Lyon weekend: Les Confluences and lunch Les Sept Péchés du Plateau in Croix-Rousse

With the lion of lyon

On the final day of our trip to Lyon we decided to head over to the Les Confluences area of the city, an island in the middle of the river where the Rhône and Saône meet. I'll admit to not having looked into the history of the area, but I suspect it is very similar to London's Docklands. An area which has suffered industrial decline and has recently undergone huge regeneration (although probably not finance led).

Orange building - Les Confluences 

The area felt quite subdued on a sleepy Sunday morning, like an area which hasn't yet become fully self sustaining. (A bit like Canary Wharf on weekends 10yrs ago). Initially it felt like just us an a few joggers enjoying the riverside paths and autumn colours. There were a few families out promenading too.

There were some wonderfully modernist buildings like these orange and green ones I photographed. They somehow seemed very French.

Green twin - Les Confluences 

At the tip of the island is the Musée des Confluences, another modernist building. We decided not to go into the museum as we didn't have a lot of time left.

Musée des Confluences

After walking round the outside of the museum we hopped on a tram and then changed onto the metro to whip up to the Croix-Rousse part of the city in search of a late breakfast / lunch.

There was a fun fare taking place which had brought out the crowds. Being France on a Sunday the majority of places were also closed. I was beginning to become a little despondent in our search for a final meal of the trip and then we spied Les Sept Péchés du Plateau which was just opening up in the Place des Tapis. We took a seat on the terrace. This would do nicely.

Goats cheese quiche

We opted for one of the mid-range set menus (I can't remember the price, but I think it was around the 27 EUR mark).

The food was all good, but it didn't quite hit the heights set by Comptoir Chabert where we'd eaten on the Friday night. It felt like the kitchen was suffering from being too busy and in an attempt to keep up things were slightly fraying round the edges. My duck was served well done rather than the pink order and the accompanying gratin dauphinoise had been singed round the edges.

Duck with red berries

However, I'm probably being unnecessarily harsh. The service was very friendly, the food was definitely still good, it was highly pleasant sitting out on the terrace in the autumn sunshine and lunch was immeasurably better than the soggy sandwich I thought we might have to settle for just an hour before.

Tarte au citron

Les Sept Péchés du Plateau
3 Place des Tapis

69004

Lyon-4E-Arrondissement

France