Beneath the vaults of Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, the oyster shuckers open up the wide ocean every day: glistening oysters, pearly shellfish and live crustaceans, laid on ice like treasure from the Atlantic.
At Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, the sea comes ashore every morning right in the heart of the city. On beds of crushed ice, the oyster shuckers stage a spectacle of brine and mother-of-pearl: oysters arranged like jewels, whelks, clams, brown crabs and lobsters still alive. In the "belly of Lyon," these merchants of the ocean bring the open sea and the Lyon table into conversation with a respect-commanding elegance.
Here, the houses carry the weight of history. Chez Antonin, an oyster bar since 1906, keeps alive the spirit born in the Cordeliers era, when people came to taste the finest products of the Atlantic. Maison Merle, established as early as 1938, was carried forward by Alain Merle, crowned French oyster-shucking champion in 1971, and remains an absolute reference for tasting in Lyon. Chez Léon, present in the Halles since the early 1970s, has become a true bistro of the sea where shellfish and crustaceans are savoured at the counter.
The shucker's craft is a quiet art. With a sure gesture, the blade finds the hinge, lifts the shell without wounding it and frees the oyster intact in its liquor. Flat Belons from Brittany, fines de claire, oysters from Normandy or Charente-Maritime: each variety tells of a sea, a season, a loyal farmer.
Before the stall, the ritual is unchanging. A generous platter, a squeeze of lemon, a glass of cool white wine, and the bustle of the Halles all around. This is iodine at its peak, this is Lyon embracing the ocean.