Lyon Fête des Lumières

This weekend a few of us took a trip up to Lyon to go to the Fête des Lumières (the festival of lights). I took a few videos but they were really choppy on my camera so I'm just going to steal some from YouTube to give you an idea of what it was all about. This first one was my favorite.

There were four of us that went together, each from a different anglophone country, which inevitably meant half of the conversations went something like "wait, you think pants mean what?" "Okay, who says it's a lift? Who says it's an elevator?" Very confusing. (And this week I had to teach a lesson on clothes and I almost gave them a mini-lecture on why they shouldn't use "pants" in the UK the same way we use it in the US... and then I figured that my mini-lecture on the different pronunciation of the letter "Z" was enough for their brains.) 

The Fete started at six. We walked around and found some food (bread and mayonnaise, lots and lots of mayo, with a little bit of tuna), and then we went from one light show to another. They were spectacular, really intricate and creative light shows displayed on the sides of buildings all throughout the city. And it was CROWDED. At one point we were standing in a huge mob of people and we didn't move for a good five minutes. Totally worth it thought. 

By ten we couldn't feel our feet and we headed back to our place. We rented a whole apartment though Airbnb, so we made some tea and watched Miss France and confusing French "comedy" until 2 am. Then, despite being in the most comfortable bed I have ever been in, I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am. But besides that it was a really great trip. I missed the lights festival last year when a few other study abroad-ers went (the semester was coming to an end and finals were coming up... oh wow, it's been almost a year since I came back home from Mont. Geez, time flies by fast), so it was nice to make up for it this year. 

I only regret not taking more pictures. They would have been awful without any good lighting, but still... should have at least done a group one. Ah well, tant pis. 

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.