Croix-Rousse and Trip Planning Craziness!

This morning I met my friend Lindsey at the tram stop by my apartment. She wanted to see the "real" Saint-Priest, since she works at the high school in town, but does not live here. I showed her the highlights... the Chateau, the village with the fish fountain, my bank, etc. and then we headed back for a little lunch chez moi. (I made pizza in the oven, yay, it works!)

While we ate lunch, Lindsey told me about her plans to go to the Loire Valley at the beginning of our Fall holiday (Oct. 22-24). I had already made plans to go to Paris, Provence, Grenoble, and back to Paris with my friends Maggie, Thomas, and Heather from Oct. 25-31, so I was a little hesitant to tack on another trip right before that big trip... but Lindsey had already researched a tour to take, hotels, and train prices, so it seemed like a plan I shouldn't pass up! The Loire Valley is an area of France with a lot of big, beautiful castles. I actually visited this area when I was with a tour group in high school, so about 7 years ago... but it's one of those places I've always wanted to return to! So- I booked my train tickets before we went off on our Croix-Rousse adventure!

To get to Croix-Rousse, we took a metro line I had never taken before

(metro line C). It's the shortest metro line, with only 5 stops, and it goes uphill most of the way (or downhill depending on which way you take it).

The Croix-Rousse quarter of the city sits on a hill, and much like

Fourviere has beautiful views of the city. It is actually nicknamed the "working hill" as opposed to the "praying hill" of Fourviere because this area used to house many of the silk-making workshops. Croix-Rousse has

steeping slopes, which impacted the way the roads and houses were built (lots of stairs in this area). The houses have tall windows to allow more light to shine through (for when they were working on the silk looms) and the ceilings are high to accommodate the bulky loom equipment. Someday, I would like to tour the traboules, or the little covered passageways between the houses, that were created to facilitate foot

traffic (or so it says on the Lyon tourism website).

We walked around a bit, following Lindsey's guide

book. We saw the Jardin de la Grande Cote, a sloping garden of sorts. It had nice benches and areas for a picnic on a nice sunny day, such as today. Then her book told us to take a sharp right at one of the streets leading down the hill in order to find another ancient Roman amphitheater, L’amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules, constructed around 19 AD, and is the oldest Gallo-Roman

amphitheater, according to the Lyon tourism website. This tid-bit of information is now making me very confused because the other Roman ruins were also very old... and most websites don't even mention this Roman theater, only just the other 2 on the Fourviere hill. I will have to do more researching to figure out which of the 3 is really the oldest, biggest, coolest, etc. This one was gated off to where you couldn't really walk or sit on the stairs... but it was still pretty neat!

After stopping to admire yet another remnant of the Roman Empire, we continued making our way down the hill. We both laughed when we saw a

store called "Best Bagels," (true story, I begged my dad to take me to a bagel shop for my last meal in America, guess I'm glad he took me somewhere else!). Next thing I know, Lindsey's running across the street to take a closer look at the store because she spotted a Dr. Pepper. The store is actually chock full of American favorites (Reese's, Betty Crocker Cake Mixes, Baked Beans, Campbell's Soup, Kraft Mac n' Cheese, and Bud Light...haha of all things). So I guess whenever I'm feeling especially homesick, I'll have to come here for a little snack:)

We finished our afternoon adventure with a stop in Vieux Lyon for some ice cream (yumz, my first ice cream cone in France since I studied abroad

in Paris). My boule de framboise (raspberry scoop) was delicious! The Vieux Lyon streets were packed with tourists, Lyon natives, and street performers. I guess this is the place to be on a nice sunny Saturday

afternoon!

I got home in time to chat with Victor and my mom, and got a message from Lindsey about maybe wanting to visit Chambery next weekend for a day trip. I initially said no, thinking with my wallet in mind, but decided to go for it. I'll only be in France for 7 months and there is a lot to see! So the goal for this next week: don't spend any more money! (I also just bought train tickets for when my friend Amy comes to visit- we're going to Avignon and Strasbourg, yay!)

Reste cool:) Miss you all!