Pig's Snout and Calf's Head

Saturday, June 6 

Although we loved Lyon, we also adopted the phrase "we were Ly-owned!" because there were a few times that it wasn't as nice to us. For example, the previous day, we had asked the tourist office if there was an English tour to see the 'traboules' in the old city. They had said no, so we resorted to booking the French one. In the morning, we discovered that there is another traboules tour people can take, so we called to see the times, and they said there was an English tour...but even if we started walking then, we would be just too late. 

Ly-owned!

So we resorted to taking the French one. It was ok. I understood little, although Emily tried to interpret when she could, but even then, she had to concentrate to understand because there was a lot of formal/not as common vocabulary being used since the tour guide was referring to historical items. We did enjoy the tunnels though, and it ended at a museum of Lyon that Emily and I decided to tour in order to actually understand the info. (It was interesting to learn that these tunnels throughout the city were first used to transport goods, especially silk, within the city, and were later used in WWII by the resistance in France.)

Playing cards from a couple centuries ago:

Old maps:

A guillotine blade:

Peter...is that you?? :)

Our lunch for the day was also very unique. Lyon is known for its Buchons, which serve many different kinds of meat in a unique way. People are often seated together at a big table, you eat a three course meal, and the food can range from your typical meats to pig's hoof, snout, or calf's head, intestines, and tongue. :/ Our appetizers were brought in several large bowls that were passed around the restaurant. I enjoyed the safe dishes such as lentils, beets, potatoes, and even smoked salmon. However, we also tasted cartilage/pig hoof (found out what it was afterward), pigs snout (should have found out afterward), and something else they didn't tell us. For our main meal, Emily ordered sausage and in the spirit if adventure, I ordered Calf's Head. I'm still debating if it was worth it, because it was absolutely disgusting. Probably more so because of the name...but I'm already not much of a meat person, and the squishy texture didn't help. I think I ate about three bites before taking some sausage from Emily and having a taste of the chicken from one of our table neighbors, who we had made friends with. :) Our meal ended with dessert. It was quite the experience!

Emily with some of our appetizers:

Emily's progression of eating a pig's snout:

Ready to tackle the Calf's Head!!

That afternoon, we packed up and made our way to the train via the metro (with a quick stop at Paul for our dinner). Except that we had a few blonde moments. We entered the metro, bought our tickets, then with the help of a local, realized we were on the wrong side of the metro. So we lugged Emily's bag back up the stairs and took another set down...only to realize we were still on the wrong side but simply on the other end! (Ly-owned). So up we went again and found the right station. At the train stop, we walked to what we thought was the station...but was really the mall (Ly-owned). Another friendly gentleman gave us the right directions. As we were buying our tickets, we had the option of buying tickets for train leaving in four minutes... or waiting an hour and a half for the next one. We went for it. After the transaction was finished, we were down to three minutes. While buying the tickets, Emily had scoped out the terminals, and fortunately, we were close. We ran to the terminal, team-carried her bag up the stairs, ran onto the train, and breathed a sigh of relief that we had made it. :)

The train that carried us towards the Alps brought beautiful views and landscapes as we made our way to the town of Annecy. The views and town itself reminded me a little bit of Interlaken, Switzerland, as we easily walked to our hostel. After settling in, we made tea and used the wifi in the common room and meta few of the people from the hostel. I especially connected with Cassie from New Zealand and Matt from Australia and enjoyed getting to know people who actually spoke English. :)

Entering Annecy:

Some of the guests of the hostel were a group of guys celebrating a bachelor party. Part of their night included asking people to wax part of the leg of the groom (in the blonde wig). Do you recognize the brunette in the grey sweater? :)

Lovin Lyon

Friday, July 5

It was a night for little sleep because of the noise, but also because we were up and out of the apartment by 5:30. After stopping at a boulangerie to grab coffee and a croissant, I drove us for two hours to reach Avignon. A few differences I noticed while driving were: the far left lane is always left open for passing (loved this feature!), the signs listing upcoming cities would start with the farthest city up top and closer cities following (if applied to the drive to Mammoth, I would see Mammoth at the top, then Bishop below, then Lone Pine below that, etc...), the speed limits are faster (much of the highway was 130kph...around 78mph in my estimation (another aspect I liked :) )), and lastly, there are SO many toll roads and they are expensive! It cost us about 20 euros for the two hour drive just in tolls (a feature I was glad to leave behind). 

When we reached Avignon, we found easy parking (yay!) and met up with Emily's colleague, Christina, who is spending 6 weeks studying in Avignon. We enjoyed our time a little too long, because after driving to the train station and returning the Mercedes, we had just missed the 10:00 train to Lyon. The next train came two hours later, so in the meantime, we rested in a restaurant at the station, talked, shared a hamburger, then had plenty of time to get on the train. 

