Day 11- Murals

Our business class went on an outing to see some of the famous wall murals in Lyon as our "class" for the day. The first mural we visited was the Fresque des Lyonnais. Dr. Kiley assigned each of us a specific person that was featured in the mural and we had to find out a few facts about them to share with the class. My person was Tony Garnier, a Lyonnais architect and developer of urban planning. Someone in the class pointed out another mural on a wall directly across the street which Dr. Kiley was surprised to have never noticed before.

Church with 2 different style steeples

Our next stop was the Mur des Canuts. This mural was originally done in 1987 and every 10 years has been updated with new features and even certain people in the images age 10 years!  The images depict the daily life of genuine residents, custodians of the heritage of the silk and silk heritage as the image is painted in the Croix-Rousse area known for it silk workers heritage.

I thought it was cool that this little girl was holding the "ONLY LYON" sign which changes locations around Lyon (it's a very big sign in reality)

After our tour of the murals we all went to a cafe for a treat. I am not sure what I had because it didn't have a sign saying it's name. Sadly, shortly after I took it's picture, the pastry fell on to the ground. Thankfully its hard coating kept most of the dirt off so I claimed the 5 second rule and ate it, so far I am still alive. That is about all I remember from this day, sorry if it wasn't interesting enough for your liking, I hope this photo of a pastry makes you feel better.

All about food...and macaroons

The sunsetting from my window

I have been doing a fair amount of cooking since I've been here, I successfully made chicken parmesan, my mom's "turkey francais" (but with chicken), tomato-basil cod, and a concoction I devised with ingredients I have on hand which I call "drunk-fruit chicken." The "drunk fruit chicken" is made with red wine, peaches, strawberry jam, and chicken. I have also made it around to trying more macaroons! I spotted this place called 'Cellerier' which is right across from the big Carrefour. They have some very unique flavors, most of which were very tasty, but the cookie part of the macaroon had too many air holes to be perfect. The winners overall in my box of 12 were the Salted Caramel, Praline Noisette, and the Verbena. The chocolate was pretty good too. Some of the macaroons had a shimmery shell to them, like the verbena and the peach apricot which I thought was a nice added touch.

chicken parm

"drunk fruit chicken" attempt 1

"drunk fruit chicken" attempt 2 in the making... I used a lot more wine in this one, still good though!

chicken francais

cod, asparagus and rice

I'm surprise that this burger was frozen and all I had to do was heat it up and it came out looking like this, it was pretty good!

Day 10- Harley's Birthday

May 19th was an interesting but fun day. Our business class that day was in a different building than usual, down the street and around the corner from our usual building. During class, it came up that it was Harley's birthday so we all made plans to go out to dinner to celebrate. Earlier in the day Harley mentioned to me she was hungry for Italian food so I threw that out to the class as a dinner option, at which Dr. Kiley began looking up on Trip Advisor the best Italian restaurants in Lyon that fit our budgets. After class Harley and I went to the Carrefour that wasn't too far from where we were and picked up some much needed groceries.

Later that day, before I had to meet up with everyone for dinner, I had to make an emergency makeup trip to the local Sephora store (going without concealer for a while was not an option). After I got my makeup I headed to the spot we were meeting for dinner. I wandered around a few minutes trying to find the place, my map showed me that I was right were it should be, but I still couldn't find it. I kept walking around until I gave up and tried to text one of the group saying I didn't know where the place was, but as I tried to get the message to send, I decided to look behind me and found out I was standing 10 feet from the restaurant the whole time...figures. I sat on the curb and waited for my friends to arrive.

As the 7:00 meet up time rolled around and then continued to 7:20 I became worried that everyone had changed their plans and I wasn't able to get the message. Eventually, a man came up to me and was trying to talk to me in French. I thought he may work at either the restaurant or the clothing store I was sitting in front of and wanted me to move. I told him I didn't speak French so he grabbed someone off the street and had them translate for him. Apparently he wanted to know if he could buy me a drink. I definitely said no; the guy was at LEAST 30. He moved on and kept trying to talk to other people probably trying to buy them a drink too...strange guy. I was so happy when my group finally arrived.

