Onward and Upward: 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. :)