Lyon - La Part Dieu

A recent business trip France had me located in Lyon. I had not yet been there and was hoping to be able to see something of this southern French city. Arriving there I took a taxi and asked the driver if she could bring me to my Hotel located in La Part Dieu. During the trip we had a pleasant conversation in French. Now, my French is not really up to standard, which is a bit embarrassing considering the fact I have a (beautiful) French girlfriend and thus plenty of opportunity to speak the language. Nonetheless, I managed to understand her and make several coherent replies. It seemed they had some problems with brouillard that day, which resulted in some delays on the airport. Nothing serious, but nonetheless inconvenient.

The hotel I was booked into in La Part Dieu was nothing special (don’t believe a word of people that brag of super nice hotels when traveling for business purposes, most of them exaggerate), but it served its purpose and was conveniently located near a taxi stand and a Centre Commercial. The taxi stands facilitated easy access to Lyon centre. The behemoth Centre Commercial had every magasin you can imagine. Though I was a bit surprised it only had one Pharmacy, normally France is littered with them.

In Lyon itself I had a lovely dinner in Le Sud, a brasserie/restaurant of The French Michelin awarded Top chef Paul Bocuse. Normally eating at a Michelin awarded cuisine is expensive. However, to allow the plebs to experience his cuisine the (¿arrogant?) Chef opened one affordable restaurant for all four winds. But I admit that the food was good and indeed very affordable. Bravo Chef.

Next week I’ll be there again, although located in a different hotel in a different area of Lyon. No Centre Commercial, but alas only a 5 min drive from the city centre. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to see something more of the old city of Lyon. I am told it is lovely.

Maybe I’ll try the menu in Ouest.

Curious

It was displayed in the airport bookstore. I think the cover print fascinated me or the handy pocket size… or maybe the red color was simply standing out from the rest of the books on the same display. Or… oh whatever.., marketing people come up with all kinds of tricks to get you to buy the book they want you to buy anyway.

They made me buy The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the little red book with the fascinating cover.
I read it on the plane and finished it before landing. I loved it. I laughed, cried, grinned and experienced many other emotions (with related facial expressions!).

Probably the best mystery story I read in a long time. The story is about a little boy who is autistic. When something big happens in his world he starts an investigation. With his logic and literal thinking he starts mission impossible… or not? I didn't regret the buy for a moment.

Just buy it yourself and tell me here what you think about it. And maybe you’ll have a recommended read for me in return.

ISBN 1-4000-7783-4 (copy & paste in an online bookstore of your choice)

Exciting & Fun in Luxembourg City

We’ll be visiting the sister of my girlfriend coming weekend. She moved apartments recently from a suburb to a location more close to the center of Luxembourg City. Her boyfriend will be over that weekend too.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing them again. Because they are nice people, but also because of ulterior motives (:wicked:). You see, when they’re around, something fun is always happening. Of course fun is relative. But, let’s presume for the purpose of this blog-entry that the happenings are fun.

For example, the last time we were all together we brought down a 15 meter high tree with only an axe, saw and a rope. Really exciting & fun. There was a catch though. The tree was standing in a garden of 6 square meters surrounded by garden sheds…. Pure manly fun you’d think…... However, the garden was ours, the sheds were not. I never knew chopped down trees created such chaos. Only last week, when I had the perfect opportunity, I finally finished clearing up the mess. Alas, details details.

A tout, I’ll be away next weekend having excitement and fun in Luxembourg City.