Well of course the day started off in a cafe, but once Liz got out of class, we chose a different lunch location. We purchased two baguettes, some salami, a family wheel of Brie, some desserts and a water bottle. Then we met her friends down by the Rhonne. In Europe, I have noticed that the sides of rivers don't just drop off into the river. You can walk down steps to walk along the river and just hang out there, at sea level. We were sitting in the sun just enjoying our little French feast and it was wonderful.
On the Rhonne!
Rhonne
After this, I embarked upon an interesting part of my journey called Camille goes to French class. Now, I was wearing my cute red and white striped dress from Urban with my v neck grey shirt over it and my vote flats. let's just say I dressed like I fit in, while I was lacking of knowledge of the language. I took a seat in the back, since Liz and her five friends insist upon sitting as close to the professor as possible. It was a two hour lecture on French/European history in 16th and 17th centuries. Well, while I know what happened then, it didn't help much.
I actually listened to the professor for the first 45 minutes, while playing sudoku of course. He was very animated so it was amusing to watch him babble on about Louis XII and Richelieu. What amazed me most about the lecture was how many kids were taking notes. Literally, the entire lecture of 180+ kids were feverishly writing or typing around me. I wondered if they knew I was writing in my blog instead of taking notes in French. Regardless, I was watching their laptops to see facebook pop up, and only saw it happen once! I was shocked. Come to a lecture at American University and you will find exactly the opposite. It is the reason I have to bring notebooks to class. Did I mention they are not allowed to bring coffee to class? Not like you would be able to find one in a to go cup.
Post class, I informed Liz that I felt like I just ran a marathon and I didn't even have to take notes. She said the whole process is mentally draining. I told her I was greatly amused by the prof and his yelling at the two students who left the lecture half way through. I told her that if I left my only excuses would be: "Je fam! croissant! Aurevoir!" this means something along the lines of "I'm hungry! Croissaint! goodbye!"
Liz and I changed at her house and grabbed our cameras. The sun was setting and we wanted to take pictures at Fourviere, the church on the hill. Liz taught me how to open the shutter on my camera, which essentially means I let the camera soak in natural light to take a picture. It takes some practice for the photos to come out clear but they look pretty cool if you can find the right settings.
Church after dark
Skyline
On the way down the Funicolare, a boy next to us asked if we were Americans. Of course, duh. His name is Ben and he is between college and a job backpacking around Europe like me. He is doing a month and started in the north to work his way down, not a bad a idea. Anyways, he came along with us to Vieux Lyon to have dinner. We got a meal deal again and I had a Salade Lyonnaise which is lettuce, other veggies, bacon and a poached egg. Yes, so delicious. We also may or may not have enjoyed three pots of wine. This is just a fancy word for the house wine and is roughly smaller than a bottle. It's not a cauldron or anything people, we do have morals or whatever.
We parted ways with Ben and Liz and I headed up to get a good nights sleep. It was so good to see that she is in such a great city for the whole year! Also, I know that she is comfortable there, which is true peace of mind. Best of luck to her on those French classes!!
XO
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