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SW Germany & E France - Lyon+Paris (Part 4 of 4)

Lovely three days in Lyon which we both quite enjoyed. The Lyon 48-hour card was just great. Metro, tram, museums, Saone river cruise and our guided walking tour were all covered by this single pass. So easy - like magic. We loved the energy of Lyon, busy streets with lots of people walking and sitting in cafes and just enjoying one another. Many beautiful 19th C. buildings.

We enjoyed many sights including the Centre d’Histoire de la Resistance et la Deportation, Les Halles Paul Bocluse, Lyon’s Lugdunum (Roman ruins) and the adjacent archaeological museum, a guided tour of the Croix-Rousse, its traboules (passages), and the history of silk production in Lyon. The river cruise was a lot of fun on a sunny day! My wife was delighted with Notre Dame de Lyon, a late 19th C. church in an “eclectic” style. I was struck how it was more Mary than Jesus … and where was the humility? I was more moved by the Jeanne d’Arc mosaic on one side of the nave. A grand building, erected in not much more than 20 years with art and interior work completed in another 15 or so.

Dining was more of a mixed bag. The Michelin-recommended (Bibb, not starred) restaurant where we dined looked so promising, but was simply good. The Bouchon where we ate was also good, not spectacular. Better was a nice Lebanese restaurant at Les Halles. Best yet was a simple neighborhood creperie where we lunched and, later, returned for dinner, as we had seen others enjoying some nice looking mussels at lunch. Old Lyon and the Musee des Beaux Arts rounded out our principal explorations. Sunday morning, while my wife stayed in since she was feeling unwell, I walked a piece along the Saone. An art market was being set up on the right bank and the food markets were in full swing on the left, with strong scents from the cheese & olive markets, in particular. All in all, a great 3 nights, two plus days.

Paris. First, thanks to this forum, including Judy and Pam for their comments about my planning and to avirosemail, whose “Thanksgiving in Paris” email was inspirational. This was our third trip to Paris, so we had two sights (Notre Dame & d’Orsay) and a neighborhood (Rue Mouffetard) that I wanted to see again and new possibilities for visits (Musees Jacquemart-Andre and Cluny and Jardin des Plantes) in 2-1/2 days. As ever, plan as you might and remain open to the unexpected opportunity.

My wife was a trooper despite feeling a bit tired and sniffly. She logged 22,600+ steps our first full day in Paris. On arrival day we also covered a lot of ground as we walked from Gare de Lyon to our hotel in the 5th Arr. and then through more of the 5th for orientation. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, our 3-star hotel was quirky yet amazing. Hotel des Ecoles. It’s on a quiet street, just a few doors down from Ernest and Hadley Hemingway’s apartment in the 5th, one short block from the top of Rue Mouffetard and a short walk to Eglise St. Etienne, behind the Pantheon. The location was phenomenal - remote from Blvd. St. Germain and Pl. St. Michel. It is in two different buildings with a garden courtyard between the two. A large wall separates the hotel and garden from the street and sidewalk. There are sketches and watercolors of neighborhood scenes and people everywhere. Yes, we can hear doors down the hall closing and plumbing being used in the next room, plus more outlets or USB ports would be nice, but it was charming.

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I won’t wax on too much about our activities …

  • Arrival Day. Walk to hotel (but not through the Jardin des Plantes as planned, since my sensible partner thought a dirt path and wheeled suitcases was a bad combo). We settled in, walked to the Seine and back to Rue Mouffetard (via the most interesting Eglise St. Etienne, which we discovered on our way). We dined at Otto. Tapas-style dining, though food was inspired by France, Japan and Greece. Michelin recognized though not starred. Just two short blocks from our hotel.

  • Day 1 (Monday). Breakfast in hotel. Walked right into Notre Dame with no rez. No problem with a 9:15 a.m. arrival. We were there about 75 minutes. The cathedral got increasingly crowded. It is much lighter inside than it was 15 years ago - and perhaps better lit, too. Are there some new stained glass windows in some of the upper registers? I enjoyed a visit to the Sachristy with its Treasury. That was educational for me - and it was uncrowded since there is an admission fee! Next, we headed to the Jacquemart-André in the 10th, by taking an unplanned walk along the Seine, then by the Louvre’s Pyramid, onward through the Tuileries, past the Petite Palais and Grande Palais, though the Place de la Concorde and up most of the Champs Elysees, before we turned north. Lunch in the Museum’s dining room was grand. Lovely quiche, salad and a glass of wine in a very elegant room. Then we enjoyed the museum greatly: the art, the setting, the antiques - and the grand spaces in this mansion. The Georges de la Tour special exhibit was excellent. The permanent collection is mostly 17th and 18th C., including some Dutch masters. A treat! Pbscd, I think you will love it. Next, we took the Metro back toward Île de la Cité for our Seine cruise, perhaps our least interesting experience in Paris. Nice dinner at a simple French bistro, very near our hotel, followed by ice cream from a nearby shop, which we then enjoyed in our hotel garden. Just a wonderful day!

