Free, Fun, and Fabulous

So I battled the artichoke and the artichoke won. I made a chicken, roasted red pepper, and eggplant white pizza. It was pretty tasty (minus the crust that France still has NO clue how to make; another goal in the making...homemade pizza dough). Anyways, back to my ultimate consensus on artichokes: They take forever to boil, even longer to peel, and then the fuzzy things you have to take off before you get to the heart... forgetaboutit! Too much hassle for an even more mediocre taste. I'm assuming it's just one of those vegetables you have to be forced to eat as a child to even mildly enjoy as an adult. Despite this kitchen flop, my carrot crumble turned out to be delicious. Easy and tasty= Success!

Looks like pita bread, I know. Thanks France!

YUM

Moving onto last weekend's activities. Despite the chilly rain, I decided to venture out into Lyon. It was the annual weekend of journées européenes du patrimoine (aka free open houses for everything in the city). Saturday I decided to check out areas I haven't really explored yet. So I headed up to the funiculaire St. Just. I wandered up the hill, checked out the decrepit St. Just Church, and then randomly came upon my first free exhibit on the way down. They were displaying the old and new buses of Lyon. When I took the funiculaire, they also had a small exhibit on the train that used to connect from St. Just out into the countryside. I just love looking at old pictures of random people and things; my imagination takes over and questions what a regular day in the life (of those people smiling up at you) was like in comparison to my own. I then went down to Vieux Lyon and stumbled upon my second yard sale of the day. I am proud to say I didn't let my inner materialistic animal come out and clean up the random trinkets I was eying. I also headed into St. Jean to check out the clergy wardrobe exhibit.

I had such perfect timing that day! The bus pulled up just as I walked up the hill!

 I want this house.

Classic

Those priests were BALLIN in those robes!

Sunday I headed out pretty early to Hôtel de Ville. We were able to enter the building fairly quickly, no lines or security. (That's one thing I will never get used to in France; they don't have scanners and bag checks whenever you go into government buildings as we do in the USA. I'm becoming more and more convinced that we are the most paranoid country in the world.) The building was constructed in 1646, but with fires, bombings, and other minor disasters, the building has transformed a bit since its original walls were put up.  We entered the monstrous building and immediately headed up the Grand Staircase; its wall murals are based on the famous Lyon fire of 64 AD). We then moved through the Red Rooms, the Louis XIII Room (which is designated for honorary consulates and decorated with "L" wallpaper -> for Lyon, not Louis), the Justin Godart Room (which has been the main ballroom since the 17th century), the Henry IV Room, the Arms Room, the Consulate Room, and the Ancient Archives Room. I was so excited to be able to walk through the place; my appetite for gaudy things has been fulfilled for a bit (or at least until I go the Loire Valley).

One of the meeting rooms

Opera in the background

Red Room

Justin Godart Room

I wouldn't mind this being my office, would you?

Unfortunately the line to get into the Opera House was out the door and snaked around the metro stop, so we moved onto the Musée Lumière to learn about the famous brothers. I've always been a fan of French cinematography after a wonderful course at JMU, but I just simply never wandered out to this villa turned museum. I also never realized how long it takes for people to create a successful invention. There were dozens of various film and photography tools every where you turned. I also wasn't aware of how scientific it all was. Most of the men involved in the Lumière Brothers group had studied Physics or Mathematics. The annual Lumière Festival is coming up next month, so a large portion of the museum was closed for set-up. I can't wait to go back and learn more in October!

We trudged onto one more event before heading home. My new roommate, Anna, suggested taking a tour of Croix-Rousse. I don't get to head up there too often since it's the opposite end of town for me so it sounded like a perfect idea. We had a graduate student as our guide who was just flowing with information. I'm pretty sure there were at least 60 people walking around with us, so props to him! First of all, the people of Croix-Rousse and the Lyonnais were not fond of one another. Lyon was a taxed city, whereas Croix-Rousse was not. The Lyonnais would come up to Croix-Rousse to take advantage of the more steady flow of beer, which caused a lot of brawls. (Fun fact: An average French citizen back then downed 2 L of alcohol a day!)  The saying in Lyon goes something like this: "Croix-Rousse: La colline qui travaille; Fourvière: La colline qui prie." What I discovered was that it was quite the opposite when the city started to develop. Croix-Rousse is actually named after a red cross Christians put in the ground in the 16th century. There were more priests than workers. At the end of the 18th century, the silk workers (canuts in Lyonnais lingo) moved up the hill to expand. Our guide pointed out that the 16th & 17th century buildings are typically one or two stories tall, whereas the Canut buildings are much taller with large windows (to let in as much sunlight as possible) and high ceilings (for the looms). Furthermore, back in the golden days, doctors would prescribe walks up to Croix-Rousse to the Lyonnais who were feeling sick (it is quite a climb; a quick and free way to define those buns and thighs!) I also discovered a Trompe l'oeil (optical illusion) that I never saw/noticed; unfortunately because of the increase in exhaust from all of the cars and buses, the paint has really started to crack and they are unsure whether or not to update the painting next year like the typically do.

Fourvière from Croix-Rousse

It was a wonderful, long Sunday full of free lessons and free fun! I'm so glad I took advantage of it all since last year I was still in the USA. Plus, it really shows that you never really know everything about anything!

School is still slowly starting to become normal. I've gotten quite used to the snotty noses already and am starting to realize that a three year old will eat ANYTHING. I'm off, but before I go here's my favorite quotation for this week (*name changed):
"What'd you do yesterday, Danny*? Did you have a fun day at home?"
"I took a poo."
"That's really uh good Danny. Good job buddy."