Paradis, Church and Ketchup - October 1, 2008

Okay folks....new blog finally. I already wrote about the beginning of the week with the frolicking fornicators and the Visa denial. On to better things. Thursday and Friday when Steph wasn't working we explored in and around Lyon. We went to some places like the Rose garden at the Parc tête d'or (my new favorite place : see pics) and also visited Fourviere twice which is this old church on top of the tallest hill in Lyon. From there you can see all of Lyon (see pics). I rode a "funicular" for the first time in my life. A funicular is like a railroad car on a track/pulley and it takes you straight up the side of the hill in Lyon to Fourviere. It was completely strange but took all of two minutes to reach our destination at the top of the hill. This trip would have totally sucked walking uphill. It sucked walking downhill it was so steep. But there is a really neat path down so we decided to walk doan. So anyway, also on the top of the hill is an ancient Roman Ampitheater which we also visited. It's from a time when the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) was in France. I guess they still have theater and concerts there so we plan on attending one sometime soon. While in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) we visited the church of St. Jean, which I guess is the oldest church in Lyon and dates back to the early 12th century. Big fucking deal. But it was pretty and I got good pictures. But you know, my skin starts to itch if I stay in churches for very long so we didn't stay long . They had some crazy old clock in there and we waited for a certain time for it to do something and all that happened was one of the creepy statues moved it's head and I missed it because I was looking away at that exact second. God is SO fucking funny! LOL So after that we also had some rockin' ice cream at this famous place. Let me tell you my ice cream "plate" cost Steph $7 euros which is like ten bucks american and I have never had better ice cream in my life. YUM! And then we just walked around the cute little part of the city where we saw very cute restaurants and people smoking tabac (tobacco) out of hookahs in the public square. It would have been cooler if it was weed, but hey, this isn't Amsterdam. LOL So also during those two days we went to a cute little island part of Lyon which is in the Saône river. It's called L' île Barbe which means Beard Island. It's adorable and there are pics of it in the albums. Very cute and there were at least two different groups of people smoking weed there. I guess it's the "Spot" in Lyon. Every place has one. Needless to say, I'm jealous.

So on Saturday we went to the Marche de la Croix Rousse ( The Market of Croix Rousse : our saturday grocery ritual now)and then we went off to the Beaujolais wine region. The harvest started earlier that week. We drove through several towns and visited several different places along the way. We drove through the towns of Villefranche, Cogny, La Varenne, La Mure, Letra and Beaujeu. I saw forests and vineyards and cows and wine harvesters and goats and fromageries (cheese shops) and grapes being squeezed and transported and picked. We stopped at a place right outside of Letra called "La cave des Vignerons du Doury" which is a shop and factory for making wine. It's a commune of the grape growers of three surrounding areas who pool their harvest and produce several different beaujolais villages wines. Since we were there at the very beginning we were able to taste the "Paradis" which is the first grapes from the harvest. It's like slightly alcoholic grape juice and was very yummy. We were waiting around and listening to this women's entire boring schpeal about the wines and so we decided to give up waiting to taste some actual wine, grabbed two bottles of the wine and got the fuck out of there. It's like this game you have to play with the woman. She doesn't want to let everyone just taste wine without buying. Whatever, it was cheap , about $4 euros a bottle so we just bought it and left. And tasted it ourselves later on that night. Yummy! They don't ship to the US otherwise I would have sent some home to all you lovely people. So the entire day was spent driving around the countryside and enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather. Cool old graveyards (see pics) and towns. Grannies looking out windows and people biking through the countryside. Hippies and Frenchies working the grape harvest. Celebrations dedicated to harvest. It was a dream come true.

The last couple days Sunday through today have spent mostly just being lazy and riding my bike. Lying around in the park and trying to figure out what to do about the Visa situation. On Monday when we went to lunch I was "outed" as an American by the guy at the restaurant. LOL let me explain. Since I speak virtually no French, Stephane has to order food for me and such and translate everything (thanks baby!) so I always just tell him what to ask the waiters about certain things. Well, we had ordered Etouffe de Boeuf (beef stew= proof that everything sounds better in French) and Frites (fries). Well, I wanted ketchup with my fries and I KNOW it doesn't come with it normally and also they NEVER have it on the table like in America. So Stephane asked him for it , and they exchanged another couple words. Then the waiter repeated our order and said " Et ketchup pour Americain (and ketchup for the American)" and winked at me and smiled. LOL Steph obviously hadn't said I was American. I just laughed out loud and said "Oui". So I guess only Americans order ketchup with their fries. I thought it was cute how he was so nice about it. I always heard Frenchies hated Americans but this is clearly not the case. He wasn't snobby or rude. It was playful, like we both knew the same secret. I actually have found most Frenchies to be very nice and extremely outgoing. I haven't experienced any more snobbishness than under any other circumstances. They actually smile quite a bit and greet you when you pass on the street. It's quite nice. I'm having a great time despite being worried about the Visa situation. Next week we are headed to Paris for a couple days because Steph has to evaluate some lab up there. I get free time during the day while he is working. I'm thinking maybe I will go to the Botanical Gardens and perhaps the Louvre. We will see. Then we are travelling home on Friday and flying out the naxt day to Bordeaux for the wedding of a colleague of Steph's and staying overnight. That should be quite interesting. Then we have a trip planned for the week of his school break at the end of October for Toulouse , which is where his parents and sister live. It is in the very south of France and we will be driving down. So I will get my first glimpse of the Mediterranean sea. I can't wait. Also, we will see all of the countryside and some of the coast, plus we will probably take a side trip to the Pyrénées mountain range which starts very near his parents home.