Place de Jacobins - just outside our building.
Our local carousel - I have yet to ride on it!
MACAROONS GALORE! I think I must have eaten at least one (ok, two) a day since I got to Lyon. There are just so many macaroon stores and hundreds of flavours! It can drive a girl mad! Wee Keong, this is for you! Remember Le Notre in Siam Paragon? Wait til you get here!
My local breadshop...the one I prefer to go to anyway! They have excellent loaves there...so warm and chewy.
There's another boulangerie much much closer to us, but I don't like going to that one. The lady there just grosses me out. She coughs, sneezes, wipes her nose, then uses her bare hands to pick up your bread for you.
(Acutally almost every person I've encountered in a food related business in France uses their bare hands, some even lick them. Ah c'est la methode Francais. That's just the way it is in France.....they're not overly big on food hygiene. Plastic gloves are a rare sight on food workers here!)
Anyway in this particular BAD bread shop, I've even seen her drop a customer's bread, let it roll on the floor then pick it up and sell it like nothing happened!
Gorgeous window display at the local milliner's. Makes me want to buy a hat! JF's grandmother was a milliner :)
A pretty little "bouchon"...tiny little bistros which Lyon is famous for. They are all over the city, but not all as pretty and quaint as this one. These bistros are called bouchons because way back, inns serving wine outside of mealtimes were indicated by a wisp of straw (“bouchon” in French, which also means "cork") hanging from their signs. This marked inns where mâchon, a snack composed of charcuterie (cold meats) accompanied by a good wine, was served outside of mealtimes.
A GREAT LYONNAISE IDEA....2000 free bikes to ride all over the city.
This is FABULOUS idea that I wish Singapore would implement immediately. In town, eg. like Orchard Road and Shenton Way, and in different HDB estates. Forget about COEs and ERP. Singaporean drivers will still keep paying the escalating prices to own a car. This bike system however, works over here. It's environment friendly and encourages people to be healthier and happier too!
To cut down on traffic congestion, pollution etc in the city, the folk in charge of running Lyon decided to place 2000 free bicycles around the city for anyone to use. There are stands placed all over the city where the bikes are stationed and electronically "locked". All you have to do is sign up for an account and enter your credit card or bank details at an ATM-like kiosk at any bike station. You get a permanent pincode which you can use to unlock a bike. You can then ride it anywhere and return it at ANY of the 200 stations around the city.
Your usage is timed from the second you unlock the bike. The first 2 hours of usage is FREE, after that, the subsequent hour is 1 EURO, and the next hour, 2 EUROS. If you do not return the bike by then, a 150 EURO charge will be deducted from your credit card. Pretty clever and very useful! Each bike even comes equipped with a bike lock so you can park it while doing your errands before you return it to a station.
2 comments:
Indeed a very neat idea with the bikes (though only 4 hours? That is quite short, isn't it? Especially if you plan to do those errands). I could've used it friday when my bike broke. I now bought a new one, as I can't go without it while the other one is being repaired. Still cheaper than a car, anyway.
This is great info to know.
Post a Comment