Here is the route I took using the super efficient French railway system (which at times turned out to be not as efficient as first thought, although at all times was better than the bus system. But that's for later).
First stop on my travels: Lyon. Despite being over 550km away from Rennes, the train only took 4 and a half hours which was made all the more satisfying by having a first class ticket. My youth railcard, the Carte 12-25, lets me buy tickets with lots of discount and it is often the same price or even cheaper to go in first class. I arrived in Lyon at lunch time and was met by Tiffanie who I met in Switzerland when we were both working at Haut-Lac.
Tiffanie lives in an incredible flat overlooking one of the rivers which runs through Lyon. She lives with her family, and whilst I was there, a Swedish girl called Sara who was doing an extended period of couch-surfing whilst learning French. After a spot of lunch, we headed out to explore the city. First we headed up the the Cathedral which sits on top of the hill overlooking Vieux Lyon (using the handy integrated transport system to get there, including the funicular). The Cathedral itself is very impressive and incredibly ornate but the best part of going up there was the view from the top.
Before going to Lyon, I hadn't realised how close it is to the Alps but from the top of the hill we could see Mont Blanc in the background as well as other mountains already covered in snow. It is also a great place to get an idea of the layout of the city, with 2 big rivers, the Rhone and the Saone cutting through it.
Instead of taking the funicular back down to the city we walked through the gardens on the slope underneath the cathedral. Sara has been travelling for a while and is a well practised poser so we ended up having a bit of a photo shoot as we were walking. The other visitors must have thought we were a bit crazy. This is my favourite photo:
Unfortunately, as we reached the centre of Lyon and the Place Bellecour it started to rain so we decided to head home. Then Tiffanie had a better idea so we went over to one of her neighbour's flats and made churros. My next investment might very well be a churros-maker thing. Who knew that flour and water could taste so good? Although deep-frying it and covering it in caster sugar is maybe not the most nutritious way of eating it!
Tiffanie is a student at ESDES Lyon which is a business school and therefore, unlike me, she actually works pretty hard at uni. On Sunday she had to go and meet a study group so I went to explore the city with another friend from Lyon, Amandine, who spent her Erasmus year last year studying and playing Ultimate in Aberdeen. We met at the Place Bellecour which is apparently the biggest public square in Europe and also the traditional meeting spot for people in the city (the statue in the centre is the equivalent of the statue of Donald Dewer on Buchanan St). Tiffanie's mum had given me some tourist guides of the city and booklet with
walking routes to explore the old town. Lyon is famous for its "Cours and Traboules". A Cour is a courtyard and a traboule is a passageway which connects two streets by passing under several buildings at ground level. These passages and courtyards had two functions. They allowed more buildings to be built in a small space since the courtyards provided day light to the flats and housing and the traboules provided access to build
ings and ways of moving around the city without the need for lots of roads. They also provided shelter from the rain for the workers moving silk from manufacturers to shops at the time when silk was a major industry in the city. Later on, they were also used by resistance fighters in World War 2 because they were well known by the locals and a good place to hide from anyone who didn't know the city well. There are loads of courtyards and traboules to explore and Amandine admitted that she had never seen all of them even though she lived in Lyon.
After seeing the old town, I headed up to the Croix Rousse which is another hill with an amazing view over the city and also over to the cathedral on the other hill. Since the sun was still shining I decided to walk for a bit along the river to the Parc de la Tete d'Or. This is a huge park and very busy on a nice Sunday afternoon with lots of families out for a walk. One of the big attractions of the park is the free zoo. This includes giraffes, flamingoes, elephants and something which I overheard a French woman telling her two year old son is called a Zebu. He continued to insist it was a cow.
I'm not really a fan of zoos or caged animals in general and the giraffes looked cold and bored. I didn't even see the elephants because they were already in their house. I did see a pumpkin they had been eating though. The rest of the park was incredibly beautiful especially with all the autumn colours reflected in the lake. I also got a chance to try out the sunset setting on my new camera as I was walking back to Tiffanie's.
In the evening we had a Swedish meal courtesy of Sara. She had taken a trip to IKEA to stock up at the Sweden shop and she assured us that it was exactly like what they eat in Sweden. We had gravadlax, rollmops and crispbreads for starters, then meatballs and gravy with boiled potatoes for the main course along with Lingonberry jam. Dessert was chocolate truffles and crumble. Yum yum. As well as the food we had wine mixed with lingonberry juice and sang a couple of rounds of Frere Jacques since Sara told us that in Sweden they sing lots while they are having a meal. It was a great evening with lots of discussions of tartan, clans, and haggis thrown in with the Swedish traditions!
