Lyon, France 4 - Café Comptoir Abel & Escape to Pérouges

Our third Bouchon was Café Comptoir Abel. We arrived there about 20 minutes before the lunch time ended. The restaurant was very crowded at that time  but luckily we were seated in the their backside dining room!

I guess there wasn't Apéritif. I remember their baguette was tasty.

Last two days I hadn't had enough vegetables. I needed greens. I asked our waiter for vegetable dish for starter. He brought green beans and artichoke salad. That was savory! Just what I wanted. J had Saucisson Chaud, boiled sausage that was served with French green lentils, lentilles du Puy. I wish I had a recipe for the lentils. They were very tasty.

For main dishes, Plats, we both had chicken with morel mushrooms in cream sauce. Rice Pilaf came with the chicken. Although the photo was blurry, the chicken was wonderful. The portion was generous. We were so stuffed again!

Unfortunately we didn't have any space for desserts this time. It was alright because we had already had some sweets before the lunch. We took a train to Pérouges, a medieval walled village on the small hill, located about 30 km northeast of Lyon. It was beautiful and unique.

I guess November was off-season. We saw only a couple of other visitors. The village was so quiet. None of shops, restaurants or museums were open, except a church and Hostellerie de Perouges, a nice restaurant in one of the oldest building in the village, originated in the 13th century. The specialty of Pérouges is “la Galette,” thin pie or pizza-like pastry topped with lemon-flavored sugar. The restaurant offered hand-made la Galette. Of course, we tried one each with tea for me and coffee for J. The pastry was as simple as it looked.

Pérouges was tiny. We walked on as many streets as possible at least twice each and decided to go back to Lyon for lunch. It was a pretty cold morning but the weather was great.

There was a chocolate shop just outside of the village. We dropped by to see what they offers and stepped out the shop with a couple of chocolate in hand.

One was liquor-filled chocolate. The filling was Marc du Bugey, a regional Pomace brandy (marc in both English and French, but "grappa" in Italian). It was strong and burned my throat. The other one was huge chunky Chocolate Mandiant (chocolate with nuts and dried fruits).

We were munching those delicious chocolate pieces on our way to the train station. The quick escape from Lyon in the morning nicely provided us with not only a fairytale world but also sweets, which was why I easily passed desserts at the Bouchon.

To be continued...