Down the Saone to France's second city Lyon is one of the great river trips in France. Lyon in the Middle Ages became the centre for European silk weaving. Weavers came from Italy and the beautiful Italianate buildings on the banks of the Saone as you arrive by river into the city, bear witness to this. To the North of Lyon there is a district called the Croix Rousse where all the weavers lived. But, more of that later. As soon as I had tied up the Regina on the Rhone, there was an enormous flood. All the towpaths were inundated but luckily my neighbour had fixed up a way to get ashore. The first place that I visited was Lyon's favourite place Le Halle. The people of Lyon have a passion and it is food. The reason that they have this passion is that they live in an area which really has all the best produce in France and that is saying something. My first call was tob the queen of the saucisson or salami. I complained to her that I had eaten something called a quenelle. She said her quenelles were divine which later I found out to be true. Her assistant in the prosperous business keeps all the addresses of all their clients in his head. He says he doesn't believe in computers. I learnt about French cheese of which there are 385 different sorts in France. I learnt how to open oysters from Mr. Monastier the oldest man at 84 years in the market still working away. Then I sat down to a lovely plate of oysters from Omaha Beach where the Americans landed on D-Day. In Lyon the in-crowd go for a jog on Sunday mornings and then go to Le Halle and have a bottle of white wine and a dozen oysters. What they do on Sunday afternoons is up to them! Colette Sybilia, proud of her Lyon was determined to show me the restaurants of Lyon of which there are many. The most famous are the old 'buchons' which literally meant somewhere where they would have a handful of straw to wipe down your hot horse while you had a meal. They are very popular and the food is very, very good. My favourite was chez Hugon, which is run by Mere Hugon who had been born and bred on a barge and so was very used to working in very cramped conditions. Her blood sausage and caramelised apples are worth crossing continents for. A New York Times reporter had praised her cooking and now the world beats a path to her tiny restaurant. Her chicken livers with cream sauce, still makes me salivate to think about them. The fountain in the main square just outside Mere Hugon's kitchen was designed by Bartoldi the same man who designed the Statue of Liberty. The final restaurant Colette took me to was chez Tetedoie which is run by a young chef who is one of the elite band of 'meilleurs ouvriers de France' (the best workers in France in their particular metier'. It entitles those who have been thus honoured to have the French colours on the chef's collar. His restaurant is very deluxe and up market. He is a very inventive chef and one of his very popular dishes is calves head and lobster and very delicious it is too. He invites us into his kitchen to watch his new delight, snails cooked in pastry. As we left he said we should take his son down to the cathedral where as a chorister he had a rehearsal. It was hard to believe that this little scamp in football trousers, could by simply slipping on a white robe, sound like an angel in the great cathedral. An extraordinary experience which I am very glad I did not miss.

• published: 10 Mar 2011
• views: 6669