Once we were all seated we tried to understand the French menu and had the waiter try to help us too. Eventually, we all had some sort of idea about what the menu said with the help of our waiter and those who had a good handle on French, however, I don't think any of us really knew what to expect when our orders came. I was very pleased with my order of a bruschetta with ham, roasted red peppers and cheese.

my mystery bruschetta dish, super tasty!!! 

After dinner we headed to get dessert at the ice cream/ gelato shop. I ordered violet petal because no one had tried that one yet and I like to be different. The ice cream was tasty, but kind of tasted like a baby wipe, and those who tasted it too thought so also. All in all a nice day out and I think Harley had a good birthday.

Day 19- More Traboules

(I have already talked about traboules in another post so I am not going to explain them here, many apologies).

 The tour of the traboules on May 28th, started by having the students meet Dr. Kiley at the top of Fourviere, the mountain/hill on which the Notre Dame sits. From there we headed down the hill through the rose garden which was in full bloom and you could smell it coming all the way down from the church. When we got all the way down the large hill we started to look for 'secret passages' to the traboules. The traboules are a public attraction so the government owns them and visitors are allowed to enter into private courtyards until a certain time during the day to see them, all you have to do is hit a button on the keypad and see if it works. That does sound a bit sketchy, but it's good fun when you find one! All of the traboules look different too! One that we found was the "Pink Tower" which is one of the most iconic sights in Lyon (it's on my snow globe too!). We found a few more before coming out on a street directly in front of everyone's favorite gelato shop (they have some very unique flavors there)! We had Dr. Kiley stop and let us take an ice cream break since it was very hot that day which he had no problem with. I got two scoops, one of lemon verbena leaves and the other of blood orange, both were delicious! The blood orange was my favorite though, it was very refreshing.

A little metal marker in the ground, not sure what they are though

found Jesus on the way down the hill! I pointed the statue out to Dr. Kiley and he said "wow! I've never noticed that before!" which made me want to say "well that's kind of how Jesus is, maybe He's always been there, you just never noticed"

The Pink Tower

This was kind of a gross courtyard and smelled really bad, but I tried to find some beauty in it

finishing my Blood Orange sorbet 

Up the winding traboule staircase

We continued on our search for traboules and saw a few features of the city that Dr. Kiley pointed out for us. In one of the courtyards we found some old wells so I pulled a Snow White and wished for my Prince Charming, I'll let you know if I find him. At the end of the tour we all parted ways and I headed back to my room to drink some Coke with a slice of lemon, which has become one of my favorite refreshers.

Apparently there is a myth saying that the metal overhang became slanted as a result of a space ship landing nearby several hundred years ago.

This building has different window styles from 3 different time periods! 

"I'm wishing for the one I love!"

This is right next to the Lyon Cathedral (seen in a previous post), not sure what it's from, but it looked cool

Day 9- Leaving Manchester

This is mostly a wrap up of my Manchester adventures from earlier in the month, but if anyone's interested, here it is! I was able to sleep in a bit before getting ready to leave the hostel in Manchester. I arrived at the train station early to get my tickets, thankfully. The automatic ticket machines were on the fritz that morning so there was a lot of craziness to buy tickets, but I finally got one. After getting my ticket I headed to Pret A Manger to get a "super fruit" fruit cup and a sparking apple juice for breakfast because I felt like I needed the extra vitamin boost after the poor eating over the weekend. I also spotted a sandwich with prosciutto and asparagus and some other goodies on it, I knew it was the sandwich for me since I love asparagus! I grabbed the sandwich too and headed to my train.

Goodbye Manchester, until next time!

As I arrived at the airport I found a massive check-in line, but somehow a conversation began with myself and the family behind me who were also American. The family was from Texas and one of them knew of Charleston because she is a fan of the 'Southern Charm' TV show. I tried to be nice and tell her that people from Charleston don't really act like that, even though I've never actually seen the show, I can only imagine the dramatized, stereotypical, rich, southern characters they have on there, ick. We had a nice chat that lasted most of the line out. I was glad when the bag check guy asked if I wanted to store my bag for free under the plane, one less thing for me to lug through security was greatly appreciated!

