Tina's Visit!

One of the highlights of the semester was when Tina visited!! (Tina is a friend of mine and my roommate freshman year, and she is studying in Siena, Italy this semester.)  Unfortunately, TCL (Transports en Commun Lyonnais, basically the people who run the metro system) went on a mini strike that weekend!! So, our weekend started off by me being late to the train system because I got lost walking to the Part Dieu train station because the B line wasn't running!  Poor Tina had to wait twenty minutes, and I felt so bad!

When we got back to the apartment, Tina took a nap, and I cooked dinner, which consisted of smoked salmon, mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach (the spinach was frozen, so don't be impressed hahaha).  I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of dinner, but I got a lovely photo of dessert, which was from Bernard Pauloz, my favorite bakery!

Chocolate and banana, chocolate and raspberry, and pineapple!

Next, we walked to the Valmy metro where we saw the "Ascenseur Etrange", or the "Strange Elevator", where they basically had slightly strange and a bit creepy videos of fish and various other animals.  We then took this elevator down to get on the metro and...voila, the D line no longer is working! Which means we had to take the long, cold, over an hour long walk to get down to Vieux Lyon!

Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière lit up at night

"Thank You, Mary".  The Light Festival was originally a Catholic holiday originating in Lyon!

Lyon from the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Tina and I

Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon- this animation was pretty cool!! I have lots of photos from it

Here's a video of the end of this illumination!! Hopefully it works!

The buildings on the river opposite Place Bellecour were illuminated, and it was pretty cool!  They changed every few seconds, and I got photos of a few of them:

Place Bellecour

 Dragon in Bellecour!

 rue de la Republique, Bellecour

Heart!

 Inside the Hotel de Ville (City Hall)!

Unfortunately, it won't let me load the video for Place des Terreaux because it is too long.  Which is really quite a shame, becuase it was my favorite installation!

The next morning, Tina and I did some sightseeing around Lyon, including eating Tina's first crepe, and then we took the train over to Switzerland to wait for her plane!

 Tina, re-enacting her distress at arriving at Part Dieu and not finding me there! haha

Lounging in the Geneva airport!

Stay tuned next time to hear all about my final trip to Paris!