French-Cute or Genuinely Attractive?...Week-end libre a Lyon

So this weekend is the only free weekend of the trip, as in there were no mandatory cultural events scheduled, and everyone could basically do what they wanted. I was all about sortiring de Lyon and exploring the South of France, but given the money situation, it wasn’t gonna marche at all. And also, after I thought about it, I realized that it was probably mieux to stay in Lyon (for me anyway). It’s our last real weekend here, and since j’adore this city, I knew I was gonna make the most of it (when I wasn’t doing work). So while a bunch of people voyager-ed this weekend, A handful of us girls decided to stay and just Francais it up right in our own backyard. The group was me, Becca, Karen, Rudhdi, and Hannah. Suffice it to say that it was a pretty stellar group. It was great because we basically just took our sweet French time faire-ing whatever we wanted, but still getting up, walking and moving about. So here goes!

Friday

Becca and I decided to get some food down the colline and on the Rue de la Rebuplique at this cute place called La Croissanterie. They had a sweet deal where I got a plat + dessert+ boisson for about 7 euro, and I was so down. I got a parisien Panini, a tart au fraise, and jus d’orange. It was parf (parfait). We sat in the window and did some intense people watching (what I like to call “Cultural Studies”). We then went back up that blasted colline to pick up the rest of the gang to go faire les Soldes aka shopping during the government ordered country-wide summer sales. Karen went to go work in Starbucks, but me, Becca, Rudhdi, and Hannah went on to meet Katherine James to hit up some of the stores. After two hours I was exhausted and had only bought a pair of boucles d’oreilles (earrings) , but I think right before we leave I’m going to go and get one big thing that I want. We stopped at this precious homestyle place and got some café and chocolat chaud for me, and my first croissant in france! It was just so nice to sit and chat, and I think the delirium made everything a little bit funnier. Rudhdi’s creeper voice came out, which is how ever conversation or event in general should end haha. We then went back and chilled before having dinner all together on the rez de chausee of Villemanzy. Calvin came and joined too! I made some tortellini that I’d just gotten when we stopped by Monoprix. I swear I could eat tortellini every day of my life and not get bored with it. Non, mais vraiment. We then decided that its always a good idea to go get some glace, so we hiked further up the Croix-Rousse to the other Regal Glace location. Literally this place is heavenly. I got stracciatella and citron and it was incroyable. I also managed to be trop awkward, and pointed at the guy from the Regal glace on Rue Merciere (I guess he works both locations) right as he was turning and probably (as in most definitely) saw me. Smooth (je ne suis pas). He was definitely a 2 though, so I’m not really bothered, he probably knows he’s good looking haha.

I probably have to explain this system we have come up with. I know I’ve mentioned the notion of French cute before, but haven’t really delved into it. So what we’ve been noticing is that not all French men look like Guillaume Canet, Yoann Gourcuff, Thierry Henry, or Gilles Marini (below is a sampling of these men). 

I dont really know who home-garcon on the right is, but he can stay.

Titi, forever a gunner to me :)

Zizou! like a fine wine, this one is.

But now its almost like we are too conscious of that. To the point that we have decided that a lot of the guys here are French Cute; as in they are cute probably because they are French, or look really French, but we probably wouldn’t know what to think if we were back in the states or at UVA. So now went we are doing our “Cultural Studies” we’ve been playing the great cultural game, “French-Cute or Genuinely Attractive…or Other”. To be more discrete, French-cute is 1, Genuinely Attractive is 2, and other is just other (it’s a wide spectra really). You can potentially get a 1.5 if you’re walking the line though. It’s really just silliness, but it helps pass the time haha.

But basically we ate our glace at the top of Croix-Rousse overlooking the city and it was glorious. But once again, I haven’t fully evaded the black lung yet, so I needed to get out of the cold and just go to bed, which is what I did.

