I just got back from a very lovely weekend in Lyon with Shawna, Elisse, and Marie...an unlikely place and an unlikely group, but a perfect weekend.
(Allow me to start with a little image of Lyon...)
We left on Friday afternoon with no transportation issues. We took the bus from the post office to Avignon TGV, then Avignon TGV right into Lyon. Lyon's train station is right next to a hotel called the Athena, which we found quite humorous. For whatever reason, we decided that it would be a good idea to walk to our hotel. It took about a half an hour. I mean, Shawna and I walk a half an hour to school every day, but it's a little big of a story when one has to deal with baggage. We were incredibly enthused when we finally found our hotel...but our happiness was short lived. Due to the May Day holiday, the reception was closed from 12-6. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. We resorted to a eating at a Snack Kebab and sitting on our baggage outside of the hotel until someone let us into the lobby. There, we played with the cat who was wandering around and tried not to fall asleep until someone arrived at the desk. Our room ended up being less expensive than we had thought, and we proceeded up to the seventh floor to find the perfect room. It was two stories, with a kitchenette, table, tv, three small beds, and a double bed. Basically, awesome. We headed to the market quickly after dropping our bags off in the room to buy a few essentials, and then we crashed in the room for a time munching and watching Malcolm in the Middle in French. It was...hilarious.\
Our goal for Friday night was to find a discotheque. We failed. However, we had a spectacular time wandering around Lyon at night. It is a gorgeous city in the daylight, but at night it is just as lovely. All the buildings are lit up, the rivers (there are two: the Rhône and the Saône) sparkle with colors, and the bridges glow. All the shops were closed, of course, but there's no harm window shopping and drooling over Lyon's high fashion district. If only I were rich... But alas, I am not. Exhausted, we went back to the hotel at around 11:30 and fell asleep right away. I don't think I've gone to bed that early in weeks!
(Happy to be in Lyon.)
(Walking through Lyon at night.)
Our early bed time was much needed, especially since we all got up at around 8:00 the next morning to get started on our day. We left the hotel after a small breakfast around 9:00, and went straight to the Office of Tourism. There we bought an incredible city pass for only 15 euros. The city pass gave us free access to every single one of Lyon's 20+ museums, free transportation all day, random discounts in certain shops, and a free boat tour on the Saône. After leaving the office of tourism, we sat in the Place Bellecour looking at maps and planning out our day.
(I hope Louis XIV and his horse approved of our plans in Lyon.)
We decided to start our day in Vieux Lyon, an old quarter close to Place Bellecour. On our way to the Musée des Miniatures et Décors de Cinéma (Museum of Miniatures and Movie Sets), we were very charmed by Vieux Lyon. The streets were lined with cute shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. We stopped in one of Lyon's million churches - St. Jean.
(St. Jean's ceiling.)
Star Wars' C3P0 greeted us upon our entry to the Miniature Museum. I realize that a Miniature Museum sounds INCREDIBLY random (and it is), but it really was quite incredible. In the basement and on the ground floor, sets used for the movie "La Parfumerie" were in tact. I've never seen the movie, but from the sets I gathered that it was some sort of old horror movie. It was astonishing to see how much detail went into the set. Every spider web was in its place, and each glass bottle was appropriately dusty.
(Part of the set of "La Parfumerie".)
The next three floors up were occupied by miniature sets. One room was dedicated to displaying certain articles that were used in well-known movies. I saw a helmet worn in the movie "300", masks from "Tarzan", part of a costume from "V for Vendetta", and other really interesting things. We watched a short film that explained how miniatures are used in movies. It was interesting seeing the sets be constructed, looking so artificial, and to see the unmastered film. After each of these un-edited montages, the actual screen version was played. What a difference! I'm kind of jealous of film-makers...it truly is an art.
("V for Vendetta")
After learning a little bit about that, we wandered through rooms and rooms of miniature sets. They were incredible! Everything was very complexly detailed, but looked completely real. There was one library set where each of the hundreds and hundreds of books had titles. It really was a work of craftsmanship.
(A miniature set.)
(Miniature library set.)
(The outside of Le Musée des Miniatures et Décor de Cinéma.)
After our random stop at the Miniature Museum (who thought THAT could be interesting?!) we continued to walk through Vieux Lyon. We stopped in a few shops, most notably the most colorful shop I have EVER seen (Pylones), and a Medieval shop.
(The colors of Pylones.)
We found ourselves at l'Hotel de Ville (town hall), and we went from there up a GIANT hill to the Croix-Rousse quarter. It was a tiring walk, but it was worth it. We walked through a nice garden (France has a lot of those), and the top of the hill offered a beautiful view of the city.
Apparently, Lyon is known for its silk industry, so we decided to be all historical and go to the silk museum. We got slightly lost on the way there, and once we found it, we discovered that this "museum" was basically a room with a few old looms. Most of the "museum" was taken up by the shop in front, which sold gorgeous but expensive silk scarves. I highly considered buying a lambs wool scarf for myself, and then I remembered that I was a poor college student. It was a sad moment.
(Silk loom.)
After our brief stop at the silk museum, we found a market and then settled down in front of a statue to eat our poor college student lunch of fruit, baguettes, and peanut butter and jelly.
(Our lunch spot in Croix-Rousse. I can't remember what statue was watching over us this time...)
It was a nice rest, but we had to get going quickly to get down to the river for the boat excursion. Unfortunately, the tour we wanted was already full, so we ended up with two extra hours of time before the next tour. We decided to use this time to again enrich our minds and go to the Lyon Resistance Museum.
