a variety of meats and cheeses for a picnic in the park, but my impression of wandering this amazing market will forever be colored by the memory of a certain little lady having a fierce throw down over a piece of fruit... Ah, nothing like the sweet song of a two year old...
Just look at these yummy Lyonnaise treats though!
Here is Kevin and our friends with the spoils from the market, Our friends bought a meter of Macarons, we didn't have any trouble finishing those off!
Lyon has a neat funicular that takes you to the top of Fourvière Hill where you can walk through the ornate basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was fairly clear when we went up and the views of Lyon and the rivers are beautiful. Our little sleeping Annie was also a beautiful sight to see!
The boys checking out the view.
We took the funicular down and toured Vieux Lyon. We loved wandering through the traboules, which are passageways that were used by silk workers to transport their wares, then used by resistance fighters during WWII. It was so fun to push open a giant old door and wander through the winding tunnels to see where you pop out.
PULL Quinn!!
Lyon has a really beautiful park called Parc de la Tête d'Or, which is reminiscent of a small Central Park and proved to be a really relaxing way to end the weekend. We wandered in looking for a playground and stumbled upon a pretty extensive free zoo instead! Obviously the kids loved it, as they were in their natural element and I have to say I didn't mind staring at the giraffes either.
We found the playground, and true to form our kids found their groove. They also could not pass up the chance to ride the carousel, fortunately our friend was a trooper and rode with them!
During the drive home, I had a chance to reflect on the weekend and the kids and remembered that everyone, even/especially kids have off days (or weekends in this case) and this weekend will be one that will go down in our collective family memories, although maybe not for the reasons we thought.
it would!
So here's to making all sorts of memories!
