Friday, June 24, 2011

Lyon

home of the mini-Eiffel tower, which sits at a higher altitude than Paris'. Take THAT Paris!

 French countryside, as viewed from the night train we took. It was boiling hot in our room, and I had food poisoning. I think it was the most uncomfortable 12 hours of my life, or maybe just the trip, but it was not fun.


 Fountain in Lyon, around the corner from our hotel. 


 Courtyard of the museum next to our hotel, which we did not visit. A local told us it was for the best, as it is quite boring.


 There were lots of old buildings and interesting architecture throughout the city. This is just one of many streets we wandered through.


Pretty poppies



 The river than runs through the old part of Lyon. It was all very pretty throughout the entire city.


This is about where we were when an exchange student walked up to us and starting speaking in French. Luckily Matt knows French, and was able to talk to them. They invited him on a scavenger hunt of sorts geared towards students who want to improve their French. How perfect! Matt is just that! Turns out, it was a bit boring. Oh well.

See the tower in the right side of the photo? That is the mini-Eiffel tower. Believe it or not, the top of it IS higher (elevation wise) than the Parisian Eiffel tower. Or so the story goes anyway... there is more to it, something about a feud between Paris and Lyon... I wasn't quite filled in on the details.



Heading up to the cathedral way up there on the hill. It was a holiday... so public transportation was out of the question... so we hiked.

The hike was well worth it, what a gorgeous view!!

I am in love with this city, it was just so gorgeous, friendly and clean.

The front side of the cathedral, which was possibly the most intricately decorated one I have ever seen.

So fancy!!

No single square inch was left undecorated

And lots of gold foiling in the artwork

Even the floors were uber fancy with mosaics everywhere

Outside again, this is the smaller chapel connected to the main cathedral

A short walk from the cathedral led us to an old roman amphitheatre. Matt is there in the yellow shirt. Thankfully he chose a brightly colored shirt that day!

Pretty cool. Actually it was fairly hot that day, and this is from someone who has been living in the Caribbean for the past 2 years!

More arm-outstretched pictures of us 

Sigh... can I go back yet??

A picture from in town... I didn't take many of town for some reason. This was a random fountain and carousel in the middle of the shopping district. 

So that was Lyon. Gorgeous city, absolutely loved it. It felt like it was Portland, Oregon sized, but in reality, it is the 2nd largest city in France next to Paris (or so I hear, don't quote me on that). I think it spreads out very wide, and there is an industrial/office sector of the city which we didn't visit.

Up next, Paris. Crepes. Nom nom nom nom nom.

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