After her successful dance competition in February 2025, Carmen had decided to compete at the EuroGames which this year would take place in Lyon. When they’d been in Vienna last year, we’d both gone there so she could support her friends, and we did a little tourism too. This time, as I’d got so little annual leave left to use, I hadn’t planned on going. After Carmen’s plans for her 40th birthday celebration had changed, the chance to take the Eurostar for the first time was tempting, but more importantly it freed up the time I’d need to be able to go with her.

When I got back from Rwanda we booked our Eurostar tickets - I was now going to Lyon! It's not really a place I know much about, so dove straight into research, and found it to be the gastronomic capital of France (and the world) due to it having been the home of Paul Bocuse, the famous chef that inspired the character of Auguste Gusteau in the Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille. It did mean two things though: the food on this trip would likely be expensive, but would also stand a very good chance of being very good. Whilst fine dining is something we'd avoid due to prohibitive costs, a typical sit-down meal in a Bouchon would be €20-30 per person as a starting point for the most basic meal. That's an increase of 40-100% on what an equivalent meal in the UK would cost. We'd likely use the local Carrefour supermarket for some food as well, but thought it'd be nice to have at least one morning where we get breakfast from a boulangerie.

Although Carmen would be busy competing on Thursday and Saturday, we'd still have Friday to do some sightseeing together. Carmen had produced an amazing map of potential food places to try out, and I added this to a list of whatever sights I thought might be interesting. My plan for Thursday was to do some sightseeing as well, to cover any sights that she might not want to see, such as the Museum of Cinema and Miniatures. I'd prebooked a ticket for that museum, thinking Carmen would be busy all day on Thursday, but then found I needed to reschedule it slightly as her competition wouldn't start until 15:00. As the Lumière brothers invented cinema in Lyon, that museum seemed like a good place to start in understanding the city's past. From there I could then delve deeper into its history.

Lyon started life as a Roman settlement in 43 BC, known then as Lugdunum; the capital of one of the three Gaulish provinces. As such there are some Roman ruins around on Fourvière Hill that I was keen to see, even though I knew they'd look pretty much the same as ones I've seen in so many other countries. I booked us an afternoon ticket to go on the roof of the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière as well, as it'd give us a good view of the city. One useful piece of information I found about this is the recommendation to use the F1 funicular to avoid the 798 steps to the top of the hill. There's actually two funicular lines going up the hill, but the first one is quieter as it goes to the Roman ruins instead, which are only a short walk from the Basilica.

In terms of packing, I'd pack light, even though I'd read that there's no weight restriction for the train whilst also having a weight restriction of 32kg per bag. This is more than enough for what I'd take, but it seemed a little strange to have that disparity in limits considering both statements were on the same page of their site with no apparent caveats for the difference. There are however a difference in size limits between trains to and from London, and other Eurostar routes. For our trip the dimensions allowed are L:85cm x H:85cm x W:36cm, and a backpack would count as a second item of luggage rather than as hand luggage. Only laptop bags and handbags count as hand luggage here.