Aquarium

Yesterday Eli went to a La Croix Rousse and the Aquarium. Vic and Candie took him. Eli doesn't seem to have names for them yet. We're assuming my dad will get some version of Pop, which is what Mary and I call him, and Candie will get something like Grammy, but maybe Eli will invent something.

La Croix Rousse is the historic center of Lyon's silk industry, which was very important during the nineteenth century. Eli, Vic, and Candie went there for the morning. They looked at some shops and found a playground that included a playset in the form of a train. Eli enjoyed playing on it. He sure loves his guh-guhs!



Since the little guy was still going strong, they went down to the Aquarium, which is on the west bank of the Rhône just about at the confluence. Eli hasn't been to an aquarium before. He liked pointing at the aquatic creatures, particularly a very active octopus. Eli saw an octopus at the National Zoo when he was about six months old. It doesn't seem to be widely known, but octopuses are very smart, much smarter than small mammals such as six-month-old humans. (It's also not widely known that "octopi" is a thorougly incorrect plural that functions chiefly to advertises its users' ignorance of classical languages. If in doubt, follow the normal rules of English inflection.) Eli is probably now about as smart as an octopus, although their intelligence is not like ours at all. Octopuses are not social at all, but they are good at solving problems such as mazes. Eli is very social. We haven't put him in any mazes yet.

This added up to a pretty long day, so Eli seemed pretty happy to go to bed. Ally and I were certainly happy he went to bed. We had reservations at L'Ouest, another Bocuse brasserie like Le Sud (where we did not eat) and Le Nord (where Ally at with her family before they left Lyon). Yes, there's also L'Est. The brasseries are pretty similar, but each has some menu theming based on cuisines found in the direction named. L'Ouest takes its inspiration from places in the Western Hemisphere where there has been a cultural exchange with France, particularly the West Indies. There was also a beer from Québec. But most of the menu is shared with the other bistros. Ally and I chose the menu and dined in three courses for € 22.80; that didn't include drinks but did include some excellent selections. Ally had a wonderful dorado and I had roast veal that reminded me of Piccadilly cafeteria's roast beef if it were done perfectly. I mention the price because it's very easy to spend slightly less--or much more--for a profoundly less satisfying meal. The service was impeccable. The atmosphere was fairly vacationy; it was easy to imagine we were on some green island and the rain outside was warm and tropical rather than cold and dreary. My only objection is to the big monitors in the restaurant showing cooking shows; I'd like to forget that Bocuse is a celebrity chef while I'm dining in his establishment, but maybe I am in the minority there. But even great French chefs can lose their way and become Bobby Flay. I'm just saying. Anyway, it was excellent and you should go.

So far today, Eli has been up to the market in Neuville, a small city north of Lyon on the Saône.