MUSSELS IN LYON: Rue Mercière - Bleu de Toi

Today I got together with a bunch of old classmates from Alliance Francaise, the French language school where I studied over the summer.

In our group was a Colombian, a Czech, a Chinese who had studied a few years in Singapore, a Japanese, and me.

We went for a cocktail (well, not really a cocktail as in the type you have at a bar), a pre-meal drink at a tartine restaurant just off of Rue Merciere: I had a glass of mildly alcoholic apple cidre, the others each had different drinks: beer, sangria, kir, cafe au lait.

We ended up at a restaurant which specializes in moules, or mussels, steamed in four or five different ways. Like at Plouf in San Francisco, they steam mussels by the potful, and each of us had one potful of shellfish. Two people went for Provencale style (cream and tomato), one took the house special (I forget the recipe), and I went for the ever-traditional, white wine and onion marinière.

A potful of mussels runs 12,90 EUR (about $16 US) but if you factor in tip and tax, it comes out about equal. All told, with dessert and a pitcher of wine, we spent 20 EUR a person, perhaps moderate when it comes to dining out here in Lyon.

When we came in at

Access:

Get off at Cordeliers metro stop (A line) walk away from the bridge (you can see the bridge to your right). After about four or five minutes walk you should find the Tati department store (brightly colored pink logo). Right across the street from it is the beginning of Rue Mercière, a veritable treasure trove of restaurants, traditionally Lyonnais and not.



REVIEW:

http://www.ciao.fr/Bleu_de_Toi_Lyon__14617

http://www.fra.cityvox.fr/restaurants_lyon/bleu-de-toi_22261/Profil-Lieu