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.

First of the month

Okay guys, I'm back. I've got a fully furnished apartment with functioning internet service. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but with work, the move, the film festival and my new friends... I've found it difficult to find the time to sit still and write a few paragraphs. But that's all gonna change! It's a new month (I can't believe it's already November)and Sarah's here! We'll be getting into all kinds of trouble in the next couple of weeks which I'll be sure to inform you of. So get ready, because it's gonna be a crazy month. Pictures and anecdotes of our shenanigans to follow!

Rue Saint Jean

I love the 7 minutes it takes for me to get from the metro station back to my apartment. During those few minutes, I constantly find myself eavesdropping on the dozens of English-speaking voices walking along-side me. I wonder where they’re from, why they chose to visit Lyon. I also wonder what they think of the city and I hope that they get a chance to see more than just the touristy parts. I also, love the look of shock on tourists’ faces when they struggle to ask me for directions using the little French they do know, only for me to respond to them in perfect English. Just one of the many reasons I love my new neighborhood.

Downside… my street sucks if I’m ever in a rush. Tourists love to take their time strolling down the street with their cameras in tow, eating their crepes and their croissants while admiring the architecture and it gets kind of tough navigating through the heavy flow of foot traffic monopolizing the narrow road. I don't blame them... there are tons of beautiful things to see. Not to mention the array of different street performers at any given moment. I'm not complaining, just pointing a few things out. I love my new neighborhood, and I wish you were here.

Vive le 5e arrondisment!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just because I'm not eating turkey tonight, and no one in this city has ever really witnessed a Thanksgiving dinner other than on Friends, doesn't mean that I can't acknowledge one of my favourite holidays and give thanks. So here are some things that I'm thankful for.

Finding my apartment. Even if it didn't have hot water for over a week, and we barely had a fridge...and we still don't have our own internet connection. I love the place AND I'm not homeless.

The middle-eastern epiceries that are open really late and sell almost everything. These are the closest thing I've got to an all night depanneur and has come in handy several times, especially on Sundays.

My roommates. For a couple of 20 year olds, they're pretty handy guys. If it weren't for them I'd still be at the bottom of my staircase trying to figure out how to move all my stuff up four windy flights of stairs sans elevator.

High-speed internet. It doesn't seem so long ago that we were using dial-up, there was no such thing as YouTube and there wasn't button for accepting or ignoring people who wanted to be your friend. But times have changed, and I am thankful for this because technology has allowed me to keep in touch with the ones I love, even all the way from France; and with just the click of a button. So, thank you Microsoft.

My friends. That goes without saying. You guys are my everything. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this if it weren't for you. I miss you everyday. A huge part of me wishes you could be living out this adventure right by my side. But I guess I'll just have to wait until you all come and visit!

My family. As crazy as we might seem at times, I know that we would do anything for one another. Sometimes my family plays out like one from an early-nineties sitcom, but that's just one of the many things that I love about them. I love you all. Admit it, you love 'em too.

Feel free to add a comment and let me know what you guys are thankful for.

Enjoy your turkey dinners everyone!

P.S. I will be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on the second Sunday of November. I'm calling it French Thanksgiving or Franksgiving. We'll see if it catches on. (OMG, that's so lame, I can't believe I actually typed that. I'm gonna keep in it anyways)

IKEA via public transportation: Impossible? Nope.

My big strong roommates are so nice that they went to Ikea to furnish our naked apartment. They were fortunate enough to have a giant van at their disposal. They hauled chairs, tables and beds up the stairs while I was busy working all week. But now, they are in school full time and there was a bunch of things that I didn't ask them to pick up for me. So I was faced with the challenging task of going to Ikea by myself using nothing but my two legs, two arms and Lyon's public transportation system.

The first thing you should know about this Ikea is that it isn't even in Lyon. It's in Saint Priest which is about 45 minutes away. For you Montrealers, I reckon it's the same as taking the bus and metro from Pointe Claire to the South Shore (No fun). I got on the metro 5 mins from my place and rode it for about 10 stops (or 25 mins). I then got off the metro and ventured up to street level to catch the tramway -- which is basically an above ground metro. It's like a bus, only it runs on rails and you have no contact with the driver. You just validate you ticket in a machine once you're on board. Then I proceeded to ride the tram until I got to 'Porte des Alpes' - another 25 mins away - where the Ikea is.

Once inside, I had to be really careful of what I bought, since I would be bringing it back myself. But there was a lot of stuff I needed! Two sets of curtains, a garbage pail (awkward shape), bowls and a vase (both fragile), a lamp and light bulbs and finally my red carpet. I lugged all this stuff plus the giant red carpet from Saint Priest all the way to Vieux Lyon. I took up three seats on the tram and metro and almost didn't make it up the windy 100 steps to my apartment. But alas, I survived. It CAN be done! Ikea sans voiture. Impossible? I. think. Not.

