La derniere soiree

Last night was our last in Lyon.  We had a little session at the hotel before going to our dinner de gala.  At the hotel, we talked about our secret pal, someone whose name we picked during the week.  It was fun and sad at the same time, since we have spent 12 days together in conversation and experiencing Lyon. Dinner was at a restaurant in the Croix-Rousse section of Lyon, and it was wonderful.
This morning, most of the group left for Paris on the TGV; some went to the airport to go home, and a couple of us are in different places in France.  More about where I am later.
Here are photos from last night

On a presque fini!

I can't believe that my program is almost over!  We have had such a wonderful time getting to know each other, and also learning about different aspects of France.  Today's aspect was politics; in France that is always very interesting.  I can't tell you how many political parties there are, but there are 3 major parties (pour mes eleves AP, quelles sont ces parties?)
After a wonderful lunch at a sandwich shop, I went to the pharmacy on the corner to ask for something for my ankle (which looks like a target pretty much with red around a center white dot).  You have to ask for things like that, and I got a cortisone cream, which is what I wanted!  Then, we went to the Museum of the Deportation and Holocaust.  It was informative and and  pretty cool.  The most fun happened on the way home.  The tickets that our group director gave us were for groups, and there were people on the train who were checking tickets. If you have a group ticket, you are supposed to be in a group, and there were only two of us together.  The guy let us off without a fine, but informed us that a group is 10 or more.  Whew!  Then there were also gendarmerie (national police), too.  We were so happy to get to our stop without more trouble...

This evening was a oenology evening.  The guy was so knowledgeable, plus he made his own food, as he runs a restaurant of 5/6 tables.  We tasted 5 wines, plus had a shrimp bisque, pizza with anchovies (oh, so salty), homemade gingerbread with foie de canard, and a fondant flourless chocolate cake.

Our wine guide for the evening at the door of his restaurant.

 Gingerbread with foie de canard.

Pizza with tomatoes, anchovies and olives.  Tasty, but way too salty for me.

Annecy

I know that my posts are getting shorter and shorter - I promise a whole update probably when I return to the States next week.  However, we went to Annecy today, which is at the foot of the Alpes.  Here are some photos

Cooking Class

We took a cooking class tonight; it was really fun and we learned so much.  I can hardly wait to get home and try some of the dishes that we made.  We also went to a silk workshop.  They do everything by hand, and the results are fabulous.  Wish that I had enough to buy a couple of scarves.  Maybe next time.

Quelques photos

Bonjour comme toujours!
Today we visited the Croix-Rousse section of Lyon.  It is on a hill, so we took the metro up and walked down visiting all sorts of places on the way.  Besides some photos from today, I have photos from the past few days, including our highway party while stuck in accident traffic.  The accident occurred on one of the weekends when the July folks lave for holiday, and the 14 July folks go home from the week's holiday.  There is also another huge traffic weekend at the end of July when the juilletists go home and the aoutists leave for their holiday.  Just imagine one half of the nation going home while the other half leaves on vacation.  Ouais...

Des choses

Bonjour tout le monde!
We are so busy here that I don't have the proper time to catch up on my blog, but I promise a real update with photos as soon as possible.  In the meantime, we have done quite a lot.  On Saturday, we went to the Pays Beaujolais and saw a very quaint village - Oignt - the pronunciation sounds as nasal as it looks.  Our guide was comprehensive and talked about the history of the town from almost the beginning, which is a long time ago.  The views from the tower were fabulous; we could see all the way back to Lyon.
On our way to the next thing, our visit to the Beaujolais museum, we experienced a huge traffic jam caused by a bad accident that caused 5 "blesses" who had to be medivaced off the highway.  While cars are stopped, everyone gets out.  Some eat, others take a walk or just chat with their neighbors.  We were an hour late to the museum, so missed most of the tour, but got to do the most important thing, taste the beaujolais.
Sunday's weather was better; it didn't get really hot until the late afternoon.  We visited a mosque; our tour was led by a lovely young woman.
Photos plus tard.

