Ah 2020, what a strange and unexpected year! I was planning to do lots of things (as I'm sure everyone was ... duh) like visit my sister in Paris, head to Spain with a friend, check out Amsterdam with one of my girlfriends, head back and see the fam! As Hillary Duff so eloquently said ..... laugh out loud (+10 points if you get the ref)
So after one of my friends suggested we visit her in Lyon, I just about jumped at the possibility to get some fresh air and get my tourist on after those long, couple months stuck at home. Literally. The 14th of July, or la fête nationale here was on a Tuesday so I did what is known as faire le pont or quite literally "make the bridge" between the day off and the weekend to make a nice, long weekend!
My friend Louise and I left Toulouse early Saturday morning with the two others in our covoiturage or carpool. I successfully DJ-ed and GPS-ed us all the way to Lyon and around 5 and a half hours later with only one wrong turn we arrived at the very cute village of St Martin la Plaine where we met our other friend Cassandra for our getaway!
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging by the piscine and catching up before le goûter or snack-time brought to your truly by crêpes and homemade mint chocolate sorbet! Can you say miam ?
That evening, we headed into Lyon and I was def hyped to check another new, French city off my list (especially since the fam had already been sans moi). We parked and got to check out a bit of city near le Rhône river since Lyon actually has two rivers that divide it in half? thirds? Unclear.
We wandered along the banks of the river to the peniches which are barges where you can get food or drinks on the boats themselves or on land right next to it. Cool, right? We met up with a friend of Louise who was a fille au pair with her in New York and another couple of friends who we had met in Toulouse. And then it was (obviously) beer time! Santé!
I look like a child next to my friend's brother!
We headed to a rooftop bar after to end out the night and enjoyed a view over the river and Lyon after waiting a bit in la queue #SocialDistancing am I right?!
The next morning, we slept in a bit (faire la grasse matinée) after our long day. We packed a picnic and then headed to a nearby lake for some fun in the sun! We waited in another line (it's a trend!) and then spent the rest of the après-midi enjoying the beautiful, blue lake.
We played a typical European lawn game called mölkky where basically you chuck a wooden cylinder at other wooden cylinders to try to get exactly 50 points. Aka wicked fun!
We got dressed and then headed back to Lyon to a neighborhood called la Confluence which is like the up-and-coming area with plenty of start-ups and other cool buildings. There was an open-air which I later learned is like a half-opened outside bar, but still slightly covered. It still confuses me when the French take English words and turn them into something new. #FaireLeFooting #UnBrushing
We met up with another group of friends who live/lived in Toulouse and had a fun evening with some food and music before I headed to the countryside to end the evening with a dance party at one of our friend's grandmother's house!
Monday was our last full day in Lyon and we grabbed brunch in town in the quartier called Croix-Rousse which is the Montmartre of Lyon if you get the ref. Brunch was excellent and I was a happy camper with my pancakes, eggs and bacon!
We wandered down into the main part of the city, stopping at little shops here and there and checking out some of the local sites like the other river, La Saône. We ended up in Vieux-Lyon where we grabbed a smoothie and beat the heat since it was about 32°C or 95°F in town! Summer is here in France, and it's no laughing matter!
There was another open-air that night at the same place we were the evening before and we decided to head back over since it was la semaine française or French Week due to the national holiday. We played pétanque to end the evening before heading back to Cass's house.
Tuesday morning, we packed up and packed a pique-nique for one last adventure at the Gorges de la Loire which were gorges-ous (pun definitely intended 😂). We enjoyed the stunning view before heading back on the road, and back into some long weekend traffic to end our vacances.
Lyon was a super cool city and I already want to go back to check out the things we didn't have time to see, and eat!
Aux prochains aventures,
