Cowboy, Take Me Away

Mom was right, today I smiled and I met two girls from the University of South Carolina grad school who are studying abroad in Clermont right now! They live near my apartment with two other USC students... I'm so excited to have the opportunity to hang out with some SEC students!

This past weekend, I went to Lyon for two days. And ohmyLANTA it was freezing. I had a wonderful time exploring the Presqu'ile (peninsula where all the museums, etc are) on my own.

I took the train there, and thanks to my new couple friends Mathieu and Mylene, I went to the right train station. Guys, I literally would not have made it if they had not said something. I was going to take the tram to the "Part Dieu Gare" stop... since it has the word "train station" in it, I believed it was the train station. Oh no, it was not. The real train station is a mere 5-10 minute walk from my apartment, away from Place Delille.

I had dinner with Mathieu and Mylene last Friday night, and I have found my new couple! I'm almost always the third wheel in my life... Sydney & Chandler, Kelsey & Daniel... and now, I have found my French couple! It's not that I don't like being friends with single people... It's just that all of my really good friends usually have boyfriends... James has been making fun of me about it though (love you too), he laughs about how I always tend to make friends with couples. Oh well. It definitely stinks not having James with me to go out to dinner, he's such a good dinner-mate! And as of yet, I have not eaten alone at a restaurant but once since I have been in France.




I immediately descended from the train and tried to find somewhere to eat. Easier said than done. France is known for closing everything down during lunch time so that people can eat with their families. Only problem is, I don't have a family or a home in Lyon. I walked into the nearest open "bouchon", a Lyon style restaurant, and decided to figure out what to do next. After my espresso, I went to pay. OH wait, they don't accept visa's for less than 10 euros. Thankfully, they were serving lunch soon so the host, who I think was about to beat me, didn't have to have me arrested. Whew.

Statue in front of the restaurant

Lunch was delicious. I mean, you would kill your grandmother for this meal delicious.

Flan de poireaux a la tomate

Le pate avec le saumon

 After lunch, I went off and checked in early to my hotel room! It was tiny, on the top floor, the elevator wasn't working, and it didn't have any real sheets to go under. The comforter was teeny tiny.... And the "top sheet" was the only thing in between the mattress pad and the comforter. Oh well!

Then, I went exploring!

Statue of Louis 14 in Place Bellecour

Ferris Wheel in Place Bellecour

View of Fourviere from Place Bellecour

My first stop was Place Bellecour to buy a Lyon City Pass that got me into museums and let me use the public transportation for free! Place Bellecour is huge, and is near a ton of fancy shops that are on these pedestrian only streets. Additionally, it's possible to view Basilisque de Fourviere from the square... This church isn't even on the Presqu'ile. It's on a huge hill, across the river Saone.


After that I walked around for a while with my trusty guide book trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I eventually ended up in Place des Terreaux, a square in front of the Musee de Beaux Arts (art museum in Lyon) and Hotel de Ville. This fountain, by Bartholdi, is made entirely of LEAD and was originally meant for Bordeaux, but ended up in Lyon. The four horses on the fountain symbolize rivers flowing to the ocean.

A fountain in Place des Terreaux (frozen)

 I went to the museum and had a fabulous time. I love museums. Not modern art, I don't get lines drawn on paintings. If I feel like I can paint it, it's not beautiful enough. My eyes were blown away.

I feel like I could spend hours here. There was one room (below) with only huge biblical themed paintings from the 1600's from French & Lyonnais painters... There were at least 6 paintings.

huge room of HUGE paintings

Danseurs sur la scene - Degas

 I am a huge fan of Monet, Manet, Degas, etc... and I was so happy to see some of their paintings at this museum.

Le Printemps -- Monet

Fourviere

 This HUGE basilica is located on a hill on the other side of the river Saone. Because it is so high up, when I went the wind literally almost knocked me down. I could barely see, so I didn't really stick around long to search around the church down to where this woman's house was... or the museum. But I was there long enough to see the beautiful view from the side of the church

Beautiful view of Lyon

After that, I rode these things called the fununculaires back to the tram station, where I got on the tram to Place Bellecour, where I changed subway trains to go to Lyon-Perrache, the stop in front of my hotel, and the train station. As best as I can describe it, a fununculaire reminded me of a miner's car and a roller coaster at the beginning, when you're going up Splash Mountain and you are inside the mountain...

used for pulling the fununculaire

the fununculaire.

I had a horrid, horrid headache, and the receptionist man gave me something to take, and I slept for 14 hours.

Sunday morning, I got up and had my 8 euro breakfast (it was delicious, I made sure to eat a ton of food too) and I went off exploring! I first went to the Musee des Tissus et arts decoratifs (I think)... it was beautiful. The Decorative Arts section had all these rooms with furniture from the 1700's and 1600's, and I really felt like I was in a castle. It was beautiful, I got a feeling for how small and ornate everything was in that time frame. They also had china from the same era as well as "modern" china, which included a piece from Salvador Dali (my mother and father LOVE him). I took a break for a while to try and find the Printing Museum before it closed, but I failed miserably. Instead, I found the Church of Saint Bonaventure. And I went to the 11:30 AM service.

Church of Saint - Bonaventure

Plaque dedicating the building

The only problem was, I'm not Catholic. Even in French, I can't understand a Catholic church service. The church was beautiful and large, and I was just happy to sit and be surrounded by followers of Christ. I prayed for the most I had in a few weeks, and was overcome with happiness and peace with myself and my actions. God gave me patience and courage that day.


I returned to the museum after the church service to go to the other side... the only problem was, I was the only one there. I hate being alone in museums, it freaks me out. Reminds me of scary movies or stories... whatever. Also, they were doing this huge exposition on the Virgin Mary and how the statues of the Virgin Mary wore clothes during a period of time, as dictated by the pope.


I have an unnatural fear of mannequins. I hate that they look real. They scare me. Add that to being the only one in a creaky, kinda dark, museum, and I LITERALLY bolted out of there.

I went to Starbucks before going back to the train and got a White Chocolate Mocha... so delicious. And a sandwich. With fish on it. That I took on the train accidentally. That made the whole train smell nasty.

Whoops.

I'm super excited for this weekend, as Saturday is my ONE MONTH anniversary in France and Mylene and Mathieu have invited me to their apartment for dinner and ... wait for it... GUITAR HERO. I am currently thinking fondly of my senior year in high school and eXtreme...

Am I still that lame?