Boots on the brain...

This morning started out as a dark, dreary, pouring-down-rain kind of morning. But... thankfully I had a lunch date, so I got my butt up and ready to go into Lyon. I met Lindsey and her dad, who's visiting, in Vieux Lyon. She suggested either going to a fondue restaurant they had passed by or to a boulangerie... and I basically said "you had me at the mention of cheese." It ended up being a very cute little restaurant with yummy savoyard fondue. It was also very wooden (the restaurant, not the fondue). Everything from the paneling on the walls to the menus were made of wood. And while we ate in our little wooden restaurant, we caught up on all of our respective trip news. It was nice:)

Then, because obviously you can't show your dad around without showing him the desserts, we stopped for atarte aux pralines. The place we went to has Lindsey's favorite type of tarte... I had never had it before. Instead of being more of a liquidy filling with pieces of pink praline, it was the opposite with lots of pieces of praline with a very sweet sugary glaze. It was delicious, but sadly, because it was kind of sharp, it cut up the roof of my mouth... So I guess I'll have to stick with the more liquidy pie filling type of praline tart. I know, how sad that I should need to cut myself off from even one type of pastry.

After our meal and dessert stop, I said goodbye to Lindsey and her dad and went on my way. I had hoped to stop by the mall on my way back to pick up a few things from the grocery store and maybe look at a pair of boots. So I took the metro to the tram (the tram goes to the mall). But of course when I got to the tram stop, the announcement thingy came on saying that there had been an accident between 2 of the stops and that the tram would be out of service between Grange Blanche (where I was, and where the metro meets the tram) and Bron (a stop 5 tram stops away). I had the option of either getting back on the metro, foregoing my mall stop, and taking a bus home... or walking to the nearest tram stop that was in service. Of course, I opted to walk because I had boots on the brain. Thankfully, it was a much nicer afternoon... sunny and crisp with pretty yellow leaves everywhere... so not a bad time for a walk!

I walked and walked, passing the accident that had caused all the trouble (a motorcycle hit the tram or vice versa), got on the tram 4 stops later and got off at the mall. I had kind of wondered if I should just stay on the tram and go home, but again, boots were on the brain. As I walked through the empty parking lot.... I began to curse my decision to walk instead of just going home on the metro and bus, and then my decision to get off of the tram at all. The mall was closed, as I'm sure it is every other Sunday (at least after 1:30pm). By this point, I was thirsty and needed a potty break, so I stopped at the one restaurant that was open (Flunch, which is kind of like a Ryan's buffet for French people).

After my orangina (type of fizzy orange drink), I went back to the tram stop... saying to myself, oh well, now I know... don't come here on Sundays. I ran to catch the oncoming tram, which stopped and let everyone off. This tram was out of service, starting right then. The next tram wouldn't be arriving for 14 minutes. I decided I'd rather walk to the next stop than stand around and smell cigarette smoke (obviously, at the first sign of extra time, many French people pull out their cigs and light up).

I got to the next stop and the time said 11 minutes to wait. I thought, meh, I might as well walk to the next stop. On my walk to the next stop, I watched the tram go by... and I said oh well, I'll just walk home from here. There's only 3 stops left... I've gone this far. In total, I walked 8 full stops out of the 15 tram stops between Grange Blanche and St. Priest-Hotel de Ville... which means I actually walked more than halfway home from the outskirts of Lyon. Hah! At least it was good exercise (even though, had I not had boots on the brain, I might have decided to "read the signs" that said the tram is not the way to go today).

I got home and decided I needed to wind down with some American Kraft Mac and Cheese. It was yummy in my tummy. And now I need to get ready for my 2 days of work this week. I realized that I don't just have a 4 day weekend, but a 5 day weekend... I don't work Wed/Fri, so if I have Thursday off, I only work Mon/Tues this week! Haha! This is the best job....

Reste cool:)