Assistants go to Lyon!

This weekend two of my flatmates, a friend in Villeurbanne and I went into Lyon to sight-see in the rain. The train was fairly expensive (€23.40 for a return), so we plan to get the French equivalent of the young person's railcard before we go again! The journey took about 50 minutes, and we went into 'Perrache' rather than 'Part-Dieu' as it's closer to the centre.
It's a beautiful city, so we wandered around happily and aimlessly for a while before finding somewhere to eat. After walking past several seriously expensive bistrots, restaurants and cafés we got so hungry that we went into the next place that would feed us, according to the menu, for €6 a piece.

We took a chance on l'Epicerie, as none of us actually knew exactly what a 'tartine' was, but it's basically all that's on the menu. My guess was "something like a quiche?"; what arrived was essentially 'stuff on toast'... but brilliant stuff on toast. A few examples include smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers, a chicken and vegetable mix and, of course, various cheeses. But I know a toastie isn't anything to go on about. For us it was a combinations of some of the tastiest cakes we'd ever had, the traditional, yet seriously cool and very French décor and the fact that it was the cheapest place we'd seen by far in centre-ville that made us promise each other to go back. They also serve the cakes with cute little colourful sweets on the side, which honestly was the highlight of my French gastronomical experiences so far. (Rue de la Monnaie, next to the Théâtre des Ateliers, if you're interested. I marked it on my incredibly touristy map.) 

After lunch we took the funiculaire for 1 or 2 euros up to La Basilique de Fourvière (to the people who actually read this thing, the 'castle in the sky' from a few posts ago). It's a beautiful building, and worth the price of the hill-tram for the views once you reach the top, but the main church is having construction done at the moment, so it wasn't at its finest. I hope to come back, though, to watch a concert or hear a sung mass. They also put on open air shows at the Gallo-Roman theatres (also up on the hill above the city) which could be spectacular.

Maybe in a few months when we go into Lyon we'll feel like real locals, but for the moment I think it's okay for us to be wide-eyed tourists in such a truly fascinating place.