Lyon: two rivers, 4,000 restaurants and a rare appetite for life

EVERY city has its heroes. Sporting, musical, maybe a major benefactor. Two legends that reign still in Lyon are Paul Bocuse and Jean Moulin, one a once-in-a lifetime chef, the other a Resistance martyr. Born 25 years apart, the first lived to the ripe old age of 91, universally revered, the other died in the shadows at the hands of the Gestapo during World War Two.

Share a whole Poulet de Bresse, cooked ‘en vessie’ (inside an inflated pig’s bladder) and accompanied by a morel mushroom cream

Bocuse (1926-2018) literally towers over the food hall that bears his name – in mural form across the Cours de Lafayette – and his restaurant empire still thrives, though it has no commercial association with the market.

To trace Moulin’s underground role in the darkest days of France’s second city you have to visit its Centre for the History of the Resistance and Deportation on the Avenue Berthelot. It’s a sombre reminder of a very different Lyon from today’s gregarious capital of gastronomy, a true European hub astride the mighty rivers Rhone and Saône.

More on the mysterious Moulin (1899-1943) later and the ‘secret passages’ inside a cityscape rich in Renaissance buildings. My prime mission in Lyon is to eat. That’s why straight off the TGV from Paris I am sipping Beaujolais with my paté en croûte starter at the “Golden Casserole”…

The bouchon experience is at the heart of Lyon troughing

In a building dating back to 1890 Le Poêlon d’Or is one of 21 bouchons officially certified as such across the city, but the word is widely used (and abused) for any cafe serving plates of traditional Lyonnaise cuisine on red checked tablecloths. 

Expect pig’s snout salad, tripe, offal, andouillettes (coarse sausages made from assorted pork innards) snails, puy lentils, rosette de Lyon salami with cornichon gherkins and a cheese course of the inimitable local St Marcellin goat – all washed down with copious amounts of Beaujolais (a better bet than the rather thin Gamay reds of the Cotes du Lyonnais).

My main has to be that most ‘Marmite’ of Lyon treats – the andouillette. To quote one eminent French-based travel writer: “It looks, smells and tastes as if it should be in a lavatory – a gastronomic challenge to equal anything slimy offered by New Guinean street traders.”  

Pinching my nose, I rediscover my affection for it. Accompanied by a moutarde ancienne sauce and a tranche of gratin dauphinois, this is as earthily good as it gets. Later in the Café du Peintre I will rekindle my trickier relationship with quenelles, those creamy dumplings of pike mousse, served with a crayfish-based Sauce Nantua, that in the wrong chef’s hands can be stodgy and bland. 

It takes 20 minutes for the quenelles to poach, so I’d suggest follow my lead and fill the gap with a half dozen snails in parsley and garlic butter.

This characterful spot buys in their quenelles from Sibilia, a charcuterie/traiteur founded by Colette Sibilia in 1922 and supplier to many bouchons. 

Across a number of locations, including Les Halles (where it goes en face à face with arch-rivals Bobosse and Cellerier) they create benchmark paté en croûte. This is a terrine encased in a hot water crust. I particularly loved a black pudding version I tasted at the Sibilia test kitchen, where Alsace-born Bruno Bluntzer upholds the tradition. He took over from the legendary Colette 13 years ago. Plus ça change it isn’t though. For the past three years Japan has beaten France at the pâté en croûte world championships in the city.

The delicious legacy of the Mères Lyonnaises and Monsieur Bocuse

Colette is one of many women who have shaped the city’s culinary scene. Notably the Mères Lyonnaises. These were female cooks from the 18th century onwards who made the leap from domestic service to running their own restaurants, culminating in the early 20th century in Eugénie Brazier. She won three Michelin stars at two separate restaurants, one of which, Mère Brazier, is still going strong in the Rue Royale. The simpler bouchons also spring from the Mères’ straightforward approach to using the riches of local produce.

