I arrived in Lyon, France on the eleventh. What an adventure it has been thus far. The first place I went out to visit is Vieux Lyon or old Lyon. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve laid my eyes on.
I went with two friends/classmates. We had absolutely no idea where we were going, but that didn’t stop us from getting on the metro and riding. We stumbled upon Vieux Lyon which has a cathedral(Saint-Jean), a river, a rose garden, and plenty of shops to spend every single last euro in.
The Cathedral consisted of gorgeous stain-glass windows. Unfortunately, it was under construction, so I didn’t get to see as much of it as I wanted. However, there was another church on a hill. We could see the church from the main street. We decided to go up to it. Silly me. I thought it was way less uphill than it actually was. There were so so many steps. I am not an in-shape person. I was out of breath with burning muscles. To add to that, I was wearing sandals that kept slipping on my feet and on the gravel. It was a mess. Thankfully, I had some great friends with me. They encouraged me every step of the way and would not let me miss the view. Let me tell you, the view was well worth the hike.
One of my favorite parts of the hike was a rose garden. In the garden you can of course stop and smell the roses, but you also get a view of the entire city. The Basilica is at the top of the hill. And a million steps later, we got to it. It is massive. I’m not huge on architecture, but one of my friends is. We were opposed to leaving each other alone. The three of us made sure that we all got to see what we wanted. There was a mass service occurring during the time of our visit; therefore, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. We went into a few various parts of the church before heading back down into the city.
The streets are alleyways lined with all sorts of shops. We went into a book store for me, a few clothing stores, and of course pastry shops. I could spend hours upon hours there and not fully explore each shop. It is a little touristy, but not overwhelmingly so.
Purchasing from the shops were a bit tricky. Even though I am a french major and speak the language, there is still a language barrier. Some of the workers speak English. Contrarily, I’ve had many encounters in which the workers don’t speak a word of English. In the previously mentioned trip to the book store, all three workers only spoke French. I can become a little nervous trying to communicate with locals because I don’t have a perfect French accent, and I am not fluent. I will keep trying the next three weeks. I’m just going to throw myself out there heart first. I’ll let you know what happens!
