Lyon

I went to Lyon with five other TAPIF-ers yesterday. We didn’t really plan it out too much, which wasn’t surprising since we had decided to go the night before. 

Up there you see Notre Dame de Fourviere

 We got there at noon, took the obligatory “Only in Lyon” sign photos, found a huge market and had lunch. I got an empanada and figs.

The sign says you're not allowed to climb the letters. No one cares about said sign. 

We're all there, I promise

GOATS!

I'll figure out what all these sheep things are eventually. I see them all over Grenoble. 

We saw church ruins, which according to the sign “date back to the earliest Christian times. The church of Lyon, founded toward AD 150, was the oldest in the west apart from that of Rome.” There, you have been educated. 

 We took one of these things up to see the Theatres Gallo-Romains on the Fourvière hill which was in the center of “the most important city of Roman Gaul.” Then walked to Notre Dame de Fourviere which was a beautiful church. If you walk behind it there’s an amazing view of the whole city, so we just stood and stared for a while.

We walked down and went to Terre Adelice, a popular organic ice cream shop which had more flavors than I thought possible, old classics like Roquefort (old stinky cheese), wasabi mustard, and basil.  I opted for Lavender.

Then we just wandered around a little bit, went to a book store. There was some sort of skate park set up in the city center for the weekend so we sat and watched that for a while and then went to dinner which took a while to find. We finally settled on going to a Japanese restaurant. (Empanadas, Yakosoba, samosas, sushi… I’m in France right?) 

Then, exhausted, we made our way back to the Gare. We all had open tickets and hadn’t really planned our return, which was not the best idea. There were two routes back to Grenoble: a direct route that takes about an hour/and hour and a half, and the long route which takes two and a half hours. We made the 9:15 bus, which happened to be the long one, so we didn’t get back to Grenoble until 11:40. I got on the tram, a shirtless mad with a stereo and a beer got on and danced for a few stops, a bachelorette who was saran wrapped to a chair was carried into the tram at one point… I don’t  know. I finally collapsed in my bed around 12:30. I’m still really tired from yesterday.

Overall though, a good trip, although it made me miss traveling with my Mont people a lot, I kept thinking “ah, so-and-so would have LOVED this!” But it was a great way to get to know the other assistants a little better.