Saturday

What a good productive jour this was! I got up a little early to do some work for Pierre’s class. Love the man, but damn, he gives a lot of work. But I was very proud of myself because I actually made myself a good breakfast (yogurt, and melon) and took some medicine, so I was buzzin’ and in a good mood. We went down the colline again for a lunch at the place next to the Hotel de Ville whose sign says “S, M, L, XL” as the name of the restaurant. It was actually amazing. I got a pesto-parmesan pasta (I literally just discovered pesto and I’m all about it, its my confiture). And then of course we sat and did the French thing of not moving for another 45 minutes just chillin. Home-garcon next to us was a solid 2, and we were impressed by him just splashing out about 15 euro on himself; he got an entrée, plat principal, and then a dessert as well. After lunch the others decided to go to the Contemporary Art musee, but I decided to stay behind and finish up my work. I’m trying to profiter de la ville de Lyon as much as I can during the week next week, so I’m trying to get on my study and homework grind now. I got it all done for the most part, and then headed down at 8 again for dinner with les filles. I had….yup, guessed right. Tortellini again! Its so bon fromage. The night got hopping later though. Becca, Hannah, and I decided to go to Johnny’s again (my favorite establishment), even though Jose the Brazilian wasn’t there. Kate had just gotten back from the south so we were going to meet up with her around 11:30. It was a pretty great night! My favorite creeper balding man, Simone, was there again because I have the worst luck in the world. However, he was preoccupied with creepin with another femme, so I wasn’t bothered. But Fearless Kate had a mission for me to dance with someone that night. There was the most adorable muffin of a boy in a Stade Toulouse t-shirt (favorite French rugby team? Check plus) sitting on the other side. I jokingly told Kate I would give her 2 euros if she was my wingman and and brought him over to us….so naturally, Fearless did it! He was super nice and was trying really hard to speak English, so I told him we could speak in French if it was easier. I was very proud of my French speaking skills that night, especially since there was a very loud Irish band in front of us. I left our new friend Yannick to go find the girls who had moved to a table in the back. But then Hannah, Kate, Kate’s german friend, and I decided to get up on the stage and dance! Its so funny because its such a small stage, and you’re basically in front of everyone, but it just didn’t matter because we were having such a good time. And then Fearless pulled Yannick into our little dancing group and he was just having the time of his life. Muffin does not even begin to describe this guy. Later on I lost part of my earring while dancing to “Highway to Hell” which was tragic. That’s what I get for buying cheap earrings I guess. But whatever. We left soon after and walked home through Vieux Lyon because Hannah had never been. It was so gorgeous je ne peux pas meme le decrire. It was just one of those nights that i love you know. As much as I love discotecque-ing and dancing like a maniac, I also love semi chill nights, where everyone’s just kinda listening to a band and talking amongst friends (and you know, getting up on  stage and dancing every once in a while haha).

Sunday

So today was more “wake up and do homework” kinda thing. I honestly was gonna do laundry as soon as I woke up, but the waking up part was harder than expected. So when I did finally get out of bed, I started on Poetry stuff for Tuesday. Then at 11 the girls met up to go to the marché on Croix-Rousse. Its so great how much stuff I can get for not that much. Today I got a quiche, couscous, potatoes, and half a chicken for like 6,50 euros. I came down with Karen and then did a little bit of work that required internet. I then went back up the hill to “read” and play ukulele. I actually did do some Lire-ing, but I’m saving the rest for later haha. Hannah came and joined soon after, so I just serenaded her and everyone else on that overlook of the city. There was a guy up there busking for money with his guitar that was totally stealing my thunder, I was not amused haha. But then around 4:45 we went back down to go with Rudhdi and Becca to the Book marché on our Side of the Soane. I didn’t get anything, but it was so interesting seeing all the French books laid out. You could tell which ones were the yard sale rejects, and which were probably actually really legit books. After a bit of browsing, we were obviously in the mood for glace, so we tried to hit up Nardone on the other side of the Soane. Its said to be the best ice cream place in like all of France or something, and that was clear from the lines. We decided it wasn’t worth the wait since we were getting it for free this week as part of the program, so we wandered back across the Soane and went to our classic favorite place, Regal Glace. We sat down in the store across from Regal and since I’d brought my uke I gave Becca, Rudhdi and Hannah another free concert (…and everyone else at Regal). We then walked back up to Villemanzy and took a two hour repose before dinner. At dinner of course I found out that I had even more work to do, and did that before we headed out for a chill night at Flanagan’s. Funnily enough, the same band from Johnny’s the night before was the one playing at Flanny’s that night. So we just sat back and took in the music for a while before calling it a night. 

2 more incredible (j'espere) weeks left!

Cheers,

Abena