Yesterday we lunched at Cafe Sillon where we had oignons farci served with fennel on a bed of pimento puree, hangar steak with purple potato puree and carrots, and poached cod with pickled radishes and braised baby onions There were other flourishes, but I can't remember them. Should have asked for a copy of the menu.
Later in the day we walked from Vieux Lyon to the Brasserie Georges. After about 20 minutes of walking we stopped to be sure of directions. The lady we asked told us to keep going on that street and then up and around the train station, or perhaps she said under the station or through it? None of us was completely certain. She initially told us it was quite far to walk, but when she looked down at our (of course sensible) shoes she changed her mind and said that we had "chaussres bon" so we could probably make it. When we got closer, we could see the restaurant and the station, but also a 4-lane highway with on and off ramps between us and it. We ended up climbing over a wall, sidling through a parking lot, trying to stay against the wall of the ramps, and eventually having to negotiate across several lanes of hyped up commuters trying to get home. Quite an adventure for these 60 year old legs. Linda kept trying to be the voice of reason, but John and I dragged her along. Eventually we got there intact (though our clothes looked a little worse for wear).
Our reward was an old fashioned dinner in an Art Deco beer-hall/restaurant from the 19th century with hearty peasant cuisine my Alsatian grandmother would have approved of. Among the dishes were seafood bisque (which evidently involves a laborious process of simmering and then pulverizing the shells), poached smoked pike over creamed lentils, wine braised beef, quenelles (fish mousse dumplings), broiled trout, floating island, and frozen nougat. The most interesting dish to me was the french onion soup which came with a glass of egg yolk whisked into madeira. The waiter lifted up the corner of the cheese layer on top of the soup and added the egg- madeira mixture to the soup below so that the egg yolk gets cooked in the soup. Good eats and great company.