For those who don't know, Northern France was directly occupied by Germany during WWII. The Southern half of France was under the control of Pétain in Vichy. Much to the dismay of the French people, Pétain became a collaborator with the Nazi government of Germany. The French Republic died, and the French State took its place. The French Resistance rose from this situation, following the message of resistance of Charles de Gaulle heard on the BBC in 1940. Lyon was a major center for the French Resistance due to its proximity to the Line of Demarcation that divided Northern and Southern France, and its location near the mountains. M. Corbin had suggested that we go to the Resistance Museum, so we followed his suggestion. The museum was small, but decent. There was a lot of reading, and we didn't have enough time, but I'm glad I got to go. There was an exposition of portraits of surviving resistants, and descriptions of their stories. It was interesting to see their now old faces and imagine them young - fighting, watching their friends die, resisting against their government, and risking their lives every day.
We left the Resistance Museum in order to get to the boat tour on time, but we ended up sitting by the river for a few minutes before the boat even arrived. We napped in the sunshine by the river. The boat ride was quite relaxing, but I can't say that I learned a whole lot from the tour. I could understand the tour guide's French better than her English. Oh well. The excursion did however bring us to a lovely little island in the middle of the Saône. I'd like to actually go on the island one day and to look around the ruins of the Roman abbey, or to play on its rocky shore.
(The abbey on the island.)
After the boat tour, we headed back to our hotel for a much needed nap. We slept, got ready again, and left around 7:30 in search of a good restaurant. We found ourselves back in Vieux Lyon, and we stopped by quite a few menus before deciding on a restaurant. In retrospect, I have no idea why we sat there in the first place. It was a very meat-friendly place, and none of us have very meat-friendly stomachs. It's probably good that we received such horrible service before even being waited on. Otherwise, we never would have left the restaurant before ordering (we didn't even get the chance to order a drink...the waitress simply never came), and we never would have found the next restaurant. Famished, we decided quickly on essentially the next restaurant we saw. It was Mexican. Yes, we ate Mexican food in France. But it was SO GOOD. For my entrée, I had a mushroom and onion dish with soft bread for dipping. We all had the same main dish, which was a chicken enchillada-like thing smothered in some type of some type of sharp cheese. Dessert for me was a piece of apple pie, but Shawna had a piece of deliciously rich chocolate cake that she let me sample. Basically, the meal was INCREDIBLE. The bartender was very kind, the waitress was very patient, and we were very well waited on. Thank GOODNESS we left the place that served calf's head...and calf's feet. Ew.
We left the restaurant and headed back down the the river, where we had a little picnic of wine (for Shawna and Elisse) and rum and pineapple juice cocktails for Marie and me. We laughed until we cried, and watched the lights come on in the city. I cannot describe how lovely it was to sit by a river on a warm night, legally sipping at a cocktail, and laughing with friends.
(A colorful Lyonnais bridge at night.)
We went back to our hotel early again, and woke up even earlier this morning than we had on Saturday morning. This morning (Sunday), we managed to get ready and packed up, and to clean the kitchenette and take out the trash and check out all before 8:30. We were champs. We had planned on renting bikes for the morning, but for whatever reason, we were incapable. It was nearly 9:00 by the time we gave up on trying to rent bikes ourselves from the self-serve stations all around the city, so we walked to the Office of Tourism. We learned there that it was basically impossible to rent a bike on a Sunday. I still do not know why. We instead bought an all day transportation pass and took the funicular up to Lyon's crowning jewel, the Fourvière.
(This is the funicular. It is the most peculiar type of public transportation ever.)
The Fourvière is a giant church that sits on top of an embankment that looks over the entirety of Lyon. Gorgeous view, and gorgeous church. We sneaked inside only to find mass in progress. It was awkward, but we took pictures anyways. I'm probably going to be condemned for that, but oh well. I couldn't go into the Fourvière without taking pictures. I mean, I'm not planning on going back anytime soon.
(The Fourvière, and some of Lyon behind it.)
(It was too big to fit in a picture...)
(Gold-gilded ceiling.)
We were running out of time before we had to be back at the hotel before the reception desk closed, so we took the metro to a station close to the Parc de la Tête d'Or (Park of the Golden Head). There, we bought some baguettes for lunch. Unfortunately, we got somewhat lost (again), and could not for the life of us find the GIANT park that occupied practically all of the quarter. Eventually, we found it, and I'm glad we didn't give up. It was a beautiful park - green, filled with flowers and fountains, and populated with millions of runners and families and bikers. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to rush to get back to the hotel.
(I want to go back.)
We got our bags without problem, and opted to take the metro to the train station instead of walking. We got our train without issues, but once on the train, we encountered a small glitch. Shawna's ticket has a seat number on it, but mine just had a car number and something that essentially means "whatever seat just so happens to be free." I sat next to Shawna, of course, but I was soon kicked out by a family who had reserved that seat. It was the strangest thing ever...I don't know why they wouldn't assign me a seat number like everyone else. Oh well. They probably overbooked the train. I was able to find a seat, and I didn't have to take the hour long train ride sitting on my suitcase next to the bathroom. So, despite the seat problem, it was a success.
And now, I"m back home in Avignon. My bed (with freshly cleaned sheets) feels like heaven. I feel as though I appreciate beds so much more in France...they really are my saving grace some days.
I am going to take full advantage of my bed, and go to bed within the hour.
Goodnight, all!
Ahh! Almost forgot the album links again:
Part 1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009137&id=1417500098&l=dc5806b11d
Part 2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009141&id=1417500098&l=be569798e1
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