An American,Two Mexicans and a French Guy Walk into a Bar...

Lyon, one of the biggest cities in France which is known for it’s restaurants, beauty and constant events, is only an hour’s train ride away from my little town of Roanne. So instead of staying in Roanne for the weekend, my roommate Paty invited me to go to Lyon with her to stay with some of her friends for the weekend. Paty studied in Lyon for a year so she knows the city like a Michigander knows the snow and she has a ton of friends there which means free lodging! After our classes on Friday, we packed our bags, said goodbye to Siliva who had to stay in Roanne for meetings and ran to the train station to catch the next train.

Paty’s friends were working when we arrived in Lyon, thus we walked around a bit so Paty could show me the city. Simply put, Lyon is beautiful. It has the big city feeling (probably because it is a big city) but has an old style charm to it. The buildings are not new and have that European style façade which I adore. Balconys and brightly colored shutters with random clothes articles dot the sides of the Rhone which runs through the city. People are running around, busy with their lives, but still somehow find time to sit down for a café au lait on a little side street with a friend. In some ways I wish I had been an assistant there. Then I remember how little I am paying for my apartment, how friendly everyone is in Roanne and how amazing my roomies are which changes my opinion and makes me happy to be here! Anyway we walked around town a bit and took some pictures. We ended up wandering into this comic book shop that had the most amazing ceiling. The owner of the shop was a fabulous artist and covered the ceiling with characters which he drew. I asked him if I could take pictures, so I could share them with you all of course!

We also did a little bit of shopping in Lyon. We went to a mall to get hair straighteners and cheap towels which were impossible to find in Roanne. We also went to some of the small shops near La Place de Bellecoeur. The problem was ever time we walked into a store we would set off an alarm. We were immediately approached by security guards who checked our purses and bags. When they found nothing, they let us go. However one guard insisted that we take out everything in our bags. He was very friendly, but I had to dump out the entire contents of my overnight bag onto a table in the store. This was much more amusing then embarrassing because although we took out everything (my contact solution, underwear, makeup ect..) we could not find anything that would set off the alarm. He put everything through the alarm thing that you walk through and NOTHING set it off! So we put everything bag into my bag, laughed at the craziness of it all, did a bit of shopping and left. We never figured out what the heck set off the alarm… I guess it will always be a mystery.

After shopping and going over to Paty’s friend Ceclie’s house for dinner and a bit of a rest, we went over to another one of Paty’s friend’s house for a “soiree”. The soiree (aka party) was interesting because out of everyone there, I was the only one who did not speak Spanish. Of course most of the time everyone would speak English to me, but once in a while they would all switch back to Spanish. Of course I didn’t have a problem with this. I just sipped on my margarita and listened to the Mexican music playing in the background. Everyone there was incredibly friendly and nice to me. They spoke to me in French and helped me out if I stumbled over a word. I tried to speak a little bit of Spanish which Paty taught me on the train, but it’s a bit difficult to carry on a conversation when all you can say is “I am 23 years old” and “ my name is Amanda”.

At 12:15ish, Paty, me, Martin (the host of the party) and Sab (one of Martin’s friends who is an English teacher in Nice) headed out to go to a Latin bar that Martin really liked. This bar was pretty cool because it was a boat. Literally, the bar was a boat that was docked on the Rhone river. There were two dance floors playing different types of music and a LOT of people. You could look out the windows and see the water all around you and the glow of lights from the other side of the bank. We stayed for a bit and chatted. Sab told me how he studied Spanish in Mexico for two years (hence the reason he spoke it like a pro according to Paty) and how he liked being an English teacher in Nice. Turns out he knows exactly where I studied French in Nice! Go figure. We all hung out and after a while headed back to Martin’s place. Being in France, of course it was raining when we left. So we walked along the Rhone and stopped under a massive bridge to get out of the rain for a bit. You would think that the city would be deserted at night, but really it was the contrary. There were tons of people walking around, sitting by the river talking and waiting for the rain to stop under the bridge. The four of us chatted for a bit and eventually got on the subject of dancing. The guys really loved salsa and Sab ended up teaching me how to do this Salsa partner dance (forgot the name, I’ll have to ask Paty. ) Kind of like the cha cha but not exactly. I must say, it was kind of amusing to dance under a bridge, by the Rhone in the wee hours of the morning with a trilingual French guy! Martin taught Paty the dance and of course she picked it up immediately (She’s from Mexico, the rhythm is in her blood!) After the rain calmed down we went back to Martin’s place, had some interesting conversation about French, Spanish and English words/ idioms, and went to bed. (um p.s I love being around people who study languages. GREAT conversation!!)

Paty and I had a lot to do the next day so after about 5ish hours of sleep we got up and got going. Paty took me to see the basilica in Lyon which is AMAZING. Definitely the most amazing church I’ve ever been to. The detail in the ceiling and the mosaics around the church are incredible. And the church is the very first thing you see when you get off the metro stop which makes it even more breath taking. We also had a great view of Lyon from the church, which you can see at the begining of this post!

After forcing myself to stop staring at the magnificent view of Lyon we went back to Cecile’s place, had an AMAZING Moroccan chicken dish with fruit and rice and hung out for a bit. We spent the day there just talking and eating and talking some more and made it back to Roanne at about 8pm. It was pouring when we got back, but this gave Paty and me a chance to use our awesome umbrellas we bought in Lyon! Both of the umbrellas have French sayings on them. Mine says “les pieds dans l’eau , la tête dans les nuages” , which means « feet in the water, head in the clouds. » I think that fits me to a tee! Although our wonderful umbrella’s helped a bit we still got drenched from the 20 min walk. So once we got back we unpacked, took showers, ate dinner and went to bed.

Great weekend in Lyon, followed by a peaceful Sunday of hanging out with the other assistants. Looking forwards to another interesting week with my students!