Lyon

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I understand why everyone in France goes to the coast for the summer... its really really hot here. Well, it was hot until a wonderful rainstorm last night, and i am enjoying the cooler day today, but doubt it will last long.

On Sunday Ghislain and I met up with Tania, and the 3 of us went to Musèe Picasso. YAY. Museums in France are all in big old houses/chateaus. Mussèe Picasso is no different, so the actual building just added to the expereince. For lunch Tania had her first falafel expereince at Ghislains favorate falafel place. It was Israeli style, and some of the best that i have had in years.

Ghislain was aboslutely awesome and took Tania and I to the train station and helped us find everything we needed. (Now we know all about validating tickets, and seat assignments). He even waited with us. He left a few minutes before our TGV, and it was sad to say goodbye. He was a wonderful host and i had a great time. 😊

TGV is a high speed train, except ours which had a 1 hour delay due to mechanical problems. Oh well. Still took less time than a regular train. On our own, armed with Tania's french and my translator, we are navigating and getting around well. Once in Lyon we located our hostel on the middle of a cliff (the directions said the foot of the hill, this is no foot of a hill). We trecked our bags up, got not so settled in a not so great room, and headed down for dinner.

Dinner ended up being a great Creperie. My ham, bechemel and griure crepe was awesome only to be outdone by the dessert. Our hot fudge sundae featured whipped cream, fresh fruit, marinated pears, vanilla ice cream and pear ice cream. There are not enough good things to say about the pear ice cream. We got into a conversation with the guy/group sitting one table over, which was cool except the whole language barrier thing. I have never wanted more to be able to fluently speak another language.

back to reality, it was about 100 F in the room thant night, which wasnt so secure, so we switched rooms for one with no patio access, and two lofted beds away from the rest. In the sweltering heat we managed to tour a cathedral, a bastille on the top of the cliff, roman ampatheatre, which was kinda ruin-like. The ampetheater was functional and had equiptment everywhere, to which Tania said "I like my ruins unspoiled."

At the bottom of the hill we explored town a lot, eventually randomly happening upon the fine arts museum, in an old "house" with a beautiful coutyard. The musuem was air conditioned, and we enjoyed the cool and the art for a few hours. After that we walked around a bit more, this time by the river, and headed back to Vieu Lyon (old lyon) for a huge delicious dinner. At night the rain came and washed the heat away!

Today we are going to a big fancy meal curtosy of my food budget, money specifically for a few increadible meals. We need to find me some sandals and a bag for tania, which will provide a specific goal for our wandering... and the morning it is off to Turin!

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