Salad Lyonnaise

Last summer while Nick and I were backpacking through Europe we stopped in Lyon, France.  Lyon is the second largest city in France.  Nick's cousin and his family live there, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit with them and see more of the country.  Computer access was hard to come by when we were in Europe and so I never blogged about this particular stop.   

This is the view from a high point in the city- in person you could see the Alps off in the distance.

Isn't this beautiful?  Hard to believe we were there...

It was the first really nice weather we had in days and we had the best time soaking in the sun.  We decided we were going to go out for a real french meal for lunch.  Lyon is famous for their Salad Lyonnaise.  There were little bistros everywhere, so we chose one downtown and ordered a local wine and the special salad.  The salad is basically a poached egg, bacon (or lardons as they are called in France) tomatoes and croutons with a simple dressing.  Easy but delicious.

We have recreated this several times since and each time we are instantly transported back to that day.  I made this for dinner one night last week and knew I needed to share it.  The picture I took was sadly lacking because it was dark, but we will just pretend mine looked this good!

Salad Lyonnaise

serves two

A couple handfuls of frisee lettuce or curly endive torn into pieces

4 strips of bacon sliced thin

french bread, cubed

tomatoes diced

2 poached eggs (fresh eggs work best for poaching- I learned this after many failed attempts)

juice of one lemon

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 a teaspoon of dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon over medium heat and drain on paper towels.  Drizzle cubed bread with olive oil and toast in the oven (about 400 degrees) until lightly browned. 

Mix the dressing using the lemon juice (or white wine vinegar), evoo, mustard and salt and pepper.

Poach the eggs.  Here are some helpful tips on poaching eggs.

Layer lettuce, bacon, croutons and tomatoes on a plate. Pour dressing over the salad and top with the egg.  

Pretend you are at a French bistro and enjoy!!

Ahh...Chamonix

Hello from the beautiful French Alps!

I have alot of blogging to catch up on, including our day at Versaille and our time in Lyon. Both were great! I am sitting in a cute internet cafe in Chamonix and I wanted to let you know what we are doing currently before I back track.

Chamonix is probably one of the coolest places we have ever been! It is the site of the first ever Winter Olympics and home to the highest peak in Europe- Mont Blanc. We arrived here on Sunday evening and have so enjoyed our time soaking in this small town. It is such a welcome change of pace from everything we have done so far.

We are very close to the Swiss and Italian borders and so Chamonix is a unique mix of cultures. We have discovered Macaroons and they are heavenly! We also tried the cheese fondue, something the area is known for.

The first picture is a view of the river that runs all through town and the last picture is the view from our room the first night- unbelievable!! That is a glacier you see in the picture and the top of the mountain is covered by clouds.

Thanks for checking in on us! We are having a fabulous time!

Next stop- Italy!

Bonjour Paris!

We woke up entirely too early (4:30 am) Wednesday morning to catch the Chunnel (train) to from London to Paris. It was already light outside (and stays light until well after 10 pm here). We had found a flat to rent in Paris and planned on staying there. After taking the metro to the neighborhood where the flat was, we found where we were supposed to be staying. Turns out, pictures from the Internet can lie and this place was dirty... to put it nicely. We decided we would rather take our chances and sleep in a park that in that dump, so we set out (in the pouring rain) to find a new place. After wandering around the foreign city (in the rain) we found the perfect place for us. It was a small hotel, with super clean rooms and the price was perfect. We were beyond thrilled (Nick did a celebratory dance in the elevator). We took quick showers and headed out to see the city. The next day and a half were filled with all the sightseeing you should do when you go to Paris. Despite the weather, we had a blast wandering around taking it all in, in the city of lights.

One of the first glimpses of the city. You can see the Eiffel Tower very small in the background.

Nick in front of the Louvre Museum. A helpful hint- we downloaded free podcasts from Rick Steves (the travel books we have been using) and they were so helpful. He has free audio guides for all the sights and museums. We would have been lost in the Louvre (the worlds largest museum) without it. We saw the Mona Lisa as well as Venus de Milo.

Nick and I on the top of Notre Dame. The sun finally peeked out!

We ended our day at the Arch de Triomphe

(We did see the Eiffel Tower but those pictures are having a hard time uploading)