Saturday, June 22, 2013

A Farewell To Lyon and Our Beloved Falcons


Saturday was a gorgeous day in Lyon, our last one in France as it turned out.

After more early morning sorting and packing, Laurie and I headed to Place Bellecour to Lyon's Main Post Office to ship off a 5.8 kilogram package of books, ceramics and linens to save us both space and weight in our luggage for the long trip home to California on Sunday.

Mission accomplished, we headed up to our favorite restaurant in all of Gaul, Sophie's in the Lyon's St-Just district.

Normally closed on Saturdays and Sundays, owner Olivier and his Chef/Papa Georges opened their doors for a typical Lyonnais dining experience for a very select few Falcons.

WHAT AN HONOR!!!

Papa Georges hard at work preparing
just a part of our sumptuous meal

The lace-like material that he is using to wrap these soon to be delicious meat balls is part of a lamb's intestinal tract.

YUM!

Now Ready for Cooking

Papa Georges Battle Cry:
"VIN!"

A 1950 photo hangs near Sophie's
kitchen of Papa George's Parents

The meal was now in FULL swing

Laurie, John, Olivier, Brice Rontet and Chris Thuau were all having fun.

Five Down

We were just getting started.

A GREAT Gift from Chris!

Johan is OUT!!!

Johan is an old friend of Olivier's from Orleans who was up all night enjoying La Fête de la Musique last night in Lyon.

Today his body was paying the price for his revelry.

Delicious Lamb Parts

Part throat, part gonads.

YUM, YUM!!

Our WAY More Than Gracious
Hosts Olivier and Papa Georges

Robin and Julien Urgent are seated behind Papa Georges.

Breaking out the Absinthe

YUM, YUM, YUM!!!

Happy Campers

A GREAT Gift from
Olivier and Papa Georges

As if this tremendous meal was not enough!

A TOAST WITH GOOD FRIENDS!!!

The Bottle Count Continues to Rise

Nine different wines was amazing enough but then we were told that we had had more than the one of the bottles displayed of some of these vintages.

YIKES!!!

GOOD TIMES INDEED!!!

For Laurie and myself, Papa Georges is a ROCK STAR!!!

We cannot begin to thank Olivier and Papa Georges enough for all of the joy they brought us during our weekly trips up the funicular to enjoy fine meal after fine meal at Sophie's.

Two of Lyon's hidden gems.

The party was not over, it was just moving to another location to say farewell to the rest of the Falcons.

OLB Sam Ajavon and WR Chris Garel

We were off to the K-Zen bar to view the French Division I Championship game between the Black Panthers and the Flash on live TV with many of the Division III Champion Falcons.

A Big Screen was helpful

El Catalan and Laurie

They were discussing the Catalan Separatist Movement, I believe.

With OLB David Ollagnier and a 
very fresh Laurie taking some liberties!

With Part of the Offensive Line

From left to right, we have RG David "Fion" Melin, me, LG Yohan Ros and RT Pierre Podgorski.

A Signed Championship Game Ball

Merci Falcons, this is now a prized Contreras family heirloom!

 Time to start heading back to The Villa

 To our Championship Falcons
we bid a very thankful . . .

Au Revoir!!!

WHAT A SEASON!!!

2 comments:

David said...

Au revoir ... until next season?

Pierre said...

Au revoir not adieu !