Blogs from Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 29

Our journey south took us into the Ile de France region, and Seine-et-Marne, near Fontainebleau, where we had a drink in one of the cafés, along Boulevard Magenta, before we looked around the Château de Fontainebleau. This was a spectacular piece of architecture. Louis VII built an abbey here in the 12th centurybut this was later consecrated by Thomas à Becket in 1169. A medieval tower survived, but most of the present château dates back to the time of François I, who was drawn here originally for the hunting in the vast forests in the surrounding area. François based the château on Florentine and Roman styles. It was home to many kings after, and finally became home to Napoleon Bonaparte. We spent around an hour here, also walking around the colourful landscaped gardens, before resuming our ... read more

hi everyone, well finally found the uni computer lab but this will have to be quick cos ive gotta go meet my roommate back in the courtyard to walk home. she's called torse, like wars, short for victoria and is australian but very lovely! i think it's gonna be good living with her. our appartment is pretty cool, quite central and a good size room. tiny kitchen, just an alcove off the path past the bathroom towards the nmain living/sleeping area. we went grocery shopping this morning, everything is so different and cool. lyon is absolutely beautiful. cat a girl from french at otago and i went shopping at la Part Dieu yesterday, this huge shopping mall right by this huge tower called le crayon. very ugly. its really hot here, especially in this lab....im sweltering. ... read more

We are now in Lyon, which is a fabulous city with the exception of the fact that it is so hot here I feel that I may die of heat stroke any moment. It is I think about +35 degrees here but also it is a lot more humid so that when you step into a particularily hot spot it feels like your lungs may collapse, whew. Our trip from Paris went well, we had a delicious lunch (I had some meat that I hope was beef...) and of course some more dessert and then said a nice farewell to our wonderfully nice landlord-guy and went to the train station. Turns out we havce to buy reservations (6€) for TGVs so we ended up having to wait awhile. Right now I'm reading Rob Roy by Sir Walter ... read more

Before leaving Flights direct from Dublin to Lyon used to be a dream. Until 28 or 29 March, and then it became reality. Suddenly you can go a whole lot of interesting (but previously awkward to get to) places and Lyon is one of them. I think the first time I heard of Lyon it was in some novel I read when I was about 13, about a family silk company. After that, it was mainly football, and some of my college friends spent their year abroad there. I've never been there though. I'm going there this weekend. I've been planning it a while. I went to Paris something like six times last year, and now, I'm broadening my horizons slightly. So this time Lyon. I know little bits of information about it: obviously it was ... read more

Lyon is really pretty. I was dissapointed when we got off the train because it arrived in the new part of the city and it wasn't at all what I expected. Then we took the bus to the hostel in the old Lyon i was relieved to find that it was more what I had expected Lyon to be. Old Lyon is built up the side of a hill along the river and at the very top of the hill is this really cool big church (there's one at the bottom too). Our hostel is towards the top of the hill. The directions I got off the internet said it was at the foot of the hill so it took us a while to find it. Sombody screwed up. French people are really nice. it seems ... read more