Lyon, The Most Underrated City in France

Waking Up Wednesday morning to a text saying my only class for the day was cancelled put me in a fabulous mood! I was able to spend all day relaxing with friends and even made homemade peroogies! I used ricotta instead of cottage cheese for the inside but they ended up still tasting amazing!

Thursday I decided to go to Lyon with my friends and went to open a French bank account… we had to make an appointment to set up an account so we decided to go back on Friday after school.

Friday morning I had a class on the European Union and it turned out to be my favorite class that I am taking! I can’t wait to understand this craziness a bit better! After class we decided it’d be better to leave early Saturday for Lyon than late Friday and save about $40 each on the hotel for one less night.

Around 8am Saturday morning we were off to one of the most underrated cities in France. Arriving in Lyon, seeing the beautiful French buildings, the metro, the tram, and the beautiful churches, I knew it was going to be an amazing two days. We went to another “kebab” shop to save money for lunch then hopped on the metro and headed to the center of the city. Walking out of the metro, which was extremely clean, we instantly saw a Ferris wheel and a big open square surrounded by beautiful French architecture. There was a huge protest going on in the square at the time so we kept walking when we arrived at a huge river. Across the river was one of the most beautiful sites I had ever seen. There was a big city on a hill with the “Notre Dame Basilique” at the very top. We crossed the bridge and began our journey up the hill to see this beautiful place. On the way we passed another huge church with beautiful architecture and three red doors to get in. I was mind blown and I had only been in this city for less than two hours. On the way up the hill we stopped at an overlook of the city and again I was speechless. We had a perfect view of the river, the bridges, the buildings, and the whole atmosphere. It was absolutely astonishing. Upon further continuation up the hill, we ran into beautiful roman ruins. It was like a theater set up. This city was not going to let me take a breath even for a second. Seeing the stone mixed with the green grass in a stadium set up made me feel like I had entered a whole new world. We continued further and reached the basilique. Hearing a man play the accordion set the mood to bring me back to the realization that I was in France about to enter one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Each inch of the walls on the inside and outside of the church were covered with detail that would take days to even be able to fully see each part. I couldn’t imagine how long it took to build it. Once we entered the church, there were candles everywhere and beautiful colored stain glass windows the architecture being even more detailed and mind-blowing than the outside. We spent a good amount of time trying to grasp the moment and beauty of the basilique before we headed on our way back down the hill. Once we arrived at the bottom we found a street that was just bursting with excitement! An irish pub to our left flowing with people, an old Moroccan store to our right, a guy making crepes on the left again, and so much more. It was so lively and full of new things. Finally, on the left we found what we were looking for, an ancient “traboule” aka underground passageway that used to take the silk makers from their shops to the merchants between the streets. It was cool to see, although we only ever found that one, as they were a bit hard to find. I felt like I was back in the old days walking through the traboule. After this it was getting late and we thought it was a good time to head back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. We took the metro to get to “Chinatown” which was supposedly the third biggest Chinatown in France after the two in Paris. However, after we got off the metro, we all felt a bit funny as if we had entered the ghetto. It had an odd atmosphere and we walked a street over and found this “big Chinatown” which was actually only a small intersection with some restaurants and some lanterns hung over the streets. After scouting out china restaurant, a china buffet, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a thai restaurant, we decided to eat the first Chinese restaurant we had seen. We all decided to order “Nems” which we thought were eggrolls and then everyone ordered something different. When the “Nems” came, we were pleasantly surprised with some of the best eggrolls we had ever had. Following the nems, my “chicken fried rice” came to the table. Unfortunately, their chicken fried rice is different than in the states. I was handed a plate with white rice in one part, fried chicken (or some type of gross meat) beside that, a carrot beside that, a cucumber, and some onions beside that. It was awful! Luckily, everyone else had picked some pretty awesome meals and we laughed about my plate and had a great time! After that, we took the metro to the “Croix Rousse” thinking there were a bunch of bars where we could grab a quick drink before heading to bed, but we only found a small bar after walking a good while then grabbed a drink and jumped on the metro about 10 minutes before it closed for the night at midnight. We were exhausted and headed to bed thinking we had seen everything we wanted to see in Lyon, but when we woke up in the morning and checked the internet, we realized we had missed some things. We headed back to the “Croix Rousse” to find the famous “chokolat” which was a chocolate store with a wall of liquid chocolate. I bought the most amazing chocolate bar I have ever had in my life then we headed through a small French Sunday market and saw the things they had to offer. It was mostly produce and vegetables with a few flowers and then one man was selling flavored “nougat.” We tasted a sample and it was amazing but we had all just bought chocolate and did not buy anything from him. Afterwards, we thought it would be cool to walk through Lyon to find the Opera House instead of taking the metro again. On our way we passed this colorful wall of graffiti that looked awesome. We stopped there and took some pictures and relaxed for a bit together. Finally we started walking again and came to the Hotel de Ville. Again, I couldn’t believe how breathtaking this site was. We took pictures and just admired the place before continuing to the other side of this enormous structure. On the other side was another big open square with one of the most beautiful roman fountains I have ever seen in my life. There were restaurants on one side of the square with the “musee des beaux arts” on the other side. It was beautiful. We were all hungry so we continued on to find a restaurant. It was absolutely beautiful outside so we wanted to find a place to sit outside, but, as the French like to spend 2-3 hours on lunch, its hard to ever find a place to eat so we settled in this cute little restaurant that specialized in muscles. Everyone ordered muscles except me, because I wanted a chicken that was cooked in sour cream, cheese, and some other tasty dishes. We also had unlimited free fries that were unbelievably delicious. Everyone agreed that altogether it was one of the best meals we have had since arriving in France. It was so nice to sit down and relax and enjoy each others company like the French do. Afterwards, we set out to find the opera, only to realize that it had been right beside the hotel de ville the whole time but we hadn’t noticed because we had been blown away by the beauty of the hotel de ville. Unfortunately we could not enter the opera and it was nothing too exciting to see. However, there were some men playing music and breakdancing right beside it so we enjoyed their “show” for a bit then headed back and were on our way back home to Vichy. Lyon was not a place I had ever planned to visit, but is definitely underrated by those visiting France. It has the city atmosphere and is lively like most places one would visit, but has less people, and is cleaner than most cities. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this dreamland and would highly suggest this trip to anyone who is travelling to France.