Firstly, I've had a few comments pertaining to the amount I write about food. 1. Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France so I thought it only fitting to include some of my culinary adventures in these posts 2. I joined a gym so yes, all my clothes still fit (if a little snug).
Now, from where I left off ... I got stuck into uni work and had some more tutoring sessions with Emile, whose attention span seems to get shorter every time we have a lesson. Thursday 11th November was, of course, Armistice (aka Remembrance Day) which is a public holiday in France so I spent the afternoon at Alexia's residence (an ANU girl) with Kylie to work on a group project before heading to the movies with Alice and Milli in the evening. Unfortunately, because the cinemas one of the (very) few things open on a public holiday, the Social Network was sold out by the time the girls arrived. The next best thing was The American, with George Clooney. Not a bad way to pass a rainy evening! I've noticed that here it's much more common to go to the movies by yourself, and bring a book. That's right, there's almost always 3 or 4 people in a movie theatre who have brought a book to read while waiting for the film to start, some even keep reading through the trailers! We decided to grab a nightcap with Joel, another melbournian, and ended up a at a little bar/live music venue called le Baryton.
Once the weekend rolled around the weather improved ten-fold. On Saturday the sun was shining and it got to about 18 degrees. I went for a run in the Park in just a long-sleeve shirt and shorts! There's a running path around the outside, but sometimes I like to run past the lions, and running on the weekends is good because all the middle-aged women come out in packs to jog and catch up at the same time so I feel young and sprightly as I overtake them. The situation changes if you go around lunch time on a weekday when the pros are out. Balding men, usually in pairs come zooming past me every few minutes in their skins and special winter running apparel. But seeing as it's forecast to snow this weekend I don't think I'll be doing too much running in the park anymore! So on that particular Saturday afternoon I bumped into Joel, whose birthday it was, at Best Bagels before heading to Tasse-livre, a cafe which I discovered thanks to Milli, Alice and Joel. It's a bookshop come cafe which specialises in fancy hot chocolates and which has wifi. There I met up with Annabelle (from New Zealand) to book our trip to Bruges (after which I will continue onto Berlin to see Zoya and Melissa)!!! Needless to say I stayed in the cafe til late, then it was time for Joel's birthday dinner. Unfortunately Joel had invited quite a few people and hadn't booked anything, so when 14 people rocked up to the designated fountain at 8 o'clock I had my doubts as to whether we'd get in anywhere. Luckily Hippopotamus in Vieux Lyon (a chain of French bistrots) had some tables ready for us in 45mins ... just the right amount of time for an apéritif! The night ended at the péniches, or boat bars on the Rhone, with an even bigger crowd of friends form uni, and a lot of my Sunday was therefore spent sleeping in.
The highlight of the week that followed was the Beaujolais Nouveau. The wine region just outside Lyon is one of the few that has been allowed to release a new wine, just 3 months after harvest. I got to celebrate this festival at the Bar ECAM, which is the student bar at the école (kind of like a uni) that Emily's housemates go to. This bar is lucky enough to have a manager with a vineyard, Quentin, who can supply his very own Beaujolais Nouveau. So I even got to start drinking before midnight and the official release. It reminded me alot of John's and the college bars in Syndey. The night was themed 'soirée du terroir' so they had covered the floor in hay and all the bar tenders were dressed in their farmer's best (gumboots, jeans, scarves and berets, someone had even broken out the overalls!). Just before midnight we headed down to Place Bellecour for the official opening of the barrels and the 450 L of free wine offered to the fine citizens of Lyon. It's too bad the Beaujolais Nouveau is not actually very nice, simply because it's such a young wine. The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with me going to classes, running out of food and getting takeout with Chiara and Sara on a particularly cold Friday night.
Another Birthday Saturday came around, this time it was Rosie's turn (a syndeysider who is currently at ANU). After an afternoon exchange of confusing text messages I ended up sharing some wine and cheese with Will in his little studio apartment in Vieux Lyon before heading down the road to Rose's for her party. It's a four bedroom and apartment, and probably the most spacious one I've seen in Lyon! There was punch and nibbles and cake! and all of Rose's house mates are French so it wasn't even an Anglophone event. The night ended with a few drinks at look bar and a cold walk home. Then came Monday and Angus & Julia Stone! After uni I went straight to Milli and Alice's where we made a rather large batch of bruschetta for the 11 aussies/new zealanders/english/french who were attending the concert. We caught the tram out to the Transbordeur, which is a great venue in the north of Lyon. There's a bar which serves baguettes, beer and wine all night and a large hall with standing room and bench seating. It was pretty packed, and mostly with French people, although we did manage to find some other aussies in the crowd. It was an amazing performance, and after exhausting their 'bonjour' and 'merci's, the band resorted to introducing a few songs in English. My favourite song of the night was an acoustic cover of 'You're the one that I want' from the movie Grease.
On the agenda for this week is: dinner and going to Harry Potter (which has finally come out in France)!!! le Marché des Soies (the silk market), and Les 3 Vallées ski resort sets up a mini ski resort at Place Bellecour. Then on Saturday it's off to Bruges! See you on the flip side!
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