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