caro de lyon

first things first: The fennel and fig chocolates from Hybord were just fantastic.

Yesterday Chloe and I had reservations to go to lyon for her birthday dinner at le Caro de Lyon. It was already raining when we woke up, so we decided to take the more expensive but much lower stress method of getting to Lyon: the TER train from grenoble to Lyon part dieu. We took the 2:18 express train, and were suprised to see snow on the ground in Voiron

And as we moved east past le Tour du Pin we were suprised to see even more snow on the ground, and it continued almost until Lyon. At Part Dieu, freezing rain was coming down, so we hopped on the tram and took it to the Liberte exit to make our customary walk through of au-vieux-campeur. After gazing wistfully at the Millet 80 meter ropes, we took the metro to vieux lyon, and took a peek in the cathedral. The highlight was probably the astrological clock

which, it turns out is not Y2.02K compatible:

We continued down the street, ogled a beautiful 17th century map of the Savoie (550 euro!!), grabbed a Gaufre at a nice stand that makes their own special confiture

and went to a cafe that we had scoped out last time. It was still pretty early, and despite having just inhaled a cassis-reglisse gaufre, I was still hungry, so I ordered a wonderful chocolate almond crepe. We spent quite a long time in the cafe, watching in awe as some college students sucked down enough cigarettes to kill a donkey. About 45 minutes before our reservation, we started walking back towards the opera and le caro de lyon. I didnt capture it very well, but along the way we saw a jet black mini copper dusted with cherry blossums

Finally, we made it to the restaurant, which is big, but full of books and little sub-rooms, so it was very cozy.




We both ordered the menu de printemps, and there isnt much to say except that it was fantastic and is our new favorite restaurant in Lyon.

Soupe d'olives vertes, salade de pain et tomates au basilic, langoustines roties
Green olive soup, bread and tomatoes salad with roasted crayfish


Noix de Saint Jacques a la rhubarbe, Saute de brocolis amers et raisins aux cacahuetes, Beurre au vin doux de Tariquet
Scallops a la rhubarb, sauteed broccoli and grapes with peanuts, some crazy ass butter thang. The peanuts were a perfect complement to the scallops... I think I'll try this the next time we find good scallops. Incidentally, this is one of the few cases where the french words sounds much less appetizing than the english. cf. "Saint Jack's nuts" with "scallops". The tiny broccoli were cooked perfectly.


Carre d'agneau roti aux mangues, fenouil braise et mijote de tomates, Salade de jeunes pousses d'epinard
Rack of lamb with mangos braised fennels and mijote (??) of tomatoes, young spinach shoot salad


we had a bottle of M Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage 2002 with the meal. It was hard to pick one that would go with everything!

Dessert did not dissapoint.

I had the Tortellini de chocolat et noix de coco, Coulis de mangue fraiche aux fruits de la passion
Chocolate and coconut tortellini, fresh mango sauce with passion fruits


and chloe had a white chocolate fondant with coconut ice cream


we missed our train because it took them 20 minutes to figure out that their credit card machine wasnt plugged in, but we forgave this pecadillo after such a perfect meal. I know, we're so gracious. It snowed like crazy on the train ride back to grenoble. Just as we pulled up, the roof of our car sprung a leak and started dripping freezing water on chloe.

today, I give you glorious springtime in grenoble: