We were warmly greeted upon our arrival at the Warwick Reine Astrid (24 Boulevard des Belges, 69006 Lyon, +(33) 04 72 82 18 00). We had the same two-bedroom, two-bath Privilege Suite Stendhal as we did in 2025. It cost, with breakfast, 350€ per day, and parking was an extra 6.55€ per day for a total of US$411.51. Adeline, the director of housekeeping, herself, set up the room with all of our preferences. It was great to be "home". During our nearly 2-month stay Adeline was always available to help in any way she could.
For our first dinner in Lyon, we drove over to New China and had the great starter of foie gras, followed by the complete duck menu for two. We enjoyed it, and we got a parking space close by because Dimitri was using crutches all of the time! We have had many enjoyable meals at New China ever since M. To, the General Manager of Warwick Reine Astrid, recommended it.
On the first day that we could before Dimitri's hip replacement surgery, we went to Accueil des Villes Françaises Lyon-Rhône. AVF turned out to be a perfect organization for us in Lyon. We joined for 35€, and we had a large group of new friends.
We were invited to a monthly get-together the same night that we joined. We had a great evening chatting in French and English with the international crowd at the "International" AVF in Vieux Lyon. There we met Roger (who went to the same Lycée Français in Port Said, Egypt, that Dimitri went to)! Before Dimitri's hip replacement surgery, Roger and his wife, Dominique, invited us to their home for lunch with John from Sacramento.
We had a delicious lunch at Roger's and Dominique's apartment in Lyon with John Each arrondissement in Lyon had its own activities and, soon after we joined, Marie-France and her husband, Jacques, who live in "our 6e arrondissement de Lyon", invited us to their apartment overlooking le Parc de la Tête d'Or for apero. We had a wonderful evening with them. The offerings that Marie-France prepared were not only beautiful, they were also delicious.
We loved belonging to AVF in Lyon. One of the activities that was offered was a tour of the Hôtel de Ville Lyon. We wanted to visit it, and voilà, AVF offered us our chance!
The Hôtel de Ville de Lyon is as magnificent inside as it is outside
There was an extravagant reception after the tour with other organizations for visitors to Lyon. One of the organizations, Lyon International, has volunteers who invite visitors to their homes for dinner (their motto is "an extra plate at our table"). We were invited to the home of Jacques where two students and us had a convivial dinner.
During April when Dimitri was convalescing, we spent most of our time in our apartment. It was very sunny and warm that month and the sun would bake our apartment; we had no air conditioning until May 1st and the suite had no awnings for shade. During the afternoon, it would be 28 degrees C. We were given a portable air conditioner but it wasn't effective and it was very noisy. At night, our apartment in the back was quiet enough to keep the window open. Finally, there was rain and cooler weather. Then May came and we had air conditioning.
About 3 weeks after Dimitri's hip replacement, we invited John from Sacramento to lunch at our hotel. We had lovely lunch at the terrace restaurant in the hot and sunny weather, and then he accompanied us for Dimitri's debut bike ride. We were thrilled!
We even had at a luncheon party for our AVF friends in our apartment. Audre prepared the apero, the entrée, le fromage, and she bought the baklava at Bahadourian in Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. Oliver, the wonderful chef of the restaurant at Warwick Reine Astrid, made the main course and it was served with aplomb by Hajar from the restaurant.
During Dimitri's convalescence, Audre went to the Warwick Reine Astrid restaurant and put our breakfast on a tray to bring to our apartment. Florence, Hajar and
Laura, made sure that someone would carry that tray to our apartment—no matter how busy
they were. They were so pleasant and helpful it was very
nice for Audre to see them each morning. Then, when they entered our apartment with the tray, they
engaged Dimitri in conversation to make him happy too!
Also during our stay, we had dinners from the Warwick Reine Astrid restaurant. We were always impressed with Chef Oliver and his equipe. Mikael was an attentive host or server for our dinners. We thought that it was great that Mikael and Hajar (from the morning meal service) were married. We also successfully used Deliveroo to have restaurant meals delivered to our apartment.
After three months of not cooking during our ski season in Mont Pana at Hotel Cendevaves, Audre started cooking lunch and dinner at Warwick Reine Astrid. Whenever she came back to the hotel with her shopping alone, the people at the reception desk would warmly greet her and ask how Dimitri was doing.
The hotel provided daily maid service for us and we thoroughly enjoyed having Linda or Esther come each day. We were made to feel welcome and like special guests by each member of the staff. Audre used the gym at Warwick Reine Astrid and, when Dimitri felt better, he did too.
M. To, the General Manager of the hotel, sent us a beautiful cheese plate from the La Fromagerie du Parc and Valerie, the director of sales visited us. We loved all of the attention that the hotel gave us. We thought that the hotel was very well managed and maintained; we really liked staying there. Everything was to our liking except for the bed. When one of us moved, it shook like jelly.
One day we took our car out of the garage and had lunch with AVF friends, Joan and Mike, in Jassans-Riottier, the town outside of Lyon where they live. John from Sacramento even had us to his apartment for lunch in Croix Rousse. Having a social life in Lyon, curtesy of AVF, was truly fun!
You might need to open a Google account to see our photos. Click on the "i" in the top ribbon and look at the Description.
Hope all is well with the hip. We mostly skied Beaver Creek this season. Poor snow for the locals, but excellent grooming on the greens and blues. We enjoyed it. Even skied a mile long run and only saw two other skiers. Knee issues for George, so instead of his usual 180 cm skies, rented 156 cm and loved them. No more long skies after passing 80 years. Skied front side of Vail with Judy one day.
ReplyDeleteGeorge / Chris Burns