I flew through security with no trouble and found a spot to sit and eat my tasty sandwich. I was sad to be leaving Manchester, I really love England. After arriving back in France it was a bit of a culture shock to get used to saying "Bonjour" and "Merci" again. I managed to hit my head as I put my bags under the bus, ouch! The bus trip back to Paris was a little over an hour, so I popped in my headphones and just relaxed until we got to the bus station.

It was close to dinner time when we arrived back in Paris so I headed across the street to a shopping center type building where I tried to find dinner. One place was far to fancy for my casual dress so I skipped that, and Starbucks was offering a small pasta salad for €5-6 so that was not going to cut it. I had more than 2 hours before my train left for Lyon so I sat in a seating area and was able to connect to wifi. I normally would have just headed straight for the train to Lyon to make sure I got there on time, but as it so happened, my sister's graduation commencement was going on at the same time. I tried the "live feed" that the school was offering but it would only show me a new live photo every time I refreshed the page. I decided to try my luck with FaceTimeing my parents. We were able to make a fuzzy connection to the ceremony, but the audio was pretty good. I sat there for almost an hour watching the ceremony and clapping silently when it was time to do so (there were people around who probably thought I was special ed). I managed to watch all the way to the end before having to head to the train station. I was very happy that I was able to be a part of at least one of my sister's big days.

my view of the commencement, proof that I actually watched

When I arrived at the station, I grabbed a sandwich, an Orangina, and a raspberry tart from Brioche Dorée and boarded my train. Before I got on the train, I waited by the Starbucks, which I think was a beacon for Americans because I heard at least 2 groups talking about getting coffee. Once on the train, I took my seat, only to find out that I was in the wrong seat after about a few minutes of chowing down on my sandwich, opps. On the plus side, my new seat was surrounded by attractive Frenchmen! Before I knew it, I was back in Lyon.

Gare de Lyon station

Day 15-16: Paris (Day 3)

**Author’s note: I apologize in advance for this post’s amount of complaining and probably sounding like I did not enjoy myself, on the contrary I did very much enjoy myself and had a great time, but my expectations were set extremely high and were not fully met which come out in this post.**

 As my time in Paris drew to a close, I started my final day early and took the metro to the tourist center from where my tour began. I was early enough that I was able to wander a bit to find breakfast after checking in and found this cafe and got a wonderful hot chocolate, a real 100% squeezed oranges orange juice, and a croissant with almonds (it was supposed to have chocolate to). As I ate, these little birds kept flying on to the table and trying to steal my food so I had to wave them away, one tried to fly at my face as I put the croissant in my mouth! Either these birds were super bold or I'm a Disney princess, I would like to think it is the later. I finished as quickly as possible and headed back to the visitors center.

The bus was very comfortable, much better than the bus to the airport, but then, what bus isn't? It was about an hour out to Vaux le Vicomte, and somehow I managed to stay awake the whole time. Vaux le Vicomte is a beautiful place, and also the chateau that inspired Versailles (pretty cool!). The weather was great that day, perfect for touring the gardens! I received an audio guide, but eventually gave up on it as it gave too much info for each tiny room and I wanted to move on. Most rooms generally small, but they were very elegant but not as much as I would have expected. The gardens were pretty except for the lack of flowers and also the lack of the fountains being on, only the main fountain worked. Not saying that it wasn’t a gorgeous place (it was!), just not as spectacular as I had hoped.

An old fountain off the moat

Look dad! Tapestries!

Where's Pascal? 6: Pascal is hanging out with the sphinx at Vaux le Vicomte 

I guess I missed the "return audio guide here" sign because I walked out into the gardens without returning it. So after I walked through the garden I went backwards through the house until I found where it goes. My next stop was the gift shop, since I had over an hour to shop and eat, I figured I would start with what I thought may take the longest (I’m a hard core gift shopper). I got another hand towel to add to my collection of regal hand towels and washcloths, some day I'm going to have a very regal "throne room". I was disappointed they didn't have any cute teacups, but I already have a ton of souvenirs. After indulging my gift shop addiction, I headed to the café and got a tuna and avocado salad/appetizer and a passion fruit mousse for lunch, all were very tasty! It was a self-service restaurant so you walk up and take what you like, but there were so many choices! Especially of desserts!

