Writing from a McDonalds in Lyon! (Yay free WiFi!)

I made it to Charles de Gaulle!

So it looks like I’ll have to make a habit of these “write a blog on Microsoft Word, then post it when I actually have internet” blogs, because I’m at our résidence in Lyon, and we have no (free) internet! So that kind of sucks, but on the bright side, I’m finally at our résidence in Lyon!!! The trip from Paris to Lyon is a story in itself, but first I’ll share about my time in Paris.

The day we got to Paris, we slept much longer than originally planned, and woke up just in time for our night to begin. I had been talking to my coworker, Scott, who was in Paris with his mom at the same time as us, and we planned to meet up. So the 3 of us took the Métro to the Champs Elysées, which is basically a huge street that leads from the Louvre all the way to the L’Arc de Triomphe. We spent about 30-45 minutes walking, past tons of shops, movie theatres, and a surprisingly large number of luxury car show rooms, toward L’arc, and finally got there…it was such a sight to see at nighttime! And it was from there that we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, which had an awesome light show going on. After a little while of taking pictures (Ora took most of the pictures in Paris, otherwise I would post them here) we headed back home on the Métro, where we were serenaded by two very drunk French girls singing probably the only American songs they knew, “Singing in the Rain” and Phantom Planet’s “California”, and dancing around the hand rails on the train.


Ora and I had all day Saturday to explore…we were a little slow moving so we didn’t leave our hôtel to eat brunch/lunch until like noon. But we headed out, got on the Métro, and headed to the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre was pretty much amazing. First thing off the Métro, we walk through a huge passageway where, on either side of the walkway, you can see into the courtyards inside the Louvre, which are filled with classical Greek sculptures. We walked 200 yards further, and found ourselves face to face with the famous Pyramid, which is the entrance to the museum. For the next 3-4 hours, we tried to see everything we possibly could, and I’m pretty sure we succeeded…Highlights include the Vénus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace (I forget its French name), and of course, La Jaconde, or the Mona Lisa. My favorite pieces were definitely the sculptures, especially the ones depicting Greek gods and goddesses, since I recently took both Greek Mythology and an Art History class about the era at UCSB. Knowing the stories behind the statues (and being able to read the title/name/info things, which were all in French) made them a lot more meaningful.

the Vénus de Milo!

Next, we walked out in the Jardins de Tuillieries, which we didn’t really spend too much time enjoying, because we began to head towards Notre Dame. It was about a 25 minute walk to Saint Michel, which is kind of the biggest landmark right before Notre Dame, and we stopped to eat our first French crèpes! Mine was du fromage et oeuf, or cheese and egg…heavy on the cheese. So we grabbed those and headed towards the cathedral, which was pretty breathtaking. That Art History class came rushing back to me…portals, flying buttresses, rib vaults…once again, I think I enjoyed Notre Dame a lot more because I understood the architecture and history behind it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside.

After that, I wanted to go see the stained glass at Sainte-Chappelle before sunset, and Ora wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. But I had kind of dragged her to Notre Dame, so I decided to settle on going to see the Eiffel Tower. The only problem there was that la Tour Eiffel was on the other side of town. So after 2 different Métro rides, we finally made it to la Tour Eiffel right before sunset and checked it out. We were so tired that we decided not to go up to the top, but we took a few pictures.

That night, we met up with Scott again at an Irish pub by our hotel (that is Ora and I at the pub in the picture above this), had a couple of drinks, and hung out the rest of the night. The next day was our voyage to Lyon, which is another story in itself. But now I'm at a MacDo (McDonalds) because it's the most convienient place that has free WiFi with 5-7 other EAP students, and we're about to head back to the résidence. I'll try to update more often, as a lot has happened since we arrived in Lyon yesterday afternoon!