We're Traboulin' now!

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone's doing well, I'm writing to you this morning from a very rainy Lyon, which I have overheard it's been the rainiest winter here than the past years! Although the rain is sometimes a bit of a bummer, I'd much rather take the rain than the cold back home, haha!

School

Some people have been asking me how classes were going, so I thought I'd update you guys on that! While I'm here in France, I am doing a program called SELF at the University of Lyon 3: Jean Moulin, which is a program designed for anglophones who want to learn more french by taking intensive french courses (based on their level of french), and then the rest of the week take English courses. For me, I have 6 hours of French classes every week, where we practice our speaking, go over grammar and grow our vocabulary. It's been very interesting having a very French and intense teacher for this course, who at times can be very strict and direct which we sometimes we commonly think for teachers here. For example, one time a girl in my class was on her phone after our teacher clearly told the class phones were not allowed out during class time, and when the girl was caught, our teacher (in french) told her if she saw the phone again she would take it for the whole night and she wouldn't get it back until the next day! With my phone being my lifeline out here for getting around and getting in touch with others, I have made sure not to have my phone out!

As for my weekly courses, they have all been in English and have actually been going well so far! This semester I'm taking four elective courses of: Globalization, The European Revolutionary Tide since 1789, Controlling the Narrative and Shakespeare and the Supernatural. All my courses are for the most part interesting, with my favourite two being Revolutionary tide and Shakespeare! Most of my professors for these classes either come from England or the United States, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my Revolutionary professor has the same British accent as John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight. Hearing the cool accents definitely keep the classes interesting and the content of the courses themselves are pretty interesting! The worst part about courses in France is that instead of a Canadian class that is only 1.5 hours long, classes here can be anywhere from 2-4 hours long, with short breaks in between! As much as I love history and learning about the French Revolution, sitting in class for 3-4 hours is way too long!

Last, a required course people in our course has to take is Introduction to French Culture and French Civilization, which is a course about Lyon and France where we learn about the history and culture of where we are living! This past week, we had our first class which was interesting enough learning about the history of Traboules (which I'll talk about in a bit) and more info about Lyon.

Overall, classes are going well and not very hard at all. In France they don't give out very little homework and next to no readings, so it's been pretty laid back so far. For most of my blogs, I will be more focusing on my travelling, but will keep you guys updated on school if anyone is really interested. Otherwise, I'll continue with my travels in France!

Another Trip to Vieux Lyon:

On Saturday, January 20th, a bunch of my friends decided to stay in Lyon for the weekend to visit the other sights we wanted to see. My friend Charlie had his friend Ben, come to Lyon for the weekend so we ended up doing some of the same touristy things as last time. This time, as the weather was so bad, we took a funiculaire up to the top of the Fouvière hill, which is like a little trolley that is able to climb the steep incline to the top of the hill. This was a cool experience to travel in Lyon and definitely a lot easier than climbing all the steps to the top!

Again it was interesting to visit the Basillica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, and see the beautiful architecture at the top. Even the second time around it is so incredible thinking of how long it must have took them to create every small detail of the church, from placing each small tile on the floor, the carvings in the colomns, the paintings on the ceilings all the way to the mosaics on the walls! This time around we ended up also seeing a small art gallery, where young artists incorporated small religious or Lyonnaise inspiration into their art. Really neat to see and admire.

As we were all getting a bit hungry, we headed down the hill and found a little café, where most of us ate delicious Nutella crèpes. So here in Lyon you can get this really cool drink that they sell EVERYWHERE here, that's a specialty winter drink called vin chaud. This is what most of the guys in our group got, which is essentially a hot red wine, that's sweet as it's mixed with fruit, cognac and other ingredients like cinnamon. I tried a sip and it was actually really good, but very strong so be careful how many you drink, haha! The really cool thing was as we continued walking through Vieux Lyon, I kept noticing little outdoor food stands who were selling vin chaud casually from big, hot pots for only 2 euros!

After some food, we took to the streets of Vieux Lyon to "Go Traboulin'" as my American friends kept saying. In the older parts of Lyon, they have these hidden passageways throughout the city, which lead from one street to the other. Hidden behind doors, visitors can find passageways that show off beautiful architecture, spiraling staircases and gorgeous courtyards. In an article from France Today, they say,

"the word traboule comes from the Latin word, meaning “to cross”, and the first of them may have been built as early as the 4th century. As the Roman Empire disintegrated, the residents of early Lyon—Lugdunum (original name of the city), the capital of Roman Gaul—were forced to move from the Fourvière hill to the banks of the river Saône when their aqueducts began to fail. The traboules grew up alongside their new homes, linking the streets that run parallel to the river Saône and going down to the river itself.For centuries they were used by people to fetch water from the river and then by craftsmen and traders to transport their goods."

Another really interesting thing about the Traboules, is that during World War 2 when Germany was invading France, the citizens of Lyon used the Traboules to hide and move freely around the Germans and additionally use them for Resistance activity. This was something I found very interesting, so walking down this courtyards it was cool to think of all the things these passageways were used for and the things they might have seen!

(Left: not the most high quality of video, but this will give you an idea of what the traboules look like as you walk through them. SKIP TO 1:30 IN THE VIDEO)

(Right: If you're interested here is a old video from supposedly 1961 of people touring through the traboules, just thought it was a cool comparison)

At the Lyon Tourism Building in Bellecour, we picked up a map and did our exploring old school style by following the map and trying to find as many traboules as we could see! Although we got lost a couple times, it was definitely something to do while here in Lyon and I loved exploring some of the little stores along the way! My friend Meagan and I got our first French macaroons from a little patisserie, which were delicious, our group found a small book store selling 100+ year old, beautifully bound books that you could buy on all sorts of subjects and I even found a print drawing of the city of Lyon to hang up in my residence room! But was it was getting late, we all went home and rested up for our outing the next day.

The one and only: Paul Bocuse

On Sunday, January 21, my friends and I headed to Les Halles de Lyon- Paul Bocuse is a indoor market place that displays some of the best French and Lyonnaise gastronomy around, approved by the famous chef Paul Bocuse. Inside there are dozens of food "booths" displaying anywhere from intricate desserts, fresh oysters, fresh meats, organic vegetables and thousands of flavours of cheese! Paul Bocuse got his claim to fame studying under another famous chef, coining the term nouvelle cuisine and creating an empire around his cooking. Since day one, our teachers have been telling us to check out Paul Bocuse's restaurants or marketplace, and the weird thing is the day we go, Paul Bocuse had passed away the day before at the age of 91! Apparently, my friend was telling me that the marketplace was way busier this time around probably with people wanting to pay their respects. Overall, the marketplace was very cool to visit and see all the different types of food.

My Pink Burger I believe I've said this before, but one of the biggest things we have to adjust to while we're here in France is that most stores and restaurants close on Sunday. As our group was getting really hungry, we decided to find the first place that was open which ended up being this gourmet burger chain. Here they asked how we would like our burger to be done and so I said to the worker "médium rare", and he replies with "rosé?". I ask him in French does "rosé mean medium rare, like a bit pink inside" and he replies "oui". However, when my burger came to the table and I took a big bite out of it, I was shocked to find that my burger was completely rare! With only a little brown on the outside, biting into a rare hamburger is like eating a mouthful of soft meat which is not the texture you want when eating a hamburger! In the future, I will be sure to learn to only ask for a medium burger, haha!

Although we were only staying in Lyon for the weekend, it was great to see some of the sights we hadn't seen before and get to explore more of our city! Miss you guys lots and I'll be sure to write soon about this weeks trip to Annecy!

-Tori