Lyon at Night

Dana and I allowed ourselves one fancy-pants meal in each country we visited, and in France, we chose Lyon. On recommendation, we went to Le Sud, Paul Bocuse's restaurant that focuses on the cuisine of the south of France. The establishment was definitely upscale, and the food was very nice, but we did not feel that the service matched the rest of the place, especially the curtains. The curtains were classic eggshell-white, while the service was classic broken egg shells.

For starters, both of our menus were missing a page. This wasn't just the page for starters, but we did notice that other (mostly French) people had thicker menus and that people were eating things we didn't see on our menu. When we asked about it, in strained French, a waiter brought over the missing menu options as if we had asked for a glass of tap water and hurried off. We ordered, and the food was very good, but I have to mention one other thing: everyone else got bread as they were seated, and we didn't. I understand that in some places you have to request bread, but that was not the case here - or at least it was not offered and everyone around us had bread magically appear before them. I wanted to throw a tantrum for bread, but Dana didn't let me.

Throughout our trip, and even prior to it, while living in Australia and the US, we had been told by Americans that the French hate us. Until we reached Belgium, and even considering Le Sud, no other country offered better service than France. The French were courteous, and a guy at a breakfast place in Nice even asked about September 11! But yeah, the service at Le Sud sucked. Our acknowledgment showed in the tip, and recognition of our acknowledgment showed in the faces of the Frenchmen who blew us off for 2 hours.

Our other big Lyon experience was on our last night. Dana and I were in the historic part of town when heavy rain began pouring down. We found a great place to eat, the greatest toilet in the world and then found it quite difficult to find any sort of pub or bar that was still open. Finally we were drawn by the music of an establishment glowing warmly in the rainy night. We quickly realized that it was an American bar! They had Westmalle Tripel on tap, we stayed and soon made a new friend. Raphael joined us until we decided to brave the rain again and head back to the hotel. The McDonald's nearby was closed, but the take-out window was open. People lined up in the rainy street to order food at the Walk-Thru. Service must have been pretty good.

See Lyon at night.