My roommate and I were excited to start our weekend. We were exploring two different cities in France that hold a lot of history. Also this trip was/is pretty low key. (Still in Lyon as I write this). We were getting right on the train at our town and we didn't have to make any transfers etc. We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in Avignon, France three hours later. Avignon`has an interesting history. We were there to visit the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) and the Pont d'Avignon. The Palais des Papes was inhabitated by two anti-popes starting in the 1300's (anti-popes were bishops who claimed to be the real pope while there continued to be a pope in Rome) and remained a property of the papacy and a separate country until the late 1700's. The palace still stands is an incredible perspective. There are many rooms that are still in immaculate condition, with paintings all over the walls and ceilings (no pictures allowed of those :o( so you won't find any in my albums) and huge cavernous chapels and burial rooms. It was amazing to compare to the actual Vatican in Rome. Just like St. Peters Square there are walls and a giant courtyard in which you can see the division from the rest of the town where it is its own entity. The Pont d'Avignon also was an amazing sight. The bridge was built in the 1100's after a sheperd boy received a divine calling to build it. He later was canonized and there are two chapels located in the bridge itself which hold his tomb. Half of the bridge fell and was reconstructed several times until finally only four of the twenty two arches remain. Both of these sights were amazing at night. But during the day we got to go in the Palais and on the bridge which was also really cool. However there was not much to see in the town besides these two sights so we only stayed for one night here and proceeded on to Lyon.
We arrived in Lyon on Friday by the TGV (highspeed train) and immediately were excited with the prospect of an amazing meal. Lyon is the third largest city in France and is almost Parisian in feel. However the most exciting part of Lyon is that it is the gastronomical capital of France. Which might make it the gastronimical capital of the world by reasonable deduction. Anyways after checking into our hotel we got the name of one of the best roads to eat on and found a delicious homey looking place. I ate foie gras, filet of duck and tarte tatin (a fancy apple pie) and Kacie had the French Onion soup , Black Pudding and Profiteroles (ice cream puff pastries covered in chocolate yummm). We rolled on out of the restaurant and crashed back at our hotel.
Day two we proceeded to Vieux Lyon (its in 1000 places to see before you die!) Very pittoresque with the Cathedral St. Jean and the traboules (covered walkways between buildings) and cobbeled walkways. Very France. Almost every town I've been to has an old town like this. After walking through old town and grabbing a pastry and an apple for me we started the hike up the hillside to the area of Fourviere. Fourviere is the section of Lyon where the Basilica and the Roman Ruins are located wayyyy high above the city. The stairs and walkways take at least a half hour to climb up but when you get to the top it is incredible. The Roman ruins at the top have an incredible view of the surrounding area. The Ruins themselves are incredible. They are open to the public and you can just climb around and explore in them at whim as you can see from the pictures. One of the coolest things I've seen since beeing abroad. After the ruins we walked towards the incredible Basilica Notre Dame de Fourviere. from the bottom of the hill it looks like a fairy tale castle. At night it is the only thing lit up on the hillside and you can see it from everywhere in the city, day or night. Inside it is beautiful. Gold and blue tile mosaics everywhere. After the basilica we made our way down to Old Lyon through the Chemin des Rosiers (the rose path). Lunch was another crazy affair. I ate french onion soup, Tripe sausage (interesting...) and apple pie again. Kacie tried frog legs! They were a cross between a white fish and chicken. Kind of bland besides the fried seasoning. We relaxed for awhile and then went back to the Cathedrale St. Jean to watch the giant angle clock chime and move around and such. Then went back to our hotel to rest for awhile (all this traveling makes us girls tired...) Dinner was a lowkey affair and now we are back in our hotel room for the night uploading photos and writing blogs because we have free internet! haha...anyways we leave tomorrow at 11. I really liked Lyon. Its a real city for the French. Nice's population fluctuates during the summer with all the tourists and Paris is very touristy too of course but Lyon is where the French come and go. The people visiting here are the French country people in the city for the day. I was able to actually speak French here without being interrupted by fluent English on behalf of the French individual. Yay!
Avignon and Lyon Pictures
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