Making Lyon Home!

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I settled into my new environment fairly quickly. I liked my room, simply furnished, yet cosy. I met 4 of my hostess's children, 3 of her sons and her youngest daughter. Her youngest daughter, I can say spoke the most English in the family. We became friends easily enough. I spent my initial days in Lyon wondering around like a tourist, starry-eyed with wonder. The 16th century architecture captivated me. The narrow streets were endearing. Now, I am from Mumbai (or Bombay if you will) and if you will ever visit downtown Mumbai, you will encounter a lot of old world charm and archtecure from a few centuries ago. In a way my craze for Europe's old world charm stems from where I grew up.

But coming back to Lyon, i found the city endearing. School started. Each class was 3 hours long and that was rather strenous. Never had such lengthy classes in India or Canada. But you know what they say, there's a first time for everything. In the days I spent exploring Lyon, I discovered 2 things in district 1 of the city that became my all time favourite haunts. (I lived in district 2!) First, a bookshop! It only had books in French. But nonetheless, it became one of my favorite retreats! I loved going there every so often after class to get away from the stress of school and assignments. I couldn't read any of the book there though I made an occasional attempt to read a couple of pages from books in the children's section. The atmosphere helped me relax.

The 2nd thing I discovered was a small traditional coffee shop. It was small and didn't have a lot of seating. But was it popular! And their coffee was amazing! So was their location. It was tucked away in the charming alleyways of Lyon. And along with these haunts, I also discovered Hotel de Ville, Lyon's town hall. I didn't visit the cafe everyday since it was a good 30 minutes walk from school. But I definitely made weekly to biweekly visits.

In the evenings, i would have dinner with my hostess and her daughter. I would greet them with a "Bonsoir" at the dinner table. yes, I practiced my French with them all right! There came a time where each day i would try and learn to say a sentence in French and at dinner time, I would recite my learnings of the day to my host family. They found my efforts pleasing and amusing. It helped rapport building. And it helped me outside of home too where I had to interact with people who spoke little to no English. And thus, I made my home in Lyon!

On a side note, notice the 2 pictures I've posted. One is of Hotel de Ville as the caption reads. Look at the other one, Fontaine Bartholdi. Did you know, this fountain was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the same man who designed the Statue of Liberty in New York City!

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