Friday in Lyon

On Friday, we all slept in a little longer before heading back into Lyon. Heather and I were ready first, and she needed to mail some postcards, so we went on a quick walk around Saint-Priest. We found the Friday morning market, which is amazing. I need to come here to do all my shopping. There's everything from dish detergent to shoes to fruit to silverware! I actually bought a purse while we were there (just because I've been looking for one that's got a long strap and is a little more practical for metro riding... the one I got was only 12 euros.... all the others I've seen have been 30+!). We tried to show Maggie and Thomas the market on our way to the tram, but it was already starting to pack up (you really have to get to these market guys early!).

We took the tram to the metro and rode it up to Croix-Rousse (the working hill). I wanted to show them the pretty views of the Basilica we saw 2 days earlier. It was a really, really windy day, but the sun was shining! We walked down through the tall-windowed buildings with the stair-lined streets. I showed them the more "ruined" Roman Ruins off a side street (of the 3 roman theaters in the city, this one isn't quite as impressive because it's fenced off and you can't walk around the steps, but still, pretty cool that it's there!). We continued down into the heart of the city, passing through the Best Bagels, American Bagel/Specialty shop... (sadly upon looking closer at the Betty Crocker Brownie Mix.... I discovered the price tag of 8 euros. It just seems wrong to pay almost 11 dollars for a brownie mix.... so if you're ever in the mood to send me mail, I won't say no to brownie mixes, cookie mixes, etc.). We also stopped in a shoe store, which was a little dangerous, as I have just been paid (woohoo!). Not to worry though, thankfully I still couldn't validate spending 70 euros on the pair of boots that I want. (Maybe they will be on sale by January since every year after Christmas, France has huge sales in January???)

I showed them the Opera house and we got some chocolate from the Lyon specialty shop called Voisin. I actually got chocolate from this same shop for my family when my sister Leslie and I visited Lyon 2 years ago! They make the mocha chocolate quenelles, yum!

And to finish off our day in the city, we took a nice stroll down and across the river to get to the Parc de la Tete d'Or (Gold Head Park). This is the park where the teaching assistants all got together for the meet-and-greet picnic...with the small zoo. It was the perfect ending to the day. The leaves on the trees in the park were beautiful, the giraffe family had a herd of ox over for company, and people were throwing large quantities of bread to the deer so that we got to see them all flocked together (can you say flocked?).

We went home and had another French feast, quiche was added to the list from the other night:)