April 25th, 2007 (My first full day in Lyon)
Sunday was the first real day in Lyon,
and it was awesome. Sunday is Market day, and the markets line the
rivers. There are 3 markets: one for food, one for books, and one for
art. We only went to the food one, but decided to see the rest later.
The market sells pretty much anything you need for food. There is a
lot of produce vendors, but also lots of butchers, fish seller-guys,
cheese sellers, and bakers. This is also where the cheapest food is
to be bought (which makes it a necessary part of any student's week).
On Sundays Allen and his friends have
brunch after buying their groceries at the market. They each buy
something to contribute, and then make a big feast. This week Allen
and myself were eating with Amy (from Sydney), Rachel (from
Melbourne), Eric (from Ontario), and Sam (from Ontario). All Allen's
friends are really cool, and it was really fun to hang out with them.
Sam and I had a lot in common in particular because it was her first
day in Lyon as well and her French was as terrible as mine. She had
just been on exchange in Salamanca (Spain) and so we both could speak
a little spanish with each other (her more than I).
Our brunch was awesome. It consisted
of salad (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado), freshly baked bread (the
french really know how to bake bread), this amazing butter with sea
salt crystals in it (actually, this might be the secret behind the
amazing bread...), and fresh strawberries. It was a pretty typical
cheap-student-french meal.
Later Allen and I met Sam and Eric at
the huge park in Lyon. It's called “Parc de le tete d'or” meaning
“Park of the head of gold,” named after a legend or something of
a golden head of Jesus (from a statue I suppose) being burried in the
park. The park is huge, and very pretty. It has a huge lake in the
middle with two islands, a zoo (which was free), Interpol (the
headquarters of the international police), Cite International (a
self-contained city with a movie theatre, stores, restaurants, and an
amphitheatre), and a greenhouse full of exotic plants, among other
things. It was huge. What was also cool is that it was packed.
Sundays in France (maybe just Lyon) are designated as family day and
everything is closed. (As in everything. That is one more reason the
markets are so popular. I heard that stores can get fined for being
open on Sundays.) People just hang out with their kids, and go bike
riding apparently. Probably half the city was in this park, it seemed
so full. And there were police people walking around through it too,
which was different, but good I guess. We walked around the park,
through the zoo (which was free and therefore awesome), around cite
international, and finally took a little nap/break thing under the
shade of some trees. We sat for a while, and then hackey-sacked a
bit. Eric taught us all to make loon call noises with our fist.
Suddenly it was 7:00, and we left for home.
