Hello from Florence, where we have returned to the amazing qwerty keyboard!
The last few days have been pretty hectic, and there was no internet cafe nearby our hotel in Lyon, hence the lack of updates, sooo…here we go!
On our last full day in Paris, we started out by going to Sacre Coeur, which was right near our hotel (though inevitably we had to climb another huge hill and another 3857293 stairs to get there). From there we went to the Science and Industry museum where–I know, I couldn’t believe it either–there was a Star Wars exhibit for only 3 euro!
So of course Cameron and I had to go. It was awesome! They had ships and costumes and stuff from the movies, which was really cool, and fun French video clips, and all of the novels translated into French. Heh. We had a good geeky day.
On the way back, a guy tried to pickpocket Bov on the metro (raise your hand if you’re surprised!) All the guy got was Bov’s umbrella, which he very politely returned.
From there we headed back to the center of the city, where we went to Musee D’Orsay, Les Invalides, and then had a picnic dinner at the Jardin du Luxembourg. That night we finally took a boat down the Seine (we found a coupon for it on the ground!) and then wandered past the Louvre so we could see the pyramid lit up.
Our train to Lyon left Paris at 2 p.m. on the 5th, so we went to Versailles in the morning for, um, about two hours. We only had time to wander around the grounds, but man, that is an impressive palace. No wonder everybody hated the monarchy–I think that between Versailles and the Louvre, there was about twice as much square footage as every other building in Paris combined.
On our first night in Lyon, we walked to the Radisson, which bills itself as the tallest hotel in Europe, and sat in the bar until it looked like the waiter might make us order a 12€ margarita. The view was, in fact, really good, but not good enough to spend a day’s worth of food money on.
Our hotel in Lyon was not as bad as we’d expected (pretty bad, considering the comments we saw online and the fact that it was only 60€ a night for a triple room). The old guy who ran it was a little sketchy, and he also ran a bar next door called “Le Petit Bar,” which appeared to be the domain of a lot of little old ladies and one 50-something man who kindly invited Steph and me to his home. Thanks!
We slept in late the next day and then walked up another huge hill, at the top of which we found the Basilica of Fourviere, which was basically what the Paris cathedrals would look like if they’d been painted by Martha Stewart–even the crypt was decked out in pastel paint. The church itself had frescoes from floor to ceiling.
There were also some Roman ruins on top of the hill, so we hung out there for a while before coming back down the hill to find dinner.
We got back to the hotel pretty early and played cards until we were interrupted by a knock. I got up to see who it was, and a guy standing outside our door with a bag said, “Hi, I’m your neighbor who speaks English. I bring you a gift of fruit.”
I blinked, then let him in. We got to talking, as people in awkward situations often do, and it turned out that he’s a graduate of Pitzer College–one of the schools that shares a campus with my school (Pomona). He was in Europe because he couldn’t get back into the U.S…we didn’t really inquire deeply into the subject. He was waiting for his appointment at the U.S. Embassy–in October. But he hung around for a while until we had to go to sleep, because the train to Annecy left at 7 a.m. the next day.
We decided to go to Annecy because a) we were bored of Lyon and b) Steph and I had read about it in our French textbooks a thousand years ago. It was only about a two-hour train ride from Lyon, so we could have a pretty full day there.
Annecy is sort of like the French version of Wisconsin’s Lake Geneva, except that it is cleaner, less crowded, less slummy, has classier stores, a much nicer lake, and ancient castles and churches, and is, you know, in the Alps. So basically it is nothing like Lake Geneva, except that it’s a weekend retreat for locals and has a lake, but it’s the best comparison I can think of.
We rented a pedal boat for a little while, walked up yet another hill, then went swimming in the (cold) lake. We got very, very sunburned, but it was beautiful out, so it was okay.
Now we are in Florence, and it is time for me to go outside instead of blogging, so, I will write more later.
(Today I ate my 9th cheese sandwich of the trip. It’s hard to be a cheap vegetarian.)
–Amanda
