Theatres Romains and a Lunch Lyonnais

I started my Lyon adventure (and what a beautiful adventure it has been today- mid 70's and perfect blue skies) with a bus ride to the metro. Bus to metro travel is much faster than tram travel into the city. With the bus, it took me 15 minutes to get to the metro station, and another 15 minute ride on the metro to get there (as opposed to a 50 minute-hour tramride)! I arrived at Bellecour around 10am and stopped to take a few pictures before hopping on another bus to meet my friend Lindsey at her house. (I just couldn't help myself, I found the AT&T looking fountain with the big flower right as I walked out of the station, and I had been hoping to find it sometime. So snap snap snap went the camera!)

The bus ride from Bellecour to Lindsey's house was beautiful (she lives

way up on the Fourviere hill overlooking the city; she's staying with a French family this year). The bus went along the Saone river and up a winding street lined with amazing French homes that overlook the city. I got off the bus and met Lindsey at her grand, and gated, French mansion (hehe, it's pretty big). Here is a picture:) She has an amazing view and a pretty sweet deal living with the family who cooks for her and talks to her in French all day long!

Then we headed out to the Roman Theaters that aren't too far from her house (couple blocks and a funiculaire ride away to be exact). You may be wondering why on Earth I keep calling them the Roman Theaters if I am in France... well, it is because they were actually built by the Romans, from Rome, around 15 BC. There are 2 huge amphitheaters- one is smaller, and less old, called the Odeon, (from 2-3 BC); the other is huge, and the oldest Roman ruin of its kind in France. They are both spectacular, massive creations. It was quite a work out walking up and down the stairs to see the theaters from the top and then looking up at them from the bottom. There was a school group there and a few other groups of people hanging out on the stairs of the theater, but otherwise, we had the stadiums all to ourselves. The views from the top were quite breath-taking (you could see the Basilica to one side and the rest of Lyon on the other). On one of the plaques, we read that in the time that these theaters were used, they would not have been able to see the view because there was something like a 30 foot wall at the bottom... maybe for acoustical reasons?

On our way out of the theaters, we spotted a little stairway leading to what we thought was just a terraced walkway with vines. It turned out that the vines were actually grape vines, with real live, sweet smelling grapes, probably grown by the Romans themselves (or so I'd like to think). Lindsey climbed up to grab us a few to taste, and they were very sweet... ready to be picked for wine I'm sure!

After all this exploring, we took the funiculaire all the way down to Vieux Lyon for lunch at a bouchon (a restaurant specializing in the Lyonnaise cuisine). There are several of these bouchons to choose from, all with 3 course menu deals for under 15euros. We chose one, and I chose a 9 euro menu, with a choice of salad, entree, and desert. For some reason, I was feeling very adventurous and tried the saladier Lyonnais, which ended up being a head of lettuce with boiled egg, some sort of pickled pigs feet, and potatoes. It was... interesting, to put it politely. I still sort of have a bad taste in my mouth just thinking about it. Next, I chose the plat du jour (it was chicken and scalloped potatoes), and a creme brulee for desert. Thankfully, those 2 were absolutely delicious and I felt nice and full (the chicken was very creamy and the potatoes very nice and buttery). Lindsey and I had to wonder how the French are able to eat like this and still stay so fit and healthy.

We paid the bill and went our separate ways to run our "still-getting-installed-in-France" sort of errands. I went to purchase train tickets to Paris for my trip with Maggie, Thomas, and Heather at the end of October. Then, I stopped to ask SFR a few questions about the Neufbox (information was helpful, but not getting me any closer to my reliable internet and phone connection just yet). I ended my journey at a supermarket in the Portes des Alpes mall to pick up an extension cord... which was very hard to try to find and then explain what I was looking for to the guy at the store (but I got it!).

Tomorrow- I have my last day of work this week and a new school to experience. Afterwards, I'll be awaiting the arrival of the phone line installation guy (or gal)!

Reste cool! Miss you all:)