Beaujolais: Light wine, serious beauty

Lyon, France's second largest city, may not match Paris for splendor and sophistication, but it's decidedly easier to get one's arms around and it's nearly as lovely, especially at night when more than 200 buildings, bridges, and monuments are illuminated. While there is a subway (a model railroad by Parisian standards), Lyon is best covered on foot since most of the attractions are in Presqu'ile, the peninsula squeezed between the city's two rivers, the roiling Rhne and the serene Sane.

Around the Place Bellecour, the massive 17th-century square where friends arrange to meet under the horse's tail of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV, are luxury stores and antiques shops.

Not far away, off the Place des Jacobins, is Rue Mercire, the city's main eating street with its rows of "bouchons," the homestyle bistros where locals and tourists sit elbow to elbow eating Lyonnaise specialties such as pig's feet in mustard sauce and boudin noir, washed down with half-liters of Ctes-du-Rhne and Beaujolais.

The most alluring restaurant on the street, though, is Chez Moss, where shellfish gourmands order L'avalanche, a towering $112 pile of oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, prawns, conches, and winkles. For more modest appetites, there's the Plateau Moss, a $48 assortment served in a yard-long, ice-filled boat that easily accommodates two.

A few blocks away, where Place Antonin Poncet nudges the Rhne, is Le Sud, fabled chef Paul Bocuse's Mediterranean-themed restaurant. (He also has Le Nord, L'Est, and L'Ouest, all in Lyon.) Start with the marvelous eggplant caviar, then proceed to either the lamb with nicoise vegetables or the tajine with chicken and preserved lemons.

Lyon, proudly and unavoidably, is about food. If you can't wait until dinner, stop by the Halle de Lyon, the seven-day-a-week market not far from the Part-Dieu station, and stock up on bread, cheese, charcuterie, and marinated vegetables. Then head for the Parc de la Tte d'Or, the sprawling expanse on the north side of town, claim a swatch of greensward, and have a two-hour "djeuner sur l'herbe" with a bottle (or two) of Chiroubles. The local waiters say it's the hidden treasure of Beaujolais.

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.