a calm week and a visit to Lyon

It is such a relief not to have to worry too much about classes. This past Tuesday I successfully switched down to Niveau 4. I now have classes on Monday but I also don't have them on Wednesday. This made for a very bizarre week wherein I got both Monday and Wednesday off and really only had about three days of classes. Niveau 4 as a whole is a much better fit for me although I find it bizarre to be one of two white people in a class that is filled with Chinese, Japanese and Korean students.

On my free Monday and then Wednesday I got lunch in a cafe for the sole
purpose of reading afterwards with a nice cup of tea.

I was glad to find that in the class there were things I didn't know but that I also did not feel too overwhelmed and I'm quite sure that by the end of the semester there'll be a definite improvement in my French skills. I've already found that I can converse much more easily in familiar settings and I hope that this will help me with writing (which in French I find much more difficult as the sentence structure is completely different) and also with more formal speaking. 

Some sinister night lights in Dijon.

My favorite class of the week was actually Oral Expression where for the first hour we talked about the news. It's very possible that we talked about the news for an hour because it took some students so long to get their thoughts out, but I still really enjoyed it. It's great to be in a group of friends or fellow students that discusses current events because they want to, but when that can't be found, talking about worldwide news in a classroom suffices. 

Classes aside, on Friday we (the 5 UNH students in Dijon at the moment) made dinner at Michelle's (one of the 5 students) because her family is away for the week. I was thrilled to find pesto in a store, of which, I don't think there can be much of, and gladly had pesto pasta and a baguette with Camembert with the others.

Saturday we visited Lyon. Interestingly enough, during the time of La Gaul, Lyon was the capital and because of this has an incredibly rich history. We started out the visit by going to the Basilica de Fourviere which sits on a hill overlooking all of Lyon. Unfortunately it was a drizzly day so the view wasn't particularly spectacular, but like all cathedrals, basilicas and churches in France, this one was pretty spectacular. We had to hike up to to it, and though I didn't mind, the others did. A few constantly asked "are we there yet?". Coming from New Hampshire and having hiked many mountains in the Whites, I have to say that they had absolutely nothing to be complaining about.

Prayer lights in the Basilisque de Fourviere.

When we came down from the basilica we went into Vieux Lyon (old Lyon) where we had 2 hours to ourselves. Though I would have loved spending time wandering around the stores which were filled with all sorts of interesting trinkets, we had to eat lunch and we subsequently spent the rest of our time eating. Lyon itself is known for it's "bouchons" which is a type of restaurant centered around Lyonnaise cuisine. Lyonnaise cuisine itself is centered around meats such as tripe, liver and other things I have never eaten before and am still a little wary of eating . To be on the safe side I had chicken with potatoes and a salad. 

After eating we went into modern Lyon. Though it didn't have the charm of Vieux Lyon, it is known for it's tromp l'oeils which are paintings done on the sides of buildings that are made to look real but are actually false. One in particular that we saw was a building painted to look like an apartment building with various famous French citizens hanging out of the windows.

We then went further into the city, in particular to one of the busiest streets in Lyon. It's called the Champs-Elysees of Lyon but I don't know the actual name. Nevertheless it goes on for quite a while with stores on both sides. We had an hour and a half to ourselves here but none of us was particularly in the mood for shopping. To make things worse, I'd eaten too much at lunch and wasn't feeling very well. For a while I tried to walk it off but eventually felt like I was going to vomit. I eventually did vomit and because there were no cafes or bathrooms, I did so on the street. Strangely enough none of the passerbys seemed to notice. If they did, it was as if it happened all the time. While I'm sure this might be so at night, at 3 in the afternoon I'm quite sure it's not a regular occurrence. However, the French don't clean up after the dogs when they poop on the streets (which is as gross as it sounds) so I'm not sure it's a cultural thing.

After vomiting I felt much better, though still not in the mood for shopping. Once everyone was sure that I was alright and was then offered a piece of gum we had a good laugh about it. Of all the things to happen in Lyon it was the last thing I expected and the only reason why I was grateful for the rain!

Lastly, I'm very happy to say that I'm going to be able to see a stage finish of Paris-Nice in Nuits-Saint-Georges. I can take a pretty cheap 16 minute train ride from Dijon there with plenty of time from when my classes get out till when the riders finish in the town and am really excited about the entire prospect of it all!