Mon nouveau Appart (aka. New Digs)

I'm just getting settled into my new apartment and I couldn't be happier. I was so stressed out for weeks prior to the big move because it wasn't until we signed the lease (a day before we had to move out) that we were sure we were going to get this awesome pad. We're three in this new place. I still live with Valentin, and my new roommate is his friend (well, our friend) Benoit. Things are great so far -- I did have my doubts about living with two boys, but they're surprisingly tidy!

The place is really coming together, we're just waiting for our fridge (to be delivered tomorrow), internet (which will hopefully be up and running sometime next week), and oh yeah -- hot water. We've got no hot water. I've taken a few glacially cold showers here and some nice hot showers over at the old apartment which will from here on out be referred to as rue Ferrandiere (or Gaby's place). Oh yeah, and I've got no bed. Well, the boys picked me up a bed from Ikea, but I'm waiting for the mattresses to go on sale next week (20% off!). So until then, I've been sleeping on a single mattress on the floor of my super cool bedroom. Now that I think of it, we also don't have a couch yet... I can't complain, I'm so happy living here.

All those pictures on my blog that I took of Vieux Lyon -- well, that's the cobblestoned street that I live on! My building is over 400 years old. Once I open my front door, I walk through a traboule (tunnel or alleyway) which is a historical landmark that Lyon is known for, to get to my staircase. C'est magnifique!

Bonus: I live on top of my favorite shoe store in Lyon. Since I've been in France, I've bought three pairs of shoes there. I have a feeling this is going to get very interesting...

Sincerest Apologies

Due to a poor internet connection and my busy schedule (what with work and the big move) I haven't been posting as often as I would like. I promise this will all change very soon. But until then, I ask you to please be patient. So much has been happening, I can't wait to tell you all about it. So for now I'd like to let you know what kind of good stuff you'll be in for once I get around to writing about it.

Mom and I at the Chateau Versaille
My new apartment
Grand Lyon Film Festival

October's gonna be a crazy month!

Paris is...

After spending some time in Paris, I began to notice a couple of things.

Paris is…beautiful, enormous and full of things to see and do. However, you really don’t feel like you’re still in France because everyone’s always speaking English, Spanish and German. I barley heard any French all day. Also, people in France don't pick up their dog poop. JS

Day: Wednesday - Location: Lyon, France - Time: 9:00PM - Physical State: Exhausted

The following is a list of events that took place today:

12:45pm – Had a tearful goodbye with mom at the airport in Paris

1:00pm – Had lunch at the airport Pizza Hut

1:50pm – Boarded a TGV to get back to Lyon

3:50pm – Arrived in Lyon and prayed fro there to be a bus to take me to my apartment (transit strike)

4:10pm – Dropped my bags off at the apartment to find (yup) a new roommate who moved back after his summer in Australia. Didn’t have time to chat, so I said a quick hello and then it was off to the bus stop again.

4:20pm – after hoping really hard, a bus finally arrived (you really never know with this strike) and I got on and headed to the apartment rental agency…. Any idea where this is going?

5:00pm – Signed the lease to my new amazing apartment in Vieux Lyon!

6:30pm – Headed back to old apartment to pack….

I’m moving tomorrow.

So what's the big deal?

Yesterday, I went to the museum of all museums. My mother and I had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the world-famous home to masterpieces such as Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Or as the other hundred thousand people that were in the museum would say it… “I saw the Mona Lisa!”

Now, I love museums. I try to visit some sort of museum whenever I get the chance. These people – or shall I say animals, who shelled out their 9€ to catch a glimpse of the (for some reason) infamous Mona Lisa, need to get a lesson in how to behave in a crowded public place. Never in my life did I think that in a museum, I would get shoved out of the way to see a painting that people aren’t even taking to time to look at. They just throw their cameras in the air, point and shoot without even giving the work of art the few seconds it deserves to be observed up close and personally. To them I ask…What’s the point of taking a picture of something that you’ve already seen in pictures a thousand times?

So I saw it. It was nice. But on the wall opposite DaVinci’s most well known painting, was an enormous tableau of The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese which took my breath away. What amazed me even more, was how few people even looked in its direction. What I want to know is, what’s the big deal? Who made the Mona Lisa the thing to see if you’re in France? After having seen it with my own two eyes, all I could come up with is… she’s got a great publicist. Yeah there’s something behind her mysterious smile, but who wouldn’t be smiling if tourists came from all corners of the world to see you? Don’t get me wrong, DaVinci was an extremely talented artist and I just think that his other works of art deserve as much credit as La Joconde. It’s just that other than the room that houses the now famous painting, museum-goers didn’t seem to have much interest in anything else.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Louvre, fight your way through the crowd to see the Mona Lisa and decide for yourself. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? After spending 5 hours in the museum, my mother and I had seen a small percent of the art that is showcased there. But I did manage to be blown away by some of the sculptures and paintings that we came across.