Fireworks and other things

Wednesday was July14, known to Americans (but not to the French) as Bastille day.  Stores are closed, but cafes and restaurants are not.  That morning, our group had a guided tour of our quarter, and also of Vieux Lyon.  I took a ton of photos, but these are the most interesting - et il y a des questions pour mes eleves AP!
T This is the fountain in the Place des Terreaux; it was built by Bartholdi (qui a construit quoi d'autre?)





This is actually the back of a building, and in French is called a "mur peint", for us it is a mural.  This one celebrates famous people who were born in Lyon.  The more recent Lyonnais are on the lower floors, and the older folks on the upper floors. 

Here on the left is one along with his creation.  Pour mes eleves AP, qui est l'homme, et qu'est-ce qu'il a ecrit?






















Vieux Lyon has so much that it defies my descriptions.  Here is one, the Rose Tower, named for the color.  There are many courtyards that are hidden from the street by just a little passageway.  And there are passageways that you can take that go from one parallel street to another; these are called traboules, and they cut through private property.  Many of them are now closed to the public, but some are still open - if you know where to find them.  We got to take a couple, and here is an example:













Naturally, since is the French national holiday, there must be fireworks.  In Lyon, there are firemen's balls, and "les bals en pleine air".  My friends Jan and Steve Blasberg and I found such a bal on the banks of the Saone River.  In between rain showers that had us sheltering under a tree, we saw people dancing to three different types of bands while we all waited for the fireworks from the Basilica on top of Foureviere.  They were fabulous, and no one was disappointed.

Vieux Lyon

Today, after breakfast, I went out to see what I could see.  The shopping is going to be too good, so I will leave that for another day.  I followed streets to the Saone River, and crossed it to find Vieux Lyon.  (pour mes eleves AP, quel est l'ancien nom de Lyon?).  I bought a ticket on the funicular, and went up to, well, I'm not sure.  But I got off, and managed to find my way past a dog who was too hot/lazy to get up and chase me, but did bark, to the Gallo-roman ruins. 



This is what I had for lunch - it was delicious, and I also had a dessert; all of this came to 6 euro 20!  Pas mal!  Mes eleves AP doivent deviner ce qu'il y a dans le sandwich - 3 choses...

In order to get to Vieux Lyon, the upper part, I took the funicular.  I bought a ticket aller-retour for 2 euro 40, and you had to put the ticket in the right way to go, and to come back.  I managed!  Here are some other photos of Lyon.

More later!

Je suis arrivee a Lyon!

I finally arrived in Lyon yesterday after a mostlyl uneventful flight over the Atlantic.  When we landed in Paris at 6:00 am, there was a horribly violent thunderstorm right afterwards. Here are a couple of photos from the train station - the roof leaked, and it rained in the station.  See how they tried to collect all the rain in those little buckets?  riiiight...(well, technical difficulties prevent uploading right now - more later)
The storm slowed down all the TGV into the airport station, so my 9:25 am train didn't leave CDG until 10:30 or so.  After some fun finding my seat on the train, everything was great, and I watched the countryside fly by.
Today, I will take a small excursion to see the town.  It is not only hot, but very humid, and that is something that I need to get used to.
A bientot pour le moment!

En route

My flight to start this party left LA at 7:10 am, which means that I was at the airport at 4:30 (yawn!).  The flight was full and incredibly bumpy - haven't experienced such turbulence in an airplane for quite awhile.  However, I am in Cincinnati for about 40 more minutes, and then on to Paris!

Technical difficulties

Bonjour everyone.  T-2 and counting, and all is slowing coming together.  I made it so that my regular phone works overseas (but don't call, it is still expensive), and am trying to upload photos to this blog from my Blackberry.  So far, no dice.  I will keep trying, though...
I hear that it is very hot in France - "la canicule" they call it.  In Lyon, it is in the 80's and low 90's with afternoon thunderstorms.  That means humidity, something we in the West are not all that used to. 
More later, as I try to upload photos to the blog directly from my BB!

Getting ready, slowly but surely for the big trip. In the meantime, an earthquake near San Diego had us rockin' slightly in LA.