Our first visitors & a visit to the zoo

In July my cousin Cameron and his girlfriend Moana came to stay with us for a couple days as our first official guests. At the end of January James and I had met up with Cam in Banff where he's lived for over five years. Since he knew he was going to be in Europe to see Moana we had a tentative plan to meet up and it worked out! They were doing a little European road trip before Moana had to go back to university in Austria and they came to visit us in Lyon on their way back to her parents' house in Germany. 

We had a chilled out Sunday afternoon/evening with drinks and dinner on the balcony before a solid night of sleep. They had mostly been camping in their van so they were pretty pumped at seeing the futon in our living room!

The next day we headed out after lunch for quite the trek around the city. We started out in Vieux Lyon, made our way up many-a-stair to Croix Rousse where we stopped for a beer, then carried on down some more epic steps to stroll the banks of the Saône, and finishing up with a visit to the Parc de la Tête d'Or to check out the impressive (and free) zoo.

The zoo has so many different animals you can't quite believe you're in Lyon. Above the photo of the bear (who was relieving himself when I took it - apologies) is a photo of the former cage they used to display bears in at the zoo. Pretty shocking to think about how awfully the animals were treated back then, though even today I feel unsure about animals on display outside of their natural environments. One thing I will say for this zoo is that it is in a humongous park and doesn't really feel overly artificial for the large animals. Feel free to check out the (French) website: http://www.zoo.lyon.fr/zoo/

We were completely exhausted after walking all day so we took some naps to recuperate. Then after eating some dinner we headed out to a social meetup that James and I have been going to most Monday nights which is put on by Couchsurfing.org. This site is kind of like a mix between AirBnB and Facebook in the sense that you can host travelers or find couches to sleep on but also hear about social events and other things happening in the city. James and I have met a lot of people through CS and since there is always a mix of French people and foreigners it was perfect to bring Cam and Moana to. Cam got to practice his French from back in the day, Moana met another German girl from a place near her hometown and as usual, we enjoyed some cold ones. Great visit, maybe we'll do it again next summer!

July 14: La Fête nationale

We all know that Canada Day is July 1 and that Independence Day is July 4, but did you know that only ten days after that is France's national celebration? Anglophones call it Bastille Day, but it is known here as le quatorze juillet. Historically this date is significant because in 1789 it marked the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris during the French Revolution. However the date was also chosen to commemorate the same day of the following year, 1790, which was the Fête de la Fédération, a dinner that marked the end of the revolution and united France once again. 

This national holiday has been celebrated since 1880, and the tradition includes a military parade in Paris that has been around since the holiday's inception, live music in the streets and of course, fireworks! There is one other event that occurs is on the eve of the 14th, called le bal des pompiers, which is the Fireman's ball. These balls occur all over the city and are essentially dance parties run by firemen with donations going towards the firehalls where they work. Unfortunately we missed out on the night of the 13th, but we did not miss the big day.

We started our afternoon by checking out some free electronic music in a park that was conveniently selling beer and hot dogs, so we got in line. As someone fairly well acquainted with hot dogs and the street meat of Toronto, I was pleasantly surprised when we were handed ours: they were in baguettes. So French! I loved it. After chilling out in the park we headed to Vieux Lyon before meeting up with our friend François and his friend Eun-ji for some Thai food. (It was not to the calibre of Toronto's Thai food, but it was still nice to have some pad-thai after many months.) 

After dinner the streets were starting to get busier with people coming out to listen to live bands and reserving their sidewalk space to watch the fireworks. The show was being put on from from Fourvière so we picked up a few cans of beer and sat in wait for an hour on the Pont Bonaparte as the sun went down. Finally around 10:30pm the lights of the basilica went out and the show began!

While my photos do not do any justice to the impressive display in the sky that we were privy to, I was able to capture the mass exodus post-fireworks.

We opted to walk home that night to avoid the madness in the metro but we definitely had a great day experiencing the ways of the French national holiday.

Day trip to the French countryside? Don't mind if we do!