Lyon took us quite by surprise. Neither of us had expected much from the third largest city in France, but it possesses character, charm, a unique history, and beautiful architecture. It all started when we reached our apartment. First, we had to use a bit of effort to open the massive, old wooden door that opened into our apartment building. Four flights of stairs later, we reached the cutest/most artsy apartment yet. The owner is an artist herself and had decorated the 16th century building with an eclectic, yet fitting decor. Once settled, we walked to the tourist office to check on any tours. None were available that afternoon, and since both of us were exhausted from such little sleep, we opted for the Hop-on Hop-off bus which took us all around the city, giving us a broad overview. It turned out to be extremely helpful, informative, and relaxing at the same time. 

Our awesome door:

Hamming it up ;)

This is one way to avoid painting your house:

I liked all the different shapes, sizes, and colors of the houses:

A couple of the buildings have murals painted on the sides:

This place housed the guillotines used during the French Revolution:

There are several bridges since Lyon has two rivers running through it:

A fun little car I spotted while walking back (This is what I needed in the narrow streets!)

Once finished, we made our way back to the apartment. However, with the France-Germany World Cup game coming on in an hour, we decided to stop short of the apartment to grab seats at a restaurant with a tv before all the good spots were taken. It was a good thing we did, because soon after, the square filled up quickly and many had to watch the game while standing in a crowd. Although I'm not a huge soccer fan, it was fun to experience the energy of the city, receive a free French flag from the restaurant owner who was passing them around, and feel the anticipation of a goal every time France got close. I really wanted France to score at least once, just to hear the excitement of the crowd....but no matter how close they got, Germany was too good. When the game ended, the French took their loss well, and life continued as the masses continued on their way to start their evening. Emily and I walked around the streets awhile to observe the people, then made our way home for the evening.

 

Excited...and maybe slightly guilty that we were cheering for France. :)

Saw some police stationed in a square to keep the peace following the game.

We Cannes Be Tourists

Thursday, July 4

In the morning, Emily and I walked down to the harbor and caught a little boat to the island called Sainte-Marguerite. We first visited a museum at the Fort Royal that used to be an old prison. It is most known for holding the man in the iron mask and five Protestant pastors who were imprisoned and tortured for their faith. The museum also provided a bit of history about the island and displayed pottery that has only recently been discovered from underwater shipwrecks. From the museum, we continued to walk around and explore the island, providing beautiful views of Cannes and the Mediterranean.

On our way to the island:

~island pics are all on my nice camera~

Leaving the island:

After taking the boat back to the mainland, we walked to the Palais. It's pretty much the "Grauman's Chinese Theatre" of France, including the handprints of several famous movie stars. Being from LA, we weren't too interested, so we took a quick look, then walked back to our apartment. After lunch, we drove to the picturesque town of St. Paul. We had reserved a tour in English, and our tour guide was excellent. We shared the tour with another family from America (the dad was from Georgia, the mom from Russia). On the tour, we saw old Roman walls, the fortifications France built a couple centuries ago, the house of a recent well-known French poet, and the modern city that has been modified for and now makes its living on tourism. 

Our last main event for the day was to "tie a bow" on Cannes and take a train tour around the city. It was nice to have someone else drive, so I could look around and enjoy the city. The harbor was beautiful during the sunset, and it was interesting to learn about the city's history and development. 

That night we packed up to leave and unsuccessfully tried to get sleep amid the shouting neighbors and slamming windows due to heavy winds. 

Occasionally visited by famous people:

Cheeeeese!

We Cannes Cook!

Wednesday, July 3

After traveling for over two weeks, we were exhausted and decided to sleep in without an alarm. Although we had a late morning, it was refreshing to catch up on sleep and have a relaxing morning in our comfortable apartment. At noon, we ventured out into the streets of Cannes and made our way to Les Apprentis Gourmands where we had a reservation for a cooking class. Fortunately, it was in English, and our cooking teacher was friendly, funny, and helpful. We took the class with another couple from Norway, but who also spoke perfect English because they had both attended college (on skiing scholarships) in Colorado and Utah. They were extremely friendly and as you can imagine, we talked about skiing and the best places to go in Europe (Emily and I have both dreamed of skiing the Alps someday). The other guest in our cooking class was a French lady who was also very friendly, but mostly talked to Emily since her English was limited. During the class, we collectively cooked Ratatouille and Salmon. After dishing it up and finishing the presentation of the dish, we took it upstairs to eat and chat while the chef of the class made us dessert. The meal was delicious and our dessert of chocolate lava cake with homemade caramel whip cream was INCREDIBLE. 

Accidentally cut her finger just a little:

Voila!!

That afternoon we drove to Frejus, another cute little French town. We enjoyed walking around, looking at the markets, an old church, and as we walked past a small, open door, we heard music. We snuck down the stairs into a stone cellar-like room and quietly walked closer to the music. When someone saw us, they were very friendly and invited us to listen to their rehearsal. The here older men played drums, guitar, and keyboard/broke out a saxophone halfway through, while a younger woman sang (really well!). We listened for awhile, then walked back out, ate dinner at a frommagerie, then drove home.

Hey Dad, look at the really cool tennis ball art sculpture I got for you! ;)

Crashing the Jam session:

Dinner at the frommagerie: