Week Four

Hello Readers!

We spent this week in class. So far we both really enjoy our classes with the exception of one: our economics class. It is, unfortunately, a long, usually boring, lecture class and since it is at the end of our longest day of classes, we both have a hard time staying awake. However, with a dose or two of café, we manage.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Tonight, we went out with our friend Isaac and got to meet his girlfriend, Katherine. They both attend the University of Alabama and are from Mississippi. They are both very nice and we get along very well with them and enjoy their company. We went out to dinner and got pizzas, pasta and drinks! We started dinner with a bottle of nice red wine to share amongst the four of us then after dinner the restaurant brought us about a quarter of a bottle of Limoncello, on the house which was very kind of them and will ensure that we go back there again! From dinner, we tried to get gelato but the place was closed so, instead, we ended up a place with ice cream. Carly got cookies n'cream and Katherine got chunky monkey. While the ladies were ordering their ice cream, the guys decided to get drinks. We found one that was called "The Big Love Machine".  We decided we wanted to try it. It was two liters of orange juice, pineapple juice and an assortment of alcohols. It was delicious! The four of us enjoyed sitting outside, chatting and drinking our drink. We spent, in total, about five hours with Katherine and Isaac and we were both sad to part ways with them. We very much look forward to spending time with them again.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Today is Valentine's Day! It is our first Valentine's Day together and we went to an early dinner at a very cute Italian restaurant. Carly had gnocchi with tomato and basil sauce and Jeff had four cheese penne that was super creamy and delicious! After our meal, we went and saw The Imitation Game at a local movie theatre (in english). It was a great movie and we enjoyed it very much. When the movie was over, after having eaten lots of salty popcorn, Carly decided we needed something sweet! So we went to a frozen yogurt shop where Carly had a chocolate shake and Jeff had pistachio frozen yogurt. It was a very nice, low-key, holiday and we both had a great time enjoying each other's company.

Pictures from week four:http://imgur.com/a/gsMr6

Next Friday we are off to Italy!

We will keep you updated in a much more timely fashion from now on :)

Until next time,

Carly and Jeff

Week Three

Bonjour Nos Amis,

Wednesday, February 4

Today, Jeff met Carly at her bus stop and from there we went and studied. Around 1:00 we went to lunch at Tomate et Basilic, a small pasta place in the heart of town. Carly ate gnocchi with four cheese sauce and Jeff had cheese tortellini with four cheese sauce as well. They were both delicious but very heavy. We studied for a while longer and then began to plan our spring break. We are going to Spain! The majority of our trip will be spent in Madrid and Jerez with small side trips to Toledo, Segovia, and Seville. The second half of the trip will be centered around pool-lounging and MotoGP. We have acquired two three-day passes to the Jerez MotoGP race! We are both very excited as this is a world sporting event.

Friday, February 6

We are off to Lyon!!! After classes this morning we ate a quick lunch and headed to the bus station where we found our bus just before 4:00 PM. The very beginning of our trip was through a valley with towering mountains on either side. We passed a beautiful gothic-style monastery high on a peak followed shortly by ruins of what seemed to be walls of what used to be a very large building. We rode through many miles of nondescript fields filled with vineyards or horses, roaming rivers, towering mountain ranges, many villages seemingly built from the stone of the rivers they surround. We passed chateaus and castles build into the mountains. We passed industrial centers followed by old villages dominated by the central spires of their cathedrals. We passed a cement factory that disrupted our thoughts of ancient grandeur. We went around roundabout after roundabout. We passed shopping mall and city center. We rode past chain restaurants and through city traffic until we were back in the peace and beauty that is the French countryside. The untouched ancient beauty of these mountains and river valleys and the noble grandeur of the medieval architecture is what drove us to come here in the first place and seeing it in person has really solidified, in our minds, that we would be here for four months and be able to experience what this beautiful country and the surrounding areas really have to offer. We passed through the city of Avignon. Avignon is very old and surrounded by a towering ancient wall. We stopped at a bus stop in Avignon and pick up a few more passengers. A guy about our age sat diagonally in front of us.  We left Avignon and were immediately stuck in traffic. It looked pretty dense and didn't look like we would get out soon. We passed a McDonalds which in France has a gold M with a green background instead of red.  We finally cleared the traffic and were on a highway between two mountains. The sun was low and perched on the mountains to the west. There was not much daylight left. Carly slept sleeping soundly against the window. We passed a castle sitting on the bend of a river with miles and miles of vineyards up to its front. The river was deep and wide providing a good natural barrier for the castle. Carly woke up from her nap and enjoyed the landscape with Jeff as the sun faded behind the mountains. We passed a village nestled up to sheer cliffs and on top of the cliffs was an incredibly preserved castle. The entire village looked very old. We stopped at a bus stop for a while and we grabbed some snacks and some drinks. We got back on the bus and the bus driver proceeded to scream at the younger guy diagonal to us. He didn't want to put his bag underneath the bus but the bus driver was insisting. There were not a lot of people on the bus and the guy said he would like to just leave it in the seat as it had breakables in it but the bus driver wouldn't have it and threw a classic hissy fit about it. Finally the guy relented to the bus driver after the bus driver threatened to call the police. We were not sure what the police would do or if they would even care but the guys bag went under the bus. After we left the bus stop the guy seemed rather shaken so we talked to him for a while and tried to ease his nerves. He was from Alsace and was headed there now. He was coming from Avignon and had been to Marseille and Nice. He said that Avignon was the best and suggested we go there sometime. We got off the bus and got a taxi to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.

