So everyone, I plan on writing one blog a week... usually on Monday. This way you can follow what I am up to here in France. This week started off a little strange. I definately felt some culture shock and stayed locked in the house except for going out with Stephane for lunch and to to walk along the river. We also shopped for some stuff we needed for the house. Not real exciting for the first couple days in Lyon. I will say, once we went into Lyon downtown and went to a STARBUCKS!!!LOL That made me feel right at home. So as I sipped my tall Caramel Macchiato I was a little more relaxed. Ha ha ha I have seen so far, a couple Mc Donalds and a Kentucky Fried CHICKEN!!!! I felt a little better , I guess. How stupid that those things made me feel more at home. Okay so anyway, onto the good stuff.
After my two days in the house , it was Wednesday and also Stephane's birthday. I wanted to get out of the house and buy him a present. I never thought I would be so anxious to go buy a birthday present!! I felt like I was in another world but I really needed to get over this fear and get out and face it. I went for a walk in the park before trying to shop. I figured if I could gather some strength from nature before trying to go near people , it would be good. Also I needed to get a little exercise and this park seemed really neat. So the park is called, Parc Tête d'Or and it is a FREE park with botanical gardens, a zoo and greenhouses. It covers a large part of the inner city of Lyon. I have been there twice and haven't seen hardly any of it. There are pictures in my albums if you would like to check them out. So, after spending some time in the park, I decided to brave the consumer world and go check out this store we had passed called "Botanic". It is AWESOME!!!! I'm serious, I want to live there. It has a pet store, a gardening center with plants from all over the world, a natural foods store, a library and a section where they sell anything from soil to candles to dishes to tables. Fucking awesome! So I wandered around a bit and decided to buy Stephane a book on carniverous plants and also a Venus flytrap. He had expressed some interest in these types of plants before so I thought this was a perfect gift. I also bought him/us a new teapot. I also spent a hell of a lot more money on all sorts of random crap. I hurt my hands carrying it all back ! So I did alright at the cash register. I was polite and just scanned my ATM card. She was saying something else to me in French but I just smiled and hoped she didn't expect a response. So Stephane was very surprised when I gave him his gifts and was proud of me when I told him about my adventure. We had a nice dinner and a yummy cake we had bought from an awesome bakery in Lyon.
On Thursday I spent the day in the house again and then when Steph got out of work we went into downtown Lyon to the Place des Terreaux ( see pics in album). This is where the city hall is which is also called the Hotel de Ville. I also took some pictures of that. We went in search of an american goods store we had heard about from a guy at Starbucks. We had heard they sold bagels there. So this time we found it and bought me a dozen bagels. They are okay but nothing like the NY bagels I'm used to.
On Friday, I spent the day putting some of my stuff away because it had finally been delivered the day before. It's nice to have all my things finally here. It makes me feel much more at home. At 5 I met Steph for a tour of his University (see a pic of my baby at his desk) LOL. Then we went into Monplaisir for dinner at a seafood place called L'ilot Corsaire. The place was interesting but kind of bad service. My first bad restaurant experience in France. I could have made better food.
Then the weekend turned out to be much more interesting. On Saturday we spent all morning at a place called the Marche de la Croix Rousse ( The market of La Croix Rousse) which is a section of Lyon. I almost had an orgasm at the market. We spent only $60 Euros and got shallots, oranges, a grapefruit, avocado, a bunch of basil, raisins, lemons, tomatoes, sunflowers, three kinds of cheeses, broccoli, garlic, three kinds of bread and fresh ground turkey burgers. I swear, I never wanna shop anywhere else. It goes on for miles!! Tons and tons of fresh produce and meats and cheeses and basically whatever else anyone has to sell. After that we had lunch at home and then went out to buy a shelf and a bike for me. Steph was telling me we were going to this one store for a shelf and he kept saying the name "Ickya" or so it sounded. LOL I had no idea it was "Ikea" until we pulled right up on it. LOL So this Ikea is huge like the one in New Haven. It actually sucked ass but we got a cheap shelf for the kitchen and some other stuff. After that we went to buy me some new wheels. I got a flashy new bike with a basket and a new backpack to carry my gear while on long bikerides.
Later on that night I had another adventure which I will write about tomorrow. I've been typing for so fucking long........stay tuned
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