  • Day 2. Tuesday. Blew past the lines at the d’Orsay and walked right in at close to 10 am with our 9:30 tickets in hand. Nearly ran through the main floor to get up to the 5th floor. Not too crowded when we arrived, though it became so as the clock ticked past 10:30 or so. Pam and KD, thanks for suggesting that we get up there early. Next, we saw the d’Orsay’s John Singer Sargent exhibit (showing through Jan. 11, 2026). This was very nice and focused on his more than 10 formative years in Paris. This exhibit was also fairly crowded, though manageable. Apart from those two parts of the d’Orsay, the only place we spent time was in one small gallery on the main, entry level floor with Cezanne’s early works. I had noticed it on our way to the 5th floor and my wife was taken by his early work that she saw upstairs in the Impressionist collection. We greatly enjoyed the museum for 2-1/2 hours and left before fatigue set in. The weather was beautiful when we stepped out to walk along the Seine and then through the 6th and 5th back to our hotel. We decided to go straight to the hotel so my wife could rest all afternoon. I went out for “lunch” (ice cream), then to the Cluny and back to Eglise St. Etienne, since my look at the Wikipedia article about it showed me that our quick visit two afternoons earlier was insufficient. It was all great. Final night dinner at Hébé in the 5th, which we enjoyed two years ago and that was convenient. 3 of 4 dishes were excellent. The fourth was shown as a risotto on the menu. Nicely prepared dish, but orzo is not rice and does not make a proper base for a risotto.

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Departure Day. The surprisingly good news was that Icelandic Airlines sent us an email about putting us on a different flight. Later departure (by 2 hours) from CDG via a Delta non-stop that lands 10 minutes before our previously scheduled Icelandic arrival at Sea-Tac. And so, we got to spend well over an hour at the Jardin des Plantes after all, before check-out from the hotel. On a sunny morning! :-)

Final Comments.

1. This was a quick trip to Paris, but we got to see most of what I wanted to see (as my wife delegated planning to me), we avoided the worst of the crowds, we enjoyed a neighborhood that we first encountered two years ago, and we strolled through and enjoyed two great parks. This nicely capped a 30-day trip to neighboring parts of these two countries.
2. .I’m sorry my wife’s health flagged a bit at the end.
3. Paris is proud of its history. I got to learn about St Genevieve. 1000 years before Joan of Arc, she rallied Parisians to fight Atilla.
4. Back doors and tourist paths. We took both routes over these 30 days in Germany & France. Cycling the Mosel and a little of the Rhine and cycling Burgundy allowed us to visit through back doors a fair bit, as did my wife’s relationship with her Ukrainian refugee friend in Germany. However, cycling in Alsace is now a major tourist pathway.
5. No meal was perfect. We had wonderful dishes at places named in this TR and prior posts (Parts 1 and 3 in this series).
6. When you meet new people, listen to them. Appropriately share. Foster nice exchanges. There is no real animosity towards Americans (and mostly good will), at least for those who are not in power.
7. People and societies are always renewing themselves. We go through periods of light and periods of darkness. That is the human condition. We must remember those who have come before us - and what has happened before - in the hope that we avoid making the same mistakes again.
8. For the two of us, who live in Seattle, we appreciate that we live in a very nice place. Others have reminded us of that, most recently at lunch in the Jacquemart-Andre.
9. Hopefully, we can learn from those abroad who do some things better than we ourselves do at home.

Part 3 of our 30-day TR is at Alsace & Burgundy

From there you can get to Part 1 (about cycling the Mosel and a little of the Rhine) and Part 2 (visiting near Stuttgart and seeing some more of SW Germany and the Black Forest.

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Great report!

I envy the flaneur strolling from one arr to the next, taking advantage of the weather when it is good.

Re Lyon, the city card really is exceptional. And the Croix Rousse retains a not-depending-on-tourists atmosphere that lets us visitors off the hook, too. No need to take on the conventional role.

And don’t get me started on Singer-Sargent. One tip for later: the permanent collection at the Petit Palais has a couple of big portraits by Carolus-Duran that serve as a missing link in the evolution of Sargent. It feels like looking into the eyes of Lucy Aus afarensis and seeing her stare back.

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It's been a delight reading all four entries of your trip report.