First Sights

On the second day, breakfast was from 8-9 a.m. in the hotel. Afterward, we all put our luggage in a locked conference room, checked out of our rooms, and headed into the city for a walking tour. I brought my DSLR camera, but before long it started to rain, so I didn't get to use it. We took the funicular (a kind of public transportation tram) up the hill to Fourvière, where Lyon's major basilica, Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière (pictures 3-6), is located. On the hill, you could also see across most of the city (picture 2). After visiting the basilica, we wound back down the hill through some gardens, stopping briefly at a Roman amphitheater that's still in use today (picture 7). We continued through the city, with Stefano and Olga, the program directors and our tour guides, pointing out various useful stores and explaining the ongoing winter sales. At noon, we were freed for lunch. While many of the students chose to stay in the shopping/restaurant area we had ended our tour in, Annie and I decided to head back toward the hotel with Stefano, Olga, and a couple of other students. Bonus: free métro fare back to Place Carnot! There, we broke from the remaining group to grab lunch at Viktor, where we shared a margherita pizza that we had to eat with forks and knives because it wasn't cut. Annie got hot chocolate, and I had limonade, a kind of sparkling lemonade (picture 8).

The group met back up at the hotel, and we loaded onto a bus to go to our various residences. Many of the other students are living in two buildings that contain shared apartments, studios, and dorms. My host mom picked me up from one of these residence halls. More on that soon!

*If you click on pictures in the grid, they'll expand.