Lyon

I'm very sorry to say I've been such a slacker on my blogging. It was on my mind a lot more at first because so many things were happening that were so new, but now that I'm really settling in and feeling at home... It's harder to remember. But I guess that's a good thing right? The settling in part, not the slacker. Anyways, it's been a pretty wonderful month, I'll break it up over a few posts so it's not so overwhelming (for you and for me). In my last blog, I was just settling back in from Toussaint vacation. I was pretty lucky because the following week after Toussaint included Veteran's Day in France so I had the day off. But because I am so lucky to already have Wednesdays and Fridays free, getting Thursday off meant another 5 day weekend. So Raul, Harry, and I climbed into Raul's car and took off for Lyon, the second largest city in France. It was the first time for each of us and I'd say we were all pretty in love with the city.

We found a pretty amazing deal on hotels.com for a sort of extended stay hotel where we had a living room with a very interesting pull out couch, kitchenette, bathroom, and bedroom. I mean, it was about 2 or 3 times the size of my apartment and was more well equipped. I felt like I was living in the lap of luxury. The first picture shows Harry walking into our room in "Divorce Tours" as we so affectionately named it as we decided it was the place rich men went to live when their wives threw them out. By the next evening, Emily joined us and we spent the next few days and nights exploring, wandering, shopping, just enjoying the feeling of being in a large city. The wonderful thing about Lyon is it is incredibly walkable but the metro system is also very nice and new, compared to dirty old Paris metro, but luckily, we only took it once.

Lyon has two major rivers running through it, the Rhone and the Saone and the city is sort of built around them with a large hill on the other side of the Saone. That hill. Man. I haven't worked out since I've arrived to France so I'm not exactly in shape but this hill was just a killer. However, the view at the top of it was amazing. The photo on the right shows the basilica on the top of the hill as well as what appears to be a mini eiffel tower. This tower, so cleverly named the Metal Tower looks much better from down below, because from the top of the hill you see that its just that part sticking out. Not nearly as picturesque as Paris's Tour Eiffel. But oh well.






Here's a photo of Raul and I from the top. This is after I was no longer sweating.

Our drive/first night were the only times we really had to deal with any bad weather. Our first night Harry got in a mild disagreement with the wind. Unfortunately the wind won as you can see in this photo with his umbrella, captured every so perfectly by yours truly. 




The rest of the time we were there was absolutely gorgeous, Saturday morning being the best day of them all. Here you can see Emily and I sitting down by the Saone drinking our lattes (yess to go lattes!). Harry was too scared some tramp (thats what the British call bums) was just going to run up behind him and shove him in the water so he kept his distance from the edge.











Another great part of being in another city was NIGHTLIFE. Blois has been great, but it's lacking. Primarily in young people and things to do past 8 at night. Lyon offered both to us. Both Friday and Saturday we were able to go out and find people our own age to talk to. We found a trusty Irish pub called the St. James in Vieux Lyon where we spent a majority of our Friday night and this was our Irish Flag shots purchased for us by Raul. It's a little hard to see but they are green, "white" and orange made from blue curaco, baileys, and jameson. sounds bizarre, tastes delicious.

and by ABSOLUTE favorite part of being in Lyon was that i got to see JIMMY! When I was in Montpellier, our program hired people in the University to work as "social assistants" spending time in the program office, organizing events for us at bars, movies, bowling, opera, whatever, you name it.  Jimmy was one of those social assistants and probably my most favorite person ever. It's been almost three years since I've seen him and it felt like I left him yesterday. When I was in Montpellier, my french was... well. not good. However, since then, I've improved a lot. Jimmy and I used to have "conversations" where he would have to explain practically everything he said to me or just talk to me in English, looking back, must have been exhausting for him. But it was a great affirmation of how far I've come in my language to be with him, Plus just being with him was AMAZING. Unfortunately it wasn't that long, but don't worry Jimmy, I'm coming back! :)

So that was Lyon! Next post, I'll tell you about my trip to Bordeaux!

Bisous!