no, that is not salmon, it is a passion fruit cake

After lunch and some relaxation, we headed off to our next stop. I slept a bit in the 20 minutes it took to get to Château de Fontainebleau, the home of many French kings. I did not know if I was supposed to get an audio guide, so I didn't, but 90% of people had them. I probably would've gotten more out of my visit if I had. I think I missed a section of rooms because in the gift shop there were postcards of things I hadn't seen, too bad it was too late to go back and see them. After touring the house, I went outside and took some photos of me on the staircase. As I was taking photos, a girl in her wedding dress (and I am guessing her husband) came to take wedding photos on the stairs as well. I then made my way to the gardens. The gardens were less spectacular than the last place I visited. The flower beds looked more like they were growing weeds. There wasn't a map or a sign to tell me where I was, so I was very confused so I sat down to try to relax before moving on.

Everyone seemed to be doing a very triumphant pose with their hands out at the top of the stairs, so I figured I would do one too

This is in the Papal apartment, I believe some pope used this in celebrating mass.

Trinity Chapel from upstairs, I think there was a concert going on below so I didn't get to see the bottom half.

here comes the bride

fountain in the gardens 

Extended gardens

I went back towards the house and got a blueberry sorbet in the courtyard that tasted like a blueberry Outshine® bar! Then I found the English garden, which was much more my style! It had lots of bushes and trees, singing birds, little rivers and ponds, and paths all over the place. It was very easy to get lost in and a get away from the hustle and bustle of the tourists! This was probably the nicest part of the property and made me feel much better about my trip here.

Lake by the English Garden

Where's Pascal? 7: Pascal is pretending to be a statue

A copy of "The Dying Gaul" from the early 200s BC. We learned about this in my Art History class!

I slept on the bus ride back. I was super hungry and couldn't wait to get dinner. I met up with Harley and Olivia at the apartment and then we headed to a restaurant that had great reviews, but found it closed (it was Sunday) so we went to an area near the Louvre and ate there at a restaurant that looked good. I was very cautious after the food experiences of the last few days, so I didn’t order anything with pork (for fear of it being uncooked) and I didn’t order anything involving salad or roast beef. I settled for a tasty beef dish that tasted like pot roast but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping to eat that night as it was a very heavy dish, but it was quite tasty! Olivia and Harley enjoyed their meals too so it was a satisfying last meal. Olivia and I shared a creme brûlée for dessert and Harley ordered a chocolate moose. The crème brûlée was a bit more frozen then it was supposed to be but still very good, AND our waiter looked like Arthur Darvil (Rory Williams from Dr. Who)!

We finally made our way to the Eiffel Tower after the sun had gone down enough. People kept trying to sell us "beer, wine, champagne" almost every few minutes when they walked by with their buckets of alcohol, it got very annoying. As we were leaving, the tower lit up with sparkles, which was a nice surprise indeed!

Gotta love a forced perspective!

We were here during the big Roland Garros tennis tournament

Day 16

The next day I got up early to try to clean up a bit before our hosts came home. As 8:00 rolled around, our hosts had still not arrived for us to give them their keys back. At 8:10 we gave up and I called them to leave a message saying we had left the key under the doormat. As we arrived at the station, we had about 8 minutes before our train left so we stopped to grab breakfast and take it with us. According to the clock we had 2 minutes to get on the train that was 200ft away. As we dashed to the train, my hot chocolate burned when it spilled all over my hand as it splashed out of the cup lid. As we approach the train car we were in, we realize, the train we want is behind us. We turn around in time to find out the doors were closed and we had no way to get on.

We headed back to the station area to see if we could change our tickets to the next train in an hour. We were, so we paid a smallish fee and got new tickets. Once the ordeal was over we sat and ate our breakfasts and then Olivia and I browsed a book store and a Sephora store to kill some time. About 15 minutes before our train was to leave we made sure we boarded. I slept a good portion of the train ride. As we got back into Lyon, I went to the bakery next to our building and bought a fancy baguette to have with my lunch and dinner before retiring to my room for the rest of the day.