Autumn in Lyon

Day 1

Even we needed to wake up super early and walked under the rain to catch the morning train from Strasbourg to Lyon, I still have time to admire the design of Strasbourg train station. However, it was freezing cold inside the train station, I did not notice that in almost all city has no heater in its train station well maybe only in the few part inside it. 

In the train we tried to study for the midterm exam during our trip which was around 4 hours to Lyon. The weather was gloomy when we arrived. We directly went to Parc de tête d’or because our airbnb was near that park. We stopped several time to see some patisseries. Some cafes had Halloween decoration already. But it was Sunday so not many were opened which is totally the opposite fact compared to shops in Asia.

We arrived at the Parc de tête d’or and went inside a glass house. This was my 1st time entering a glass house. But then our host said we could put our baggage so we went straight to the airbnb. It was one of the main big residence in the main road and surprisingly quiet fancy.  It has 1 bedroom and big living room for 4-5 people to stay. The host was super nice, he showed me this app to go around Lyon. He was astonished that we wanted to visit Lyon despite the bad weather. After putting our baggage, we went back to explore the park which turned out was so huge. After the glass house, there were many spots to see. We visited the dahlia garden, roseries, the deers and took lots of pictures in the autumn trees. Of course the flowers were all almost dead. There were installation of giant pumpkins maybe also to welcome Halloween. Really, if you have time in summer or spring, I am sure this park will be all blooming.

Then we headed to the city square which is called Place Bellecoeur and also ti visit the tourist information center. I consider this grand place unique compared to other squares I have visited because of it has no trees nor asphalt nor pavements but just plain soil. In the middle, we also have the statue of Louis XIV on his horseback just like the one in Montpellier. The information center office had also a nice design and interesting catalogue or magazines. Our first stop was the statue of Little Prince (Petit Prince) and his author Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

If you are a great fan of the novel, of course this view is the spectacle of the city, moreover with the autumn trees as its background. Our second destination is to Notre Dame de Lyon by walking across the bridge from the grand place. This Notre Dame which is dedicated for St John The Baptist had an amazing interior was literally beyond my expectation and made me hypnotized. Literally hypnotized. It was super simple from exterior but in the inside.. it was majestic with the gold ornaments. The only correct word is exquisite and majestic. The one is Strasbourg was crazy in the exterior but this one, no words can describe the interior. Maybe I will faint in Spain/Italy.

I sat there for almost 15 minutes, admiring the beauty that I almost cried. We then went out to the souvenir shop and found lots of Petit Prince souvenir that was super tantalizing but over priced. There was a view to the city also at the back of the Notre Dame. We walked to find the old theatre Gallo Romain. it was under construction and it has this unique modern design of a museum just inside the hill next to it.

There were 2 amateur musicians playing at the theatre. It was starting to rain so we took the funicular back down to the Old City. It was my 1st ime trying funicular and the feeling is so amazing. Still, the funicular in Petrin Tower Park can not be beaten but I am now writing my feeling in the past. 

Vieux Lyon is what makes Lyon special. We visited some souvenirs shop and did a survey for tomorrow’s lunch. Lots of petit price stuff to buy! It was super rainy that our shoes soaked. I regretted not wearing my boots!

For dinner, we bought some stuff at carrefour and cooked it at the airbnb. We watched Game of Thrones but then fell asleep multiple times so we decided to give up and took a deep sleep.  It was a cold rainy night.

Day 2

The next day we went to see the Fresque wall of Lyon where they painted the whole wall in the middle of real neighborhood. Nothing was really special but this one wall is full of famous people drawing that was originally came or born in Lyon. This is the list of the famous people and their location on the painted wall:

Then we walked through the rain to the restaurant that we have decided. We found this passerele through the houses and a miniature museum:

The menu we chose for lunch was a complete set. I ordered poached eggs with bacon as appetizer that was surprisingly in the form of soup, bavette for main course and caramel pudding for dessert. It was a super fulfilling lunch.

There was this yummy chocolate and jam shop just opposite our restaurant. It has so many testers. We went there a bit then went back to take our luggage. A bit late but the host did not charge us so I wrote a super nice review of him.

After checking out, Mariana wanted to go to Primark so bad and turns out it was like H&M but cheaper. It supposed to be 2 hours to Montpellier but we had delayed of 20ish minutes. We were exhausted and now the face of exam is getting closer yet the memory of Lyon will stay strong, at least for me. 

Tips of the whole trip: Don’t push yourself to wear sneakers in rainy days. Wear waterproof boots no matter how heavy your suitcase will be. Note that. 

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