After our trip to Paris and getting our fill of the big city, our roommate Galaad offered to take us on a day trip around the area he grew up in about an hour and a half from Lyon. James and I took him up on his offer and booked train tickets to enjoy some countryside. Now brace yourselves for a quick geography lesson... 

France is separated into 27 different régions (including five overseas French territories) which are comparable to provinces/territories/states, and each of these is split into départements, 96 in total, which are similar to counties/municipalities. We caught our train to the tiny town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin which straddles the department boundaries of Isère and Savoie. Lyon, for the record, is in the Rhône department to the west of these two. All three of these, however, are part of the Rhône-Alpes region (as shown in the map above in the teal colour near the bottom right). Aside from departments having names, each one also has a number assigned to it based on alphabetical order. These numbers precede postal codes, so for example since the department number for Rhône is 69, my postal code is 69001. Still with me?

Galaad picked us up at the station and drove us past the town his parents live in, Saint-Béron, on our way to see the stunning Lac d'Aiguebelette. It is one of the largest lakes in France and in summer it is also the warmest. There are no motors allowed on the lake and it is used by the international rowing community for training and competitions. I was in no way prepared for the beauty of this place and felt quite overwhelmed at the sight of it. The sharp colour of the water against the backdrop of the mountain was breathtaking, and the thought that Galaad grew up just minutes away from this incited some minor jealousy! He had prepared for us a delightful picque-nique composed of an entire roast chicken, salads, baguette and cheese (naturally) and chocolate cake. It was divine. James and I took many a photo and also dipped our feet into the lake. If only we'd brought swimsuits! 

After lunch we drove around the entire lake taking in countless amazing views before heading to our next destination: Voiron and the Chartreuse distillery. Chartreuse is a liqueur made from herbs and plants which was accidentally discovered by the monks who created it when they were trying to create a health elixir in the 18th century. It is produced in two varieties, green (55%) and yellow (40%), the former having quite a strong taste. If you want to know more about it, check out the website here: http://www.chartreuse.fr/history-of-the-liqueurs;article;40;uk.html. Incredibly they offer a free tour of the distillery which includes a tasting at the end (they even refuse tips, much to James' delight) so we lined right up for the next one which was conveniently five minutes after our arrival. 

Opting for something a little less intense, I bought us a bottle of raspberry liqueur from their store that a couple of weeks later we mixed with white wine to make a kir, a cocktail normally made with blackberry liqueur (but it tasted just as delicious with raspberry I assure you). Next we were off on the narrow, winding roads of the Parc naturel régional de Chartreuse surrounded by mountains and trees and barely any other vehicles. Our destination was the Réserve Naturelle des Hauts de Chartreuse to do a little nature walk and check out some waterfalls. We wanted countryside, and we got it.

If only we could come out here all the time! Absolutely gorgeous and quiet and relaxing. But of course after a long day we were ready for some more food, and luckily Galaad had organized a dinner out with some of his longtime friends. Back on the road again, we were on schedule to meet them at Le Café Crepe at 8pm in Miribel-les-Échelles until without warning we came to a detour in the road - but with no actual detour route. The only option was to turn entirely around and backtrack from where we'd just come from! Unfortunate but manageable. We got there about 20 minutes late but it was no matter, we were about to have a life-changing moment: eating real French fondue. It is traditionally served in winter here (same thing with crepes and other delicious specialties; don't ask me why anyone would deny themselves this treat for more than half the year) but we broke that rule and devoured copious amounts of melted cheese with bread on skewers...

When the pot gets low on fondue, you crack an egg into the remaining cheese and stir it in to properly finish off every last bit. Even though we had no room left in our stomachs, James and I somehow topped off our heavy dinner with a dessert of giant eclairs. I pretty much fell asleep under the weight of the food as soon as I got back into Galaad's car, and was happy to wake up pulling up to our apartment in Lyon around midnight. Knowing how much more there is to see in other surrounding departments and regions we can't wait to keep exploring! And let's be honest, eating.