So, this past weekend I may have skipped a day of classes on Friday, but it was all for good reason. You see, I was on my way to Lyon, the second largest city in France, and a major Roman city as well back in the day. However, it didn't happen to fall far enough south for the temperatures to climb above the 13 degrees or so that were forecast for Caen. Anyway, I suppose you're all tired of listening to me talk about the temperature in degrees celsius, but you have to understand that as an American, beginning to develop a sense for any part of the metric system feels like a pretty hefty achievement.
Honestly, I didn't do much on my first night in Lyon except sleep. My train got in at about 23h03, so most everything to do outside of going to bars was closed, and I was hardly dressed for that. So, I crawled under the covers and wondered what the whole space between Paris and Lyon looked like, since I missed that joy of riding the train by taking a night train.
Friday was a lovely day, although bitterly cold--always seems to happen like that, doesn't it? Well, it helped that I had a lovely hand-made scarf to keep me warm, thanks to my best friend's birthday present that happened to arrive in April or so (a few months late) last year, but was well worth the wait :) Of course, the very first thing I did in Lyon was climb Fourvière, one of the two major hills of Lyon, and the location of the famous Notre Dame de Fourvière, which is one of many locations on the Pèlerinage de Saint Jacques de Compostelle, a route that guides several pilgrims through France and Spain on foot, visiting various cathedrals and other religious sites along the way. Fourvière is one of the many places where pilgrims travelling this route stop to pray for a successful journey.
The basilica itself is spectacular. Having spent the entirety of my stay thus far in the north of France, I'd grown very accustomed to the typical Gothic cathedrals--a bit darker since bright golden cathedrals really aren't very pretty when the sun rarely shines. Don't get me wrong, Notre Dame de Paris made my heart beat fast with its unbelievable vaulted ceilings and its beautiful stained glass windows, and my local gothic church in Caen, St. Pierre, has a lovely charm to it, although I'll be sure to dress warmer next time I go to mass in a stone church. Fourvière, however, is gold and bright blue on the ceilings, and a brilliant white on the outside. I was reminded more of the Italian churches here, although Fourvière definitely maintains the bon goût that I've come to expect from the French--yes, they use gold from time to time, but it's not usually the overwhelming, loud sort of design you'll find every once in a while in Italy. Needless to say, this basilica was worth visiting, and afterward, there is a beautiful view of the city of Lyon from a point right next to the basilica. After my time in Caen, which has a hill, but happens to be on the slightly flatter end of things, it was nice to go to a city that had something resembling hills.
After Fourvière, it happened to be about noon or so, so what better way to continue my tour of Lyon than with lunch at a brasserie in the district near the Cathédrale de St. Jean? This included a couple delicious Lyonnais specialties, one of which I never knew originated in Lyon. Ever wonder where "French onion soup" comes from? Yes, that's right, from the gourmand capital of France, Lyon. However, they call it gratinée Lyonnaise and it's absolutely fantastic. Everywhere I saw it being served, it came in a giant ceramic bowl with a little lion-shaped gargoyle on the side, and then they piled on the croutons and gruyère, which was lovely. I have to say, few places do food like France does, and if you get a chance to try the real French onion soup, do so, because it's a much more complex and interesting flavor than what you'll usually find in the States.
The second course was a quenelle, which is really pretty hard to explain, but it's like a dumpling with a puff pastry coating on the outside, and mine came soaked in lobster sauce. It's hot, it's bready, and it just melts in your mouth, which made it perfect on a pretty chilly day.
A photo of a quenelle de Lyon, although my plat was just a bit different...I had rice on the side rather than cheese and haricots verts.
After finishing out the lunch with a healthy serving of mousse au chocolat, I moved on to visit downtown Lyon for a little while, which included a stop at la Place de Bellecour, one of the oldest squares in Lyon and a major shopping district. From there I walked around for a bit, and eventually decided to take a break from walking and take a bus tour of the city.
Usually, my technique lies more along the lines of figuring out a few things and otherwise discovering the city as I go. However, when I came to Lyon, I knew almost nothing about the city, so taking a guided tour wound up being pretty interesting. The bus went up Fourvière hill, which got a bit treacherous at points, but I made it out alive, and past the Place des Terraux, where a very ornate fountain is located. More than anything, I was thrilled to learn about Lyon's Roman heritage, as well as the silk industry that once inhabited La Croix Rousse, the other major hill in Lyon. All of this helped me begin to form an image of the city and its character beyond the few things I'd seen so far.
After the bus tour, I took a brief walk through the shopping district near Bellecour and found a lovely chocolate shop. Usually, I look at those shops and I know I can't afford them, but I happened to stop this time and invested in a box of chardons per a recommendation. Now, I knew very little about chardons when I bought them, but they looked like delicious chocolate that came in all sorts of pretty colors. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they're really filled with some breed of alcohol (out of curiosity, I looked on the label to see what exactly was in there but all it said was "alcools"....)!! Not to say that liqueur and chocolate don't go well together, but biting into the first one was an experience when the alcohol inside the chocolate almost went all over the place...
I suppose the last thing I did that night was dinner, and I'm sorry that I've taken up so much room with food descriptions, but I happened to eat some pretty fantastic stuff in Lyon. Friday night dinner was probably the most traditional French meal I've ever had, and it felt like such an etiquette lesson--if there's one thing I've learned about the French so far, it's that there's a certain way you do things, a certain time you show up, etc, and if you don't respect that it's rather frowned upon.
