An impromptu weekend trip

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was looking for ways to stay in France.  It started after a few weeks.  I found myself thinking to myself, "If I lived in France, I could shop at these markets all the time!", which became "If I lived in France, I'd probably work in tourism", until eventually I was thinking, "If I lived in France, I'd totally live in this town."  If I lived in France, I'd totally live in Lyon.

I didn't know much about Lyon before I went there, and therefore, had no expectations for what it would be like.  It wasn't even on my radar as a place to visit.  Not that I'd turn down a trip there, but there were just so many other places that captured my interest.  But as it turns out, my second host family's son lived there for college, and he was coming home after school ended for the summer.  His grandmother was going to pick him up, and my host mom suggested I go with her.  Sure, it's a 3 hour drive, and grandmother doesn't speak English.  My French skills are about the level of a 5 year old, they could use the practice!  And I'm not one to turn down the opportunity to see a new place.  So we drove off to Lyon, grandma and I.  

She's one of those gruff exterior, heart of gold type ladies.  I was a little intimidated by her at first, to be honest.  But she turned out to be very patient and willing to wait as I worked through my poor French trying to figure out how to say what I wanted.  We chatted for pretty much the whole trip.  I worked my brain trying to think of how to communicate what I wanted to say, and I got practice with my listening skills, because oh man, she is a fast talker.  And there's nothing like trying to get directions on the phone from my host mom, another fast-talker, and deliver them in French, a language I don't speak well, to someone who doesn't speak English at all to help grow your language skills.  

I was a little unclear as to how the whole weekend was going to play out before I left.  We arrived and met the son and his friends, who turned out to be.. completely normal college kids.  We sat around and chatted and played nintendo for a bit.  (Can I just say at this point, I've never really gotten video games.  Like, I'm talking Mario kart.  What is with all the button pushing?! What's happening over there?!  I'm happy if I've got accelerate and turn both going on, and that's about the extent of my skills.)

As it turned out, the kids were leaving Saturday to go camping and to a concert and wouldn't be back until Sunday, so I basically had a day and a half to myself to wander Lyon. 

But that evening we went to the son's favorite restaurant in Vieux Lyon (the old and interesting part of Lyon, the area between le Rhône and la Saône rivers), called L'Epicerie, that would have been the most hipster of hangouts, except they don't know what hipsters are, and weren't being ironic.  We got tartines, which are basically open faced sandwiches.  But this is France, so you know those little tartines were mind-meltingly delicious.  Slices of crusty bread with broiled cheese (of course cheese) on top, then tomatoes and mozzarella, or beef, or other toppings.  I really don't remember all the options, but they were simple, and delicious.  I wanted to eat everything on the menu.  Curse you, stomach, for running out of space at times like these.

Then we wandered around Vieux Lyon, and goodness it's adorable.  Little cobblestone streets where I don't think cars even go through, old buildings with beautiful architecture, and shops of everything you can imagine.  Dozens of chocolate shops and patisseries.  

I could have spent my entire time there window shopping.

  

The weird.  The random. 

.

There was a miniatures diorama "museum", with a bunch of Hollywood costumes and props out in the lobby.

I saw this classic guy.

And this one.

I think they were authentic...

Saturday I was on my own.  I did a little planning the night before and had a tentative idea of what to visit the next day. First on my list was...

The Jardin de la Tete d'Or.  Which is like Disneyland for a plant lover.  Soo so many varieties, neatly labeled in cute little rows.  Desert arrangements, tropical greenhouses, carnivorous plants.  Have I mentioned how much I love pictures of flowers? Cause I really love pictures of flowers. I think I photographed every variety of flower in that garden.  But I really just took pictures of the flowers I liked.  Can I help it if they picked awesome flowers for their garden?  
Dangerous plants on the loose. . would be a good name for a band.

Judging by all the people running, biking, roller blading, etc, this could also possibly be considered the most beautiful gym in the world.

These are deer, wandering around what looks like a
completely open field

Kids horse cart race track!  Sad I'm not a kid, and
had no one to race

Map of the park.  Yes, there is a decently-sized lake in the middle of it. It's hard to explain the scale of this thing clearly, so let me just say that I spent the first 2 or 3 hours in the lower half of the park before I found this sign.  I then realized that I was only in the lower half of the park, and if I wanted to see the zoo (uh yeah, there's an entire zoo in there) and leave before sundown, I had better stop meandering and act like I had somewhere to be.

So I visited the zoo, gazed at the lake, watched the geese wandering around.  Till the police arrived.

Yeah, that really happened.  I was actually on my way out and saw a police car slowly cruising through the park, lights on and megaphone blaring.  In French, naturally, and I can hardly understand those things in English, so I didn't know what was up.  So I continued walking toward the big iron gates, as a policeman put a big chain and padlock on the other side, and I swear I had a moment of slow motion and felt like I was in a movie as I walked out three steps ahead of him closing and locking up the other gate behind me.  With people inside still.  This story would probably be a lot more interesting if I hadn't left right then, actually.  Sadly, I forgot to check the Lyon police blotter that night, so I don't know what happened there.  But my timing was perfect I guess.  

And I had time to wander Vieux Lyon again, which was so so fun and interesting!  I was planning on taking the stairs up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame on the hill overlooking the city.  We had taken the tram up the day before and the view is amazing, but there was a stairway as well, which I thought would be a fun little hike.  Until it turned out that I was actually exhausted by then, seeing as how it was 5:00, and if I wanted to get home by dinner time, I knew there was no way that hike would be happening.

I took the subway home, got off at my stop, ... and didn't really recognize the street I was on.  Like, at all.  I knew I had gotten off at the right stop, but the entrance and exits to the subway are sometimes in different locations, and can even be a street or two apart. So I wandered up and down the surrounding streets looking for a landmark I recognized.  My phone was dead, of course, because I think it's a rule of the universe that your phone battery must die when when you're lost and need directions.  After about a half an hour of wandering, however, I found the church with the clock tower that I could see from my bedroom window in the apartment.  Saved!  By the church!  The irony was not lost on me!  So I made it home finally after what had turned out to be a pretty fun and eventful day.

This line of the subway has a map of the world on 
it's walls as you ride.  I snapped a picture of Nova Scotia!  
My homeland!

The next day, Sunday, I took the subway to church.  It was a small group there, and it seemed that about half of them were American,  Although I was still pretty lost when the native French speakers were talking, I could completely understand the American's French!  I was pretty excited about that.  Everyone was very friendly, and I chatted with several people before heading home. 


Getting lost, getting exhausted beyond belief, getting proposed to by a guy riding by on a bike, almost getting caught up in international intrigue, .. Such an interesting weekend!   And all is well that ends well.