Back in 1946 Mère Brazier’s star apprentice made his bow – a certain Paul Bocuse, forever associated with Nouvelle Cuisine, which famously reworked heavy classical gastronomy into something lighter. It’s all relative. Turn up, five years after his death, at the Restaurant Paul Bocuse, at Collonges au Mont d’Or north of the city,  and they are still serving the likes of substantial hare stew Lièvre à la Royale façon Anton Carême for 94 euros; for 290 euros you can share a truffled whole Poulet de Bresse, cooked ‘en vessie’ (inside an inflated pig’s bladder) and accompanied by a morel mushroom cream. They served this labour-intensive chicken speciality to Anthony Bourdain on his telly visit.

Of course, a foodie odyssey in a city of nearly 4,000 restaurants and brilliant markets doesn’t have to be that decadent or expensive…. 

Eight lip-smacking tips for getting inside Lyon’s culinary skin

1. Wander Les Halles de Paul Bocuse (or book a guided tour) to encounter everything from those Bresse chickens, sold with their heads on, at the Boucherie Massot to amazing cheeses at Fromagerie La Mère Richard; from oysters shucked for you at Chez Antonin to frog’s legs freshly plated for you at Baba la Grenouille. Dotted all around the hall is Lyon’s crunchy sweet speciality – praline. 

2. Pralines are basically almonds wrapped in pink caramelised sugar. Tough on the teeth but the flavour is more accessible when ground to a paste to make tarts and brioches. One step further and you are in the realm of Le Sirop de la Rue on the Rue St Jean in Vieux-Lyon. Praline in syrup form, called naughtily Cul Cul (butt to you) is exclusive to this old school shop, which offers a respite from the Old Town’s tourist throngs. Proprietor Frédéric served us slices of Jesus de Lyon salami with a kind of Kir made from his sirop and Beaujolais.

3. Frédéric also dished up some cervelle de canut, which translates literally as ‘silk worker’s brains’. This is a cream cheese laced with onions and garlic, often served after a meal. It was a staple among the straitened folk who worked in the silk industry high up on the hill of Croix-Rousse.

4. Bernachon Chocolaterie caters for a different end of the sweet tooth spectrum. Their boutique and tea-room up on Cours Franklin Roosevelt, a 10 minute walk from Les Halles, has the swank of a fashion house and almost the prices to match. but there’s no doubting the quality. They do pastries too, their most famous called the ‘President’. 

This was created by Maurice Bernachon and Paul Bocuse in 1975 to celebrate Bocuse receiving the Legion of Honour from Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The first one was for 20 people and weighed 3kg. In more modest form it is still a best-seller at 34 euros and yes praline as well as chocolate is involved!

Bernachon do tours, combining chocolate lasting with breakfast or lunch and chocolate making workshops.

5. It can be hands on too in the cookery classes of another high price Lyon figure, Joseph Viola, who runs three ‘elevated’ bouchons, all called Daniel et Denise, and his duck foie gras and sweetbread pâté en croûte was crowned 2009 world champion. For 190 euros a head he’ll show you how to make it and others of that ilk.

6. For an alternative to all this tradition trek down to what used to be a shabby industrial district at the southern tip of the Presqu’île peninsula, where the Rhone and Saône meet. The shinily revamped Confluence is home to cutting edge Prairial, not your average Lyon Michelin-starred restaurant (and it boasts 20 others, just within the city limits). Besides the standard star it also holds the Green version for its commitment to sustainability. Chef Gaëtan Gentil’s remit celebrates Rhône Valley terroir, using herbs and wild plants, and delivers small plates from the most open of open kitchens. 

7 Equally of the moment is urban winery Chai Saint Olive, vinifying grapes bought on contract from growers in the Burgundy and the Rhone regions to the north and the south of Lyon. Just four years old, it follows a growing trend in cities across the globe. Organise a visit and let co-founders Franck and Grégoire Saint Olive talk you through the winemaking process and, of course, taste their Gamays, Chardonnays and an impressive Viognier. 

