Saturday, I woke up at 7 am with an energy that I never have when I have to get up for school on weekdays, because I was going to Lyon! Earlier that week a friend had invited me and a few other people to go with him to Lyon to visit the new mall, it ended up being Dorian, Matilde and me who were able to go spend 12 hours of endless walking, sightseeing, eating and shopping in the Capital of Lights ( a nickname given to Lyon for "La Fete des Lumieres").
Dorian and I were dropped off at the train station in St. Vallier, bought our tickets and hopped on the train. We were reunited with Matilde at the next stop because she lives in a small village further away. One thing that I love about Europe and I wish existed in the US is a good rail system. In the US, you're practically forced to use a car if you want to go anywhere and if you're not 16 you have to find someone to drive you; trains are better for the environment, let you be independent and connect small towns to big city centers, but it's all part of the culture. The train stopped right at the Part Dieu and we started shopping right away.
The Part Dieu is quite large, but it was hard for my friends to impress me by its size considering I'm used to The Mall of America, on the other hand I was impressed by the number of french bakeries there were. : )
France is known as a fashion capital, however it's the American flag that is in style right now in France. They have clothes, shoes, scarves, purses, earrings, and anything else you can think of with the American flag plastered on it, so naturally I decided to try on (practically) everything I could find with the stars and stripes.
After I was done looking like an American, we went to eat at another well known symbol of America. Mc Donald's. We didn't go to Mc Donald's for nothing; Matilde saw some Danish people and was able to chat with them for a while. Over the course of the day we of course heard lots of Americans and British people, and Matilde asked me if I wasn't ever excited to hear Americans in France, but I had to reply no. Even if this experience is the best way to be immersed in a language English is everywhere, and is almost impossible to avoid. I find it both flattering, funny and shocking that sometimes when I'm introduced to people as an American that they will immediately try and say something to me in English. Americans are both blessed and cursed with English being a rather international language; we have the ease of traveling with the high probability that we will be able to communicate with others in English, but because of this many Americans have a " I don't need to learn another language because everyone else speaks English" mentality, which holds us back from many cultural experiences and communication in general.
My new friend.
I think we went into every bakery and candy shop Lyon had to offer.
We walked so much, just look at all of those stairs!
But it was worth the incredible view of Lyon.
If you remember my post about the opera in February, you'll remember that I mentioned the basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, well I finally got to see it!
Sitting on some Roman amphitheatre ruins with Matilde.
Just look at the line to get into Holister at the new mall.
Matilde showing off her Danish pride.
After all of that walking we started to get hungry...
So, we ate some Italian at Viapiano. Yum!
Do what the sign says. Don't wait, go to Lyon!
Sunday, I did the exact opposite of my day in Lyon; that afternoon I went with my host sister, Sarah, Dorian and his parents to "ferme en ferme" which is a weekend where some farms decide to open their doors to the public to show them what and how they make their products. We saw; goats, bees and ducks and a lot of the countryside in between.
At the goat farm we tasted five different kinds of goat cheese, but just a warning, the one year old goat cheese is really strong.
The foie gras farm prided itself for being "factory free" because apparently they're able to force feed the ducks and geese more food when it's done by hand.
Future foie gras.
The last farm we saw was a honey farm and we were lucky because the only day of the week that the bees don't sting is Sunday.
I had a fun, busy and diverse weekend seeing both sides of France.
