Rue des Marronniers

This guide to rue des Marronniers counts the nearly identical bouchon lyonnais signs packed onto a cobbled lane just off Place Bellecour, barely eight meters wide and about twenty restaurants deep. It traces the street's renaming for its long-gone chestnut trees in 1723, and the moment in the early 1990s when restaurateur Jean-Pierre Gillin planted a second Chabert-branded bistro here instead of spreading the name across the city. Count the checkered curtains and chalkboard menus as you walk the short stretch from one end to the other.