Here are my top 3 things to see in the Louvre *with reasons why they are better than the Mona Lisa.

THE RUBENS ROOM

1) There are benches for taking well needed rests here.

2) Because in 1622, Queen Mary (widow of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII) commissioned Rubens to create 24 canvases to decorate the Palace of Luxemburg. The paintings illustrate the history of heroism within her family. Each and every one of them is awesome.

VENUS DI MILO

Because she’s fierce… even though she’s missing both arms. Much less of a crowd here, and the ancient sculpture is magnificent.

LE PAVILLION DES SESSIONS

This part of the museum was virtually empty. With every turn I was amazed with the creations of artists from various parts of the globe. The Tribal and aboriginal art was astounding. With an emphasis on animals and mythology, their statues (made up of wood and different metals) were really a breath of fresh air after looking at so much marble in the ancient Greek and Roman divisions.

In all, visiting the Louvre was an amazing way to spend the day. I’m so glad I got to experience it, even though some people in certain rooms made it a tad unpleasant. But it’s the Louvre! Luckily there were 700 other rooms to visit. Now I can finally say “I saw the Mona Lisa!” – but really, what’s the big deal?

Paris in September (Day 1)

My mother is leaving France the same way she came in… from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. We decided to go three days early to spend some time in Paris together. It’s been 30 years since she last visited the most romantic city in the world and we thought it was time for her to see how it’s changed since the 1970s.

We were blessed with amazing weather during our stay, and we managed to do a whole lot of sightseeing in the three days we were there. The first day we decided to go visit Notre Dame. I was in Paris a few months ago and didn’t get the chance to see it so it was the very first thing that I wanted to cross off my list. My mother had no objections. The cathedral is Off. The. Wall. My newly found obsession with churches reached a new level with this one. It is absolutely incredible. The from the famous stained-glass Rose windows to the art that lines the chapels this house of worship; all of it took my breath away.

Afterwards we strolled through the Jardin de Luxembourg. It’s kind of like France’s Central Park. This massive greenspace is filled with fountains and statues, tennis courts and beautiful flowerbeds, oh yeah. It even has chairs… everywhere(!) for people to just relax, and have a seat and enjoy the view. What a view it is.
Oh, and there's a palace! I love palaces...

For dinner we headed to Montmarte, the 18e arrondissement. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant in the famous Place de Tetre. It’s a real touristy part of town where artists paintings and portraits all day. The center of the square is taken over by restaurant terraces. It was a really lovely evening. On the walk back, we caught a glimpse of Sacre Coeur all lit up (something I did every night on my walk home the first time I came to Paris). Now that’s a gorgeous basilica if I ever did see one.

More to come. On the agenda for day 2: THE LOUVRE

For Sarah

Taking advantage of the few hours of sunshine we had today here in Lyon, I took my mother to the Parc de la Tete d'Or. As I've previously mentioned, it is a very large park where there are tonnes of things to see. Today I decided to check out a part of the park I've never seen before: le Jardin Botanique (botanical garden). While I was walking around and observing the foliage, I channeled my inner Campbell* and decided to take some pictures of the lovely strains of flowers.

*Sarah Campbell (master floral photographer/great friend)

Lyon in the Rain... on a Sunday... what to do?

We woke up this morning to some pretty bad weather. It was rainy and cloudy so we thought it would be the perfect day to go and see a movie. After waiting in line 20 minutes for our tickets to Julie & Julia (apparently we weren't the only ones who thought it would be good idea to go to the movies) we finally made our way into the theater, got our seats and prepared to be pleasantly entertained for the next two hours. The movie was a nice treat. We both enjoyed it. A great mother/daughter film. Nora Ephron's screenplay brings together two true stories; the first of which tells the story of how Julia Child discovered her passion for French cuisine and her dream to have her cookbook published in the mid 1950s and the second is the contemporary story of a post 9/11 government secretary in New York (named Julie) who decides to challenge herself to cook her way through Mrs. Child's famous cookbook in one year and blog about her experiences.

It was a feel good movie, so my mom and I left the theater feeling pretty good. The interesting thing was, when she left all she wanted to do was cook, and for some reason, I just wanted to blog about it. It's really great having her here. We stepped out of the theater and realized that the sun had come out. We decided to spend the rest of our Sunday outside, in the only part of town where things are open on a Sunday -- Vieux Lyon. With her camera in hand, Mom set out to be the vacationing tourist that she is, and clicked her way through the 5e arrondisment.

On our down time, we've just been going out for coffee, tea or beers planning out our time together, getting really excited for what we're going to see in Paris next week.