HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! / Weekend in Lyon

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!!


I am SO sad that they don't celebrate it here in France. :-( I miss halloween! More than anything, I want to go trick-or-treating, but I guess at this point I am so big that the adults would all look at me funny and not want to give me candy. So I would sort of need a child to go with. But I could at least live in a neighborhood and have an awesome costume and all of the little kiddos would come trick-or-treating at my door and see my awesome costume. And then maybe the day before or something there could be an awesome Halloween festival with a (vegan) cakewalk and a haunted house. But alas, I am in France. So I guess this will have to wait until next year.

Anyhow, last weekend, Guillaume and I went down to Lyon just to see the city and to visit his friends Blondine, Anne-Laure, and Solene. Now, more than anything, my reaction to Lyon was that it was just another big French city with nothing special about it. This could be because I am sort of over big cities. The coolest thing was that there was this huge park that we walked through that had this sort of free zoo right in the middle of it. So we saw lots of cool animals!










I think my favorite thing aside from that must have been the cathedral, which was actually really cool and reminded Guillaume of Notre Dame.


I guess I can see how a little bit, but my favorite thing about it was the astrological clock inside. We just so happened to get there pretty much right on the hour, so we actually got to see all of the action. It actually sort of reminded me of the Glocchienspiel (or however you spell that) in Munich, but in miniature. Still, though, really cool.


On Sunday, a bunch of us went for a hike about an hour outside of Lyon. It was really amazingly beautiful, and I think it was my favorite part of the trip (aside from it being cold and a little bit rainy. I managed to catch a cold, which I am just now starting to get over. The only remnants for today are a sinus headache. UGH!).

But seriously, the view from the first viewpoint was fantastic and reminded me of a less amazing Lake Bled (from Slovenia - pretty much the most gorgeous place on the planet with Plitvice Lakes, Croatia in a close second).




On the hike on the way up, there were these cool caves that some French soldier guys apparently used as refuge during some ridiculous storm (according to Kenny's guidebook). That's a picture of Guillaume and I in the cave.



Then on Monday, our last day in Lyon, Guillaume and I explored by ourselves. We saw a cool fountain. And then we hiked up to this church thing. It was really beautiful and amazing, but it was also REALLY high up! After the hike from the day before, we were both glad when it was over.




After the church, we hiked a little bit more, and we came across some really cool Roman ruins. Because it was raining and a little bit cold, it totally reminded me of Rome, because when I was in Rome looking at ruins very similar to these, it was cold and raining. Also because it was cold and raining and Guillaume didn't have hood, I detached mine from my jacket for him to wear, and I have to say, it was pretty funny. It's funny thinking about how we're walking around these ruins basically just looking at old stones, but back in the day, it was a marketplace and people were there buying their vegetables.


Aside from that, we went to see the movie "Law and Order," which had Donnie Wahlberg (YAY NKOTB!!!!), Al Pacino, and Robert DeNiro in it. I LOVED it, but everyone else just thought that it was okay. We found three restaurants where we could eat. Toutes Les Couleurs, where the food was good, but WAY overpriced, Soline, where there was only one option, which was delicious, and Bar Natural, which had FANTASTIC smoothies and sandwiches. Lyon wasn't very vegan friendly, but we did alright for ourselves.

Okay, and one last thing. I know that this is already long, but my mother reminded me that there was a book I read during that time period that I forgot to write about, and since I LOVED it, and I going to do so here.

Memoir From Antproof Case - Mark Helprin
* * * * * (5)
I LOVED this book. Seriously, the only thing I didn't like about it was that there was no "an" before "case" in the title. The main character was funny and serious and quirky and extremely well-developed, and while most people would have probably thought him crazy, I sort-of fell in love with him. And understood him. And, while I never LIKED coffee, by the end of the book he had me feeling morally opposed to coffee. And now I can't stand the smell of it. This is really a book that I would recommend to anyone.