Merde there’s a whole (two) week(s) to catch up on. Its been such a fou fou last three weeks here in Lyon. Its not over yet, so I’m not going to get all nostalgic and stuff give yet, I have to raconte some stuff. So here goes! Highlights edition from last week:
Monday the 4th:
Hung out with Kate and Maggie dans l’apres-midi! We met at Zara, took a trip to Rafael’s apartment where Maggie was staying, and then ran off to get food at Lidl (cheaper than Monoprix, but its also an experience haha) on the quai! Had a little pique-nique and watched some pre-pubescent skaters and the one older biker do some sweet tricks on the skate holes near pont Guillotière…clearly one of my favorite past-times.
Après ca, I went to meet the rest of the group at L’atelier des Chefs for our cooking class! It was def one of the coolest things I’ve ever done (considering I don’t cook). We got split into two groups, and mine did the wine-tasting with Monsieur Gateaux (translation: Mister Cake….non, vraiment). He was super chouette and had us smelling pamplemousse, pommes, and fragrances and stuff that I didn’t realize was in wine (grapes, no?). then we headed out to make the entrée, some ratatouille, and the desert, a cherry pastry of some sort. So great.
Since it was America Day, we decided to celebrate the night at Cosmo, the American bar at the bottom of our petite colline. Its honestly not my favorite place (not enough dance floor due to awkward placement of bar), but it was so fun this nice. It was a lot of people from the 4 and 6 week program together, just having a good old time, dancing like fools, comme d’hab. Success
Tuesday the 5th:
Nothing that exciting happened during the day, other than class.
That night however, Katherine James and I made plans to go play on the quai together. She plays fiddle and we were just going to have a jam sesh near the water on the rhone. We cross Guillotière to find literally hundreds of people sitting there chillin out. Kate had told me it was the thing to do in Lyon, mais I didn’t think there would be this many people there. Everyone was either playing instruments, just hanging out, or cheering on the 60 year old man who runs along the Rhone every night. We get there and Kate and Maggie arrive plus tard, and suddenly we’re on our way to Rafael’s apartment. So we go in they are having a typical French soirée, obviously with real French people. Katherine and I felt super awkward at first because we really didn’t know anyone other than Maggie and Kate and Rafael (and Katherine had just met them all that night), so we planned to leave when Kate left (it was her last night in Lyon waaaaah), but Rafael convinced us to stay and play there. We wanted to practice first so we went into the hallway. But then didn’t get up. FOR THREE HOURS. Literally jamming for three hours. But it was magnifique. Ukulele and fiddle is such a great combination. We had really awesome conversation in the hall with whoever was passing, and some French guy made me sing to his best friend through his phone. Normal everyday life occurrence.
Wednesday the 6th:
Nardone! Nard’s (fyi, no one actually calls it Nard’s) is considered the best ice cream in Lyon, and we were getting three boules (scoops) fo free!! Miam miam, as the French say. I got rose, caramel (not the best choice), and strachiatella.
Went to go hang out and play on the quai with Maggie on her last night in Lyon waaaaaah. It was super chill, minus the creeper that tried to sit with us. Maggie shut that right up though, and we on y va-ed to a different spot on the quai It was super chill but super nice. She walked me back to Pont laFayette (I am the queen of these Rhone ponts) and then I trudged back up the hill). Early night.
Thursday the 7th:
La pluit est stupide. Ruined my plans to go to Vieux Lyon and Johnny’s and listen to my main brazillian guitarist Jose. But n’importe quoi, We were leaving for Annecy the next matin, so I got to do some much needed homework. Rained-out.
Friday the 8th:
Got up early to do the packing for Annecy that I didn’t do the night before. The bus ride was fun. I meant to start on my etre francaise paper, but I ended up showing Emily all the stupid yet hilarious pictures that I collect on my computer. Standard. Then we watched this French movie called le Nom des Gens. I knew what Pierre was trying to do, making us do some learning and cultural analysis on the way to Annecy, but en fait, it was actually a pretty awesome movie. And then we get to Annecy. They literally just dropped us off and said, see ya on Sunday. Donc, a completely unstructured weekend. OH MON DIEU. It is legit the most beautiful place ever. It’s in the Alpes, pretty close to Switzerland. Words cannot express. Luckily stolen pictures can. I had pretty awesome roomies too, Rudhdi and Katherine James. Due to my violent sleeping habits, I got the twin bed while the two of them shared the double (still don’t understand why we didn’t have three beds, but its whatever). We went to a Jazz concert. Kinda…my group caught the last two songs, and the other group caught the last two bars of the encore haha. But we all just sat out by the water and chatted. The night was a little gaté thanks to some really obnoxious French men that came by. They started nice, trying to get us to go discotechque-ing with them, but then it got kind of rude and vulgar, and we weren’t having any of it. It wasn’t threatening, just a little annoying and disconcerting. Its this weird thing that we’ve experienced here, where it seems that a large number of French men think that American girls are all sluts and salopes, and thus they feel like talk to us however they want. I really wonder if they ever give French girls the kind of crap that they serve to us on a platter sometimes. But rant over, the rest of the night was great because we went back and slept.
Saturday the 9th:
Gah this place was so great. We went pedalo-ing (paddle boating) in the morning, then biking in the afternoon before getting crepes for lunch. I had a great conversation with the owner of the crepe place about France and America and cars and driving. Tres chouette. Apres I’m pretty sure I did some work, before dinner, and then karaoke that night. Pretty sure we crashed a bachelorette party at the bar we went to, but Natasha, Mary, and I got up to sing summer nights anyway, and got a cute applause afterwards. Then I spend most of the time outside with Rachael, Sarah and Shannon talking to French people.
Sunday the 10th:
Clearly I’m getting annoyed at writing and I’m not putting as much detail into it anymore. Des (as in desolée). Sunday we went to the chateau and then walked around the ville before heading back on the bus at 5 and going back to villemanzy. Seeing as it was the beginning of my last week, I couldn’t think of anything better to do than sit in my window in my underwear with my ukulele and watch the river at night from my view. Literally one of the best things ever. Les voisins noticed I think, but je ne care pas. I decided to write a song about them. The creative juices were just flowing and i finished most of it that night. Les Voisins.
I’ll try and recap my last week, but it’ll probs be after I get back. I’ll get super sappy and stuff, so that’ll be fun.
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