8. Finally, don’t neglect the vibrant beer scene. Alongside new wave craft pioneers I’d recommend an iconic Lyon destination that has recently revived its brewing operation. Close to the Lyon Perrache mainline station, Brasserie Georges has been around since 1836. Its Alsatian founder, George Hoffherr set the template for a flurry of brasseries across the city, but none have matched its spectacular Art Deco dining rooms, which can seat 700 and have hosted generations of celebrities. The Georges likes to think big. In 1986 it served the world’s largest sauerkraut dish, weighing in at a ton and a half. You don’t have order food. I popped in for a glass of their golden ale, La Dorée, at a window seat.

Hôtel de Verdun 1882 – celebrating the past and the present

Serendipitously my Lyon base, the Hôtel de Verdun 1882 on the Rue de la Charité, was once the private mansion of the family behind Brasserie Georges. Built in 1882, hence the name given to it when it was revamped into a chic and cosseting four-star by Gilles and Isabelle Moynier. The couple have packed it with a remarkable collection of ‘objets’ from their previous 30 years of globetrotting that match perfectly their loving custodianship of its history.

In the 18th century this Charité Ainay district was an aristocratic neighbourhood and the hotel website offers a guide to its surviving charms and independent shops. 

A journey back into dark world of Jean Moulin and the Resistance

Connections, connections. Gilles, while showing me round, mentions a Jean Moulin link. A few doors away at no.72, on the first floor of what is now a hairdresser’s, was the first apartment occupied by Jean Moulin when he arrived in Lyon in 1943, his mission from General De Gaulle in exile to unite the various Resistance networks (he succeeded). Like all Moulin’s many refuges it had two entrances. His personal glamour and daring existed on a knife-edge.

Lyon’s most moving museum is devoted to those turbulent times, whose ghosts still haunt the city’s psyche. The Centre for the History of the Resistance and Deportation is situated in the south east of the city centre on Rue Berthelot on the site where the Gestapo had their HQ and torture cells. There’s a fascinating amount to take in but find time to watch the harrowing film of Klaus Barbie’s post-war trial. 

The SS officer known as the ‘Butcher of Lyon’ led the capture of Moulin and his fellow resisters at a rendezvous in a northern suburb. Was Moulin betrayed? Was he a closet Communist? Questions remain to this day. Are the ashes given a hero’s burial in the Panthéon even his? The great hero is recorded as dying in Metz in Lorraine. En route for a death camp? Nothing is certain.

Whatever, a kind of secular sainthood has been bestowed upon Moulin. With relics. It was eerie to descend to those cellars which once held the Gestapo cells and view a temporary exhibition of clothes and uniforms he once wore. Devotedly restored.

A World Heritage site with a wealth of attractions

It was a relief to step out into the light to explore a city that for 25 years has held UNESCO World Heritage status – across 427 hectares covering the smart Presqu’île peninsula between the fast-flowing Rhone and Saône, Vieux-Lyon, the Croix-Rousse silk district and the heights of Fourvière. 

The large white wedding cake of a church on top, the Notre Dame de Fourviere dominates the cityscape but, up close, is as lumpen as its Paris cousin, Sacre Coeur. Both were built to trumpet the enduring triumph of the Catholic Church after the turmoil of the Communes. In contrast, the Cathedrale St-Jean immediately below on the banks of the Saone, is a medieval gem with a beautiful 14th century astronomical clock. If the Fourvière walk is too much for you after one of those capacious Lyon lunches, take the funicular railway and return via the fragrant, terraced gardens to the Old Town.

Lyon’s other hill, the Croix-Rousse, to the north, offers much more of interest – some quirky individual shops and fashion boutiques, particularly along the Passage Thiafait, continuing the area’s link with haute couture through the silk industry. To sample the textile past visit the Living Silk Trimmings Workshop at 21 Rue Richan for a weaving demonstration. 

Check out the Traboules – yet another Lyon speciality

The World Heritage area is home the city’s 500 Trabouiles – shortcuts through buildings linking streets; echoes of Moulin’s ‘escape routes’ and indeed they proved invaluable as such during the Nazi Occupation and earlier when the silk workers rioted in the 1800s. 

Today only 60 are open to the public but give access to exquisite courtyards and gardens, Italian-style galleries and spiral staircases. Fact: this city has more Renaissance architecture than any other city except Venice. Lyon doesn’t just march on its stomach.