In the morning, I set off for the station to catch a train south, but that's for another instalment...
Tiffanie lives in an incredible flat overlooking one of the rivers which runs through Lyon. She lives with her family, and whilst I was there, a Swedish girl called Sara who was doing an extended period of couch-surfing whilst learning French. After a spot of lunch, we headed out to explore the city. First we headed up the the Cathedral which sits on top of the hill overlooking Vieux Lyon (using the handy integrated transport system to get there, including the funicular). The Cathedral itself is very impressive and incredibly ornate but the best part of going up there was the view from the top.
Before going to Lyon, I hadn't realised how close it is to the Alps but from the top of the hill we could see Mont Blanc in the background as well as other mountains already covered in snow. It is also a great place to get an idea of the layout of the city, with 2 big rivers, the Rhone and the Saone cutting through it.
Instead of taking the funicular back down to the city we walked through the gardens on the slope underneath the cathedral. Sara has been travelling for a while and is a well practised poser so we ended up having a bit of a photo shoot as we were walking. The other visitors must have thought we were a bit crazy. This is my favourite photo:
Unfortunately, as we reached the centre of Lyon and the Place Bellecour it started to rain so we decided to head home. Then Tiffanie had a better idea so we went over to one of her neighbour's flats and made churros. My next investment might very well be a churros-maker thing. Who knew that flour and water could taste so good? Although deep-frying it and covering it in caster sugar is maybe not the most nutritious way of eating it!Tiffanie is a student at ESDES Lyon which is a business school and therefore, unlike me, she actually works pretty hard at uni. On Sunday she had to go and meet a study group so I went to explore the city with another friend from Lyon, Amandine, who spent her Erasmus year last year studying and playing Ultimate in Aberdeen. We met at the Place Bellecour which is apparently the biggest public square in Europe and also the traditional meeting spot for people in the city (the statue in the centre is the equivalent of the statue of Donald Dewer on Buchanan St). Tiffanie's mum had given me some tourist guides of the city and booklet with
walking routes to explore the old town. Lyon is famous for its "Cours and Traboules". A Cour is a courtyard and a traboule is a passageway which connects two streets by passing under several buildings at ground level. These passages and courtyards had two functions. They allowed more buildings to be built in a small space since the courtyards provided day light to the flats and housing and the traboules provided access to build
ings and ways of moving around the city without the need for lots of roads. They also provided shelter from the rain for the workers moving silk from manufacturers to shops at the time when silk was a major industry in the city. Later on, they were also used by resistance fighters in World War 2 because they were well known by the locals and a good place to hide from anyone who didn't know the city well. There are loads of courtyards and traboules to explore and Amandine admitted that she had never seen all of them even though she lived in Lyon.After seeing the old town, I headed up to the Croix Rousse which is another hill with an amazing view over the city and also over to the cathedral on the other hill. Since the sun was still shining I decided to walk for a bit along the river to the Parc de la Tete d'Or. This is a huge park and very busy on a nice Sunday afternoon with lots of families out for a walk. One of the big attractions of the park is the free zoo. This includes giraffes, flamingoes, elephants and something which I overheard a French woman telling her two year old son is called a Zebu. He continued to insist it was a cow.
I'm not really a fan of zoos or caged animals in general and the giraffes looked cold and bored. I didn't even see the elephants because they were already in their house. I did see a pumpkin they had been eating though. The rest of the park was incredibly beautiful especially with all the autumn colours reflected in the lake. I also got a chance to try out the sunset setting on my new camera as I was walking back to Tiffanie's.
In the evening we had a Swedish meal courtesy of Sara. She had taken a trip to IKEA to stock up at the Sweden shop and she assured us that it was exactly like what they eat in Sweden. We had gravadlax, rollmops and crispbreads for starters, then meatballs and gravy with boiled potatoes for the main course along with Lingonberry jam. Dessert was chocolate truffles and crumble. Yum yum. As well as the food we had wine mixed with lingonberry juice and sang a couple of rounds of Frere Jacques since Sara told us that in Sweden they sing lots while they are having a meal. It was a great evening with lots of discussions of tartan, clans, and haggis thrown in with the Swedish traditions!In the morning, I set off for the station to catch a train south, but that's for another instalment...
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