Lyon, France 5 - Les Halles de Lyon & more

During our stay in Lyon, we visited Les Halles twice. The covered food market was a remarkable place that high-end local delicacies as well as specialities from other regions of France gathered together and enchanted (often teased) us.

One of the bakery/pastry shops in the market, Boulangerie Jocteur is known to make one of the best praline tarts. Rose-colored praline is unique to Lyon and tarts made with such praline are everywhere in the city. We couldn't go back to England without tasting praline tart, could we? In fact, we bought and shared a praline sablé from Jocteur. Sablé version looked lighter and easier to eat in the market than Tart version. The praline sablé was delightful. Pretty much sweet, though.

Les Halles was opened in 1971 and had extensive renovations in 2004. Master chef Paul Bocuse added his name to the title of the market to secure its reputation as one of the finest places for food around the world. I'm convinced that the power of his name is still affecting the quality of the market.

For lunch, we took a break from rich dishes at Bouchon. Instead, we went to a popular falafel shop and grabbed a falafel sandwich. It was a nice idea. The falafels in the sandwich were large and many! It was a very tasty but messy lunch.

After then, we took a metro to a contemporary art exhibition, which was, well, confusing.

We took a metro back and had a tea break at Bernachon's restaurant/cafe next to their shop that we visited a few days ago. I hoped to have my favorite cake, a Mont Blanc, a dessert of puréed, sweetened chestnuts topped with a dab of whipped cream, but they didn't have it. So, I had The “Président.” In fact, it was Bernachon’s original and most famous cake: three layers of cherry sponge cake covered with hazelnut praline ganache with cherries immersed in cherry liquor. I was very happy with it.

Bernachon's website posted the story of the special cake - "In February 1975, Paul Bocuse received the Legion of Honour from the President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. For the dinner celebrating this grand occasion, maison Bernachon and Paul Bocuse wanted to arrive at l’Elysée with an absolutely original creation. This would be the “Président,” specially created for the occasion."

After the tea time, we kept walking around the city until it got dark...

To be continued...