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!