And in English…a sweet pear! I think you’ll find my Shirleyfest 2025 just that!

This year I’ll be taking on two cities in two months.

Paris is well…PARIS. Known as the City of Lights it is one of Europe’s most enduring cities. From the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe to the newly reopened Notre Dame, the landmarks abound. Couple that with exquisite food and artistic treasures housed in numerous excellent museums, you can see why I’ve decided to spend a Shirleyfest month roaming the streets of this iconic city. While I’ve been to Paris several times, it has been a while since my last visit. Here’s a snap of Laura and me on an earlier visit. So now I will return and give a Shirleyfest whirl to Paris!

Lyon you may be less familiar with. It’s France’s third largest city and is a city of culture, history and business.

It’s located at the crossroads of Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lyon is known as the capital of French gastronomy and is internationally recognised for its cultural events such as the Festival of Lights and its Contemporary Art Biennale. I think it will impress me like Bologna did in 2022. You can hopefully look forward to many pictures of me enjoying the bouchons of Lyon. What are bouchons? They are places that serve traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, coq-au-vin, “salade lyonnaise”,  or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking, the dishes are quite hearty. Apparently there are approximately twenty officially certified traditional bouchons in Lyon, but a larger number of establishments describe themselves using the term. I’ll let you know!

As always, if you have any travel tips for me or if you know anyone living in either of these two citues, please leave me a comment here on this site or contact me directly at shirleyfesttime@gmail.com.