Dinner started with an apéritif, which doesn't refer to appetizers, as we Americans would think, but rather to a fairly light drink. I was already familiar with this institution, but hadn't really had many apéros while out to eat yet due to budgetary restraints. Anyway, the apéritif was a kir, which consists of white wine mixed with syrup. Usually I take the classic kir, which is mixed with cassis, or blackcurrant, syrup, but I tried it with peach syrup for a change on Friday. Honestly, I'll probably stick with cassis next time, but it wasn't too bad. I didn't actually order an entrée, but when I got my tartiflette as the plat, I don't think I needed an appetizer. Tartiflette is a much better version of potatoes au gratin. Mine was simply scalloped potatoes smothered in Muenster cheese, and I had a glass of white wine to go with that, which worked excellently. Finish it off with a lovely dessert whose name I can't remember right now, but it was similar to the shell of an éclair, with ice cream inside and chocolate syrup all over. Goodness knows what I'm going to do back home without French pastries--I haven't found anything in the states that compares.
I would also like to mention that after reading about Eau de Vie in a French novel or two, I finally had the opportunity to try it. It's a hard liquor, but looks like water for all intents and purposes. I suppose it was alright, and I'd definitely consider trying it again, but maybe mixed with something else (you can all start making comments about how stereotypically female that sounds now...).
My second day in Lyon consisted of two major museums: the first one being the museum dedicated to the Lumière brothers. When I first came to Lyon, I was told it was "la ville des Lumière," but little did I know that this title was a reference to the makers of the first French film ever. Therefore, I spent a lovely morning and part of an afternoon perusing old film equipment and clips from silent movies, as well as some of the first color film slides....apparently they used potatoes in the process of making said slides, which I didn't know before that museum.
After a brief repos that afternoon, I went to the museum of Guignol, the animated puppets that used to decorate storefront windows and such. This was an absolutely charming little gem, with scenes from several great French writers and even a large pastoral scene inspired by several paintings from Jean François Millet. Among the literary scenes were a montage from Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris and Rabelais' Gargantua, and what would a French literature montage be without a bit of Jules Verne, namely 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea? I absolutely loved roaming about and checking out the guignol exhibits, even though I was one of the youngest non-parents there by far...still, it's a Lyonnais specialty, and something worth seeing in my opinion. Then again, maybe it's just that I love quirky gems like that :)
I do have to mention that Lyon has the oldest Roman amphitheatre in all of France, and I absolutely loved running around in that thing. I literally ran up the first set of steps, even though some of them were about knee-high on me, and then found every way possible to avoid following the beaten path through the other ruins behind the amphitheatre. After all, when there are so few guard rails, what's the fun of taking the easy path to get to the top? It was completely doable, and I loved climbing up the ancient walls, being one with the ruins if you will. There's also a smaller amphitheatre next to the big one, and it had some windows built into a wall behind it which were maybe six feet off the ground or so. I managed to find a way to crawl into one of those windows and sit for a little while to enjoy the wonderful view of Lyon that comes with putting an awesome amphitheatre close to the top of Fourvière hill. All in all, go see the amphitheatres--they were probably my favorite thing in Lyon, and I won't make another visit to Lyon without seeing them again and probably climbing around in them.
That night, I actually wound up at the same restaurant as Friday, but for a rather different experience. This time, I partook in choucroutes, which honestly seems a bit German, probably because it's Alsacien in origin. It consists of sausage, potatoes, and sauerkraut, and tastes absolutely delicious. Wrapping it up with a tarte tatin, which is an apple pie (sort of) with caramel in it, made for a wonderful end to my experience with Lyon and the food there. However, after dinner, I had a long walk along the Rhône, one of the two major rivers of Lyon, at night time, when the street lamps illumine the surface of the water, and everything seems so peaceful. It seemed like a wonderful way to end my adventures in Lyon, and I even got to see a few of the houseboats along the river. All in all, Lyon was a pretty big success.
Sunday morning, I watched the rugby World Cup before leaving to catch my 13h45 train to Paris. On the way there, I decided to buy two Paris Metro tickets while on board the train since I had a whole hour and 45 mins between my arrival in the Gare de Lyon and my departure from St. Lazare. Thanks to my generally decent memory, I also remembered that the metro stop for the Tuileries was on the way from Gare de Lyon to St. Lazare, which left me with no questions as to what to do with my extra time. Honestly, I had thought of dropping in at Angelina's for a nice chocolat Africain, but since it was Sunday (when all French people go out and about) and the weather was absolutely perfect, the line was out the door. Therefore, I opted for macarons from Ladurée instead, a bit more expensive, but not a terrible trade. To be really honest, it was better weather for macarons anyway.
So, with rose petal macarons in hand, I made my promenade through the Tuileries, and found what seemed to be the only empty bench in the entirety of the gardens. Before anyone else could take it, I sat down and enjoyed a praline macaron before getting up to find my metro station to St. Lazare.
I made it back to Caen just fine, as is evidenced by the fact that I'm writing this, although the train was a bit slow. Of course, I happened to be taking the train that stops in every tiny village between Paris and Caen, and you'd be surprised how many there are, and how little needs to be there to say that a train station exists. However, my journey was made a little brighter by the toe blond, green-eyed French two year-old sitting across the way from me. At one point he decided to sit down in the empty seat next to me, and his father, who was really a gentle giant sort of guy, said, "You 'ave a new French boyfriend." Absolutely adorable, and they were a really nice family. However, I was also very happy when I finally arrived in Caen at about 8 and could finally go back to my dorm and make some pasta (typical poor college student food) before going to bed.
Hope everybody else had a lovely weekend, and à la prochaine!
Gabrielle Sidonie
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