Saturday, February 7

We woke up and headed out first thing. We went to the metro and took the D line (just like Boston) to Vieux-Lyon. We exited the metro station and decided to just wander around and see what we find. Just outside of the metro station, on our right, we found a beautiful cathedral. We went inside and looked around the interior. Once we had seen the inside, we left in search of brunch. Lyon's street were largely cobbled and the city was very clean. We walked down an old street until we came to a small brunch restaurant. We both had savory crepes. Carly had a crepe Lorainne and Jeff had a Margherita crepe, which were both delicious and filled our bellies. We found an incredible number of stairs heading upwards and decided not to go up them, but instead turned down a small alley that led to another cathedral and a river. On the other side of the river were many pretty, old buildings. so We decided to cross the river. We went in search of a bridge and found a small foot bridge that walked us into the center of a gorgeous plaza with a large fountain and a towering hotel. We took some pictures and then went in search of gloves for Jeff as his hands were falling off from the cold. While we couldn't find him any gloves for less than 65 euros, we did have a great time going in and out of a bunch of shops. We passed two more cathedrals before we came to a giant square of red sand. There was a large statue, a ferris wheel and a tourist center in this square. We stopped in the tourist center then went to look at the statue up close. The statue was of Louis XIV and what looked to be a god sitting with a lion. Carly sat with the lion and the god and Jeff took her picture. We went from there back across the river and decided to try to hike to the top of the mountain that had a breathtaking castle-like structure on top. We had to take a break half way up since the road was incredibly steep, narrow, and long. It took us a long time to get to the top but when we finally did we found a Gallo-Roman ruin dating back to 55BC. The first recorded image of the site was found in 500 AD and they were ruins then! We found a giant mansion made of stone at the top of the ruins, clearly built many years after the ruins were found. Unfortunately, this building was privately owned and not open to the public. We left the ruins and headed for the castle at the top of the mountain. We finally got to the castle-like structure and found that it was a cathedral called Le Cathedrale de Fourvière. We entered the cathedral and were immediately struck by the beauty of its detail. The inside was covered with ornate carvings and all the walls seemed to be covered with incredible murals. On closer inspection, all of the paintings on the walls turned out to be mosaics. The entire cathedral was covered in mosaics! It was incredible and must have taken many decades to complete. We stayed and looked around Fourvière for about two hours and then took our leave. We went to a store and bought some food and wine along with an etched "Lyon" corkscrew. From there we took a neat, little cable car down the mountain that lowered us right down to the metro station. We wished we had known it was there before we hiked all the way up earlier in the day! We headed back to the hotel and when we arrived, we watched a show called "Long Way Round" about Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's adventure riding motorcycles east from London to New York City. After an episode, we went to sleep.

The next day, Jeff made a breakfast of eggs and Emmental Rapé (French cheese) and after we went out and explored for a bit. We found the Jacobin Fountain and the square it was located in was pretty cool! It was Sunday and on Sundays in France NOTHING is EVER OPEN. We wandered around some more and found a building that looked like it belonged in Washington D.C.. We crossed a red suspension footbridge and found a medieval store that sold suits of armor, swords and medieval mead. We looked around until we had our fill and then we went to dinner at a pasta bar. Afterwards, we went into a pirate candy store and couldn't help but buy some. We headed to bed early that evening since we had to be up early, at 5AM, to check out and catch our bus. Lyon was a beautiful, exciting and clean city with lots of cute puppies! We both had a phenomenal time there and had a hard time leaving. We decided that Lyon is definitely a city we would like to go back to someday to stay for a longer visit.

Pictures from lyon: http://imgur.com/a/eZq3Q

Week Two

Hello everyone,

We are sorry it has taken so long for this blog post to happen. All the forces of the universe have been keeping us from you over the past three weeks so we are going to use this post and the next two in order to catch you up on everything that has been going on!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Today, we took another bus tour! We met the bus at 8:45AM and headed north into vineyard country. We saw beautiful vineyard homes and chateaus. We both thought that these vineyard homes would make a nice summer retirement home. We got to our first stop which was an 11th century monastery, which we toured for about an hour. The architecture was beautiful and it had the most adorable little, wooden doors. It was interesting to see how the building had aged in such an immense amount of time. From there out buses headed to Cavaillon. It was a very cute, small village with a river running through the center of it and had many waterwheels powering local businesses. We had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant on the river. Carly had a prosciutto, parmesan and mushroom risotto and Jeff had mushroom and cheese raviolis. Both were absolutely delicious! We got dessert a local patisserie. Carly had a meringue and Jeff had a chocolate and a coffee eclair. From there we walked back towards to the bus through the market where Carly saw the hat she had been talking about since we had met. With a little encouragement from Jeff, Carly went and talked to the hat salesman and finally purchased her hat! While Carly was a purchasing her hat, Jeff saw a yellow lab puppy sitting on a german shepherd and was able to take their picture, which made his day. From there, we went to the town La Fontaine de Vaucluse. It is the source of the river in Cavaillon and is known for its hiking. We walked around but other than a near river and a castle ruin that we couldn't get to, there was not much to see or do. After wandering in a park near the river for about an hour, we got back on the buses and headed home.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Today was the unfortunate day that Jeff's phone broke. After the sad incident we quickly took his phone to be repaired. We spent the rest of the day doing homework and preparing for the week of classes ahead.

Pictures for Week two here: http://imgur.com/a/QgmBa

Unfortunate Phone Incident

Hello Readers,

The blog for this Saturday will be later this week. Jeff's phone is currently undergoing some serious surgery after a fatal fall from a slippery unlevel table top. Once we get his phone back we will be able to update the blog and pictures.

We can't wait to update you,

Carly & Jeff