Geneva, Switzerland

I've been kind of a shut in these days. That's probably due to the fact that all of my friends are students and with exams looming, none of them have time to go out. So when I noticed I had the weekend off (a rarity in my line of work) I decided to take advantage and do what it is that I came here to do: travel! Since I only had Saturday and Sunday off, I knew I had to stay relatively close to home but I was itching to get out of France. I found a return train ticket to Geneva online for €36. Without thinking twice I bought it and proceeded to book a night at the Geneva youth hostel. Just like that! I'm in Switzerland.

I arrived early Saturday morning and made my way to the Vielle Ville (Old city). The streets were all lit up in preparation for the holidays and stores were jam packed with people buying Christmas gifts. Every ten steps, I passed a chocolate shop. I was in heaven.In the Vielle Ville I noticed that there were tons of kids running around in 17th century costumes. As I walked a bit more, I saw some adults dressed the same way on horses. I asked a woman in costume what was going on and she tried to explain to me that this weekend was the celebration of L'Escalade. Apparently, something really awesome happenned to the people of Geneva back in 1602, and now they get dressed up every December to commemorate it.As ususal, I did my thing and walked around town; took too many pictures and then tried to justify to myself that it was acceptable to eat nothing but chocolate for lunch.On Sunday morning, I woke up and it was snowing. Only a little bit, but it was still significant, as it was the first snow I had seen all winter. Since on Sunday all the stores were closed (I guess it's a Eurpoean thing and not only the French do it) I decided to learn a bit more about the country and I visitied the International Museum of the Red Cross. Super interesting stuff. On the way there I was surprised to walk by the international headquarters of the United Nations. Crazy! You really never know what's around the corner in Europe.My aftfernoon consisted of even more culture when I visited an exhibit on the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. He made some pretty cool stuff in the 50s and 60s. At 5pm, the bells at Saint Pierre Cathedral were going off like mad so I stuck around the Old Town to see what was up. What was up was a crazy long parade with everyone dressed in their 1602 gear marching around town.Geneva is a beautiful city. I hope to return to Switzerland soon and visit more ofthe country. But I only had two days, so that's how I spent my weekend.

Fete des Lumières

Each year the city of Lyon comes together to give thanks to Mary. Back in the 1600s, Mary began protecting the people of Lyon from the plague. Now, each year that the plague doesn't return, Lyon celebrates by hosting a festival of lights. The people of Lyon show their gratitude by putting candles on their window sills. Tourists flock to the city to see the light shows, projections and installation art all over Lyon. Personally, I found the festivities to be rather amazing. This being my first Fete des Lumières, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. If I had to use one word to describe it, that word would have to be magical. From the projections on the facades of old churches to the garden of neon flowers "planted" on the montée of the Croix-Rousse, the city was definitely illuminated from the Rhone to the Saone and beyond. Imaginations were running at full speed trying to decipher the lit up creations before us. It lasted four nights, which was just long enough for me to see everything I wanted to see. And short enough for me not to pour buckets of water on the thousands of tourists below my living room window (though it was so tempting...) Here's a look at some of the events taking place in Lyon last weekend:

The Deluxe Virtual Tour

Here's a much cooler look into my new home!

My New Apartment

Better late than never...

We've been here for two months but now it's time for the big reveal. Finally furnished and ready to be photographed, here is my new home! It's located in a really old building in Vieux Lyon. It's got charm and character and we were really lucky to have found it.

Thanksgiving in Lyon

How hard can it be to find a turkey in Lyon? Not as hard as one would imagine, however... off-season birds are crazy expensive and need to be specially ordered. So, instead of attempting to cook my first turkey and no doubt probably ruin 50€ worth of dinde, I decided that the 9 of us would eat 3 big tasty chickens for dinner.

It was kind of a big deal since the French don't celebrate Thankgiving. There were lots of questions that I tried my best to answer why do you celebrate Thanksgiving? and Why do you and the U.S. celebrate at different times etc. I tried my best to answer, and I think we even got some help from wikepedia. But after the history lesson, we ate! There was salad, mashed potatoes, carrots (thanks mom for the awesome recipe, I think they came out alright), green beans lots of wine and great dessert. I can't take all of the credit, my awesome friends helped out a lot (in the true spirit of Thanksgiving).

After we pigged out, we decided to watch the Thanksgiving episode of Friends with Brad Pitt. Such a good episode. We ate, we laughed and I think/hope that their first Thanksgiving was a memorable one. Here are some leftovers from my thanksgiving for those of you who couldn't be there.

Journée de Star Wars

A long time ago in my apartment far far away, I was getting to know more about my roommates (Valentin and Eimear) and it blew my mind that they had never seen any of the Star Wars films. The rest of the gang at rue Ferrandiere hadn’t seen them either, or at least not any of the first ones. I took it upon myself to change that and introduce them all to Luke, Han and Leia during a Star Wars Day Marathon in my new apartment. It took place months later, and sadly Eimear wasn't there. Once Jeremy showed up in his Darth Vader helmet it was on! We started a bit late on a Sunday afternoon so we only got through A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. But as an old Jedi master would say “much progress we have made!”They seemed to enjoy the films and look forward to watching the four others….eventually. The plan was to get pizzas between films but since no one delivers to my neighborhood (only downfall of my awesome new apartment) we went downstairs and picked up Subway to refuel us for the second film. It was a success! Fun was had by all. Next step... show the French what Thanksgiving is like.

What do you wanna do today? I dunno, let's go to Vienne!

I had the day off yesterday, so Sarah and I decided to hop on a train and check out Vienne. It's about 30kms away from Lyon, just a short train ride away. It's a charming old Roman town with tons of history, a couple of ruins and a kick-ass jazz festival each summer.

The weather was kind of iffy, but we made the best of it. We walked around the town and decided to make our way to the fine arts museum, only to find out it would be closing in a few minutes for lunch (I always forget about that). So we decided to go for a stroll and grab a long lunch.

After our chicken curry, steak haché and Sarah's chocolate mousse - or Verrine d'Automne (Automn in a glass?) we played a little game I like to call....Ultimate Tourist.

With our map in tow, we hit up the following:

We took pictures along the Rhone river
Saint-Maurice Cathedral (It was pretty nice in there)Archaeological Gardens
Museum of Fine Arts
(Most. Clutterred. Museum. Everrrr.) Mont Pipet and the Antique Theatre

It's a really charming city. I think I speak for both of us when I say a good time was had by all. I love that all this can be done by hopping on a train. Only a 15 minute train ride away, yet it's a completely different environment. Just one of the many things I love about France.