Leapfrog

Usually I don’t write on long train days, but this trip was particularly exciting. I had to get up on the early side as my train left at 8:30 and I planned on walking to the train station. The walk to Part Dieu was really nice, Lyon is different at 7:30am, softer, and I got to watch the last of the sunrise trail off from the tops of the tallest buildings. I think one of the reasons I liked Lyon so much was that it didn’t feel like a place where people survive as Paris did, but like a place where people live.

I picked up my ticket and got on the train, found my seat and settled in to do some quality scenery watching and dosing. The landscape was beautiful, with green plains and adorable little towns that eventually turned into snow capped mountains and yellow mustard fields.

One odd moment on that journey was the border crossing. We were all asked to produce our documents, not the most polite police officer I’ve ever interacted with, but just fine. The man sitting across from me on the train could not produce his identification so the police swept him and his stuff up and whisked him off the train and down underground.

The train got to the Turin station and I got off and grabbed a cappuccino, knowing that I had an hour wait before the local train to Genoa departed. About 30 minutes before my train to Genoa was supposed to leave I went to the board to watch for the departures information. I waited for a little while but my train wasn’t showing up so I asked a lovely older couple. They were very patient with my “Scusi…? Genova?” and quickly launched into english. They were also confused so the husband went to check the schedule for me and reported back that I needed to be at a different train station. I hadn’t realized that the arrival and departure train stations were different. WHOOPS! The lady said, “It is too late, you must catch taxi.” so I rushed out side and grabbed a taxi saying desperately, “Porta Nuova” through his window. The drive wasn’t long and I made my train in plenty of time, but it’s the first time something really could have gone wrong.

The walk to my hostel from the Genoa station was easy and I got a good look at the city. It’s really beautiful and only smells like pee in some places, a real winner for European cities. 🙂

p.s. There are more photos in the gallery. Fun fact- the people from Lyon call themselves the Lyonnaise, and yes, that does rhyme with mayonnaise.

I spent my second full day in Lyon in the city’s main garden/ public space.

Parc de la Tête d’Or is absolutely astonishing, especially when you see in ideal conditions as I did. You walk through grand black and gold gates and into a magical green kingdom with a beautiful clear blue lake and children laughing. It’s wonderful. I spent hours wandering through the jardin botanique, jardin zoologique, and the big green fields filled with French with baguettes. Sunday morning picnics seem to be a tradition in Lyon. The park was filled with joggers, bikers, roller skaters and strollers (people who stroll, but there were also the baby-holding variety.) The sun was warm and the breeze was cool, a perfect Sunday morning in the park. One of the delights of the park for me was a little exhibit on urban bees by a running path, with several hives in full swing. I love watching bees buzz around completely busy and focused, and seeing them sparks good memories from my time as a beekeeper at Park. I didn’t stay for too long because I didn’t have an epi-pen with me and it’s best to be careful with allergies. It is hard to imagine anything more pleasant than sitting in the warm sun in a beautiful garden in the south of France with nothing pressing on your time.

The garden took up most of my day, but I wanted to see the museum that my father had recommended, so I started that walk. I couldn’t find the museum as there are a few schools with similar names in the area, and I was starting to get tired from the 8 miles I had already walked that day so I headed back to my hostel.

I spent my third full day in Lyon catching up on the logistics of backpack living and as a rest day. That meant doing laundry, which was a bewildering process as I had no sense of the vocabulary involved in a French self-service coin-op laundry, but I made it work. The walk to the “laverie” also gave me a chance to explore a little more of the neighborhood around my hostel. Sitting in the chair of a laundromat for a couple hours wasn’t my first choice of a way to spend an afternoon, but it was peaceful and I got to listen to my music.

The ride from Strasbourg to Lyon was very smooth, even though I had to change trains twice. I love how interconnected European cities are, and that I haven’t had to pull out my passport since Iceland. Thanks EU! When I first got into Lyon I went straight from the station to the metro, sure in my screen-shotted hostel directions. I got off at the right stop, but couldn’t find the road mentioned in the directions. I started asking around, but no one on the street had heard of the road I was looking for. One extremely kind French lady suggested I head into a nearby grocery store and ask the staff there, which I did. The first lady I asked did not know, and neither did the second, but she opened the question up to the entire grocery store, and one man in line knew where to look. The secret was that my directions said the first street on your left, but in reality it was the second. Thanks French grocery store man!

I really enjoyed my first full day in Lyon. I woke up and leisurely got ready for the day, stopping in the hostel lobby for some delicious breakfast of coffee and croissant and pancakes. I then walked from across the river and through old town to The Musee des Beaux Arts, the main art museum in Lyon. It did not disappoint, I would call it The Louvre’s more fun little brother. Not quite as much sustenance, but much more fun to spend time with– that’s not to say that the Lyon version is light on sustenance, I spent hours in that museum, but The Louvre is a major force. The Musee des Beaux Arts had a wonderful exhibit on artist’s self portraits, spanning in time from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei and including pieces by Klee, Beckmann, and Foujita. It was fascinating and totally worked as an exhibit.

Then I walked back to the hostel via a great ice cream place and Vieux Lyon. I also spent some time in the main square enjoying the sun and the people watching.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so a quick shot snapped on my phone will have to do.

Strasbourg is beautiful. When I first got here on the train yesterday, it was gray and rainy so I headed straight for my hostel, but Strasbourg made even that walk, which could have been miserable, lovely. I got to watch ducks in the canal and walk down cobblestone streets as I searched for my hostel. When I found it, I decided to spend the rest of the day in, as I had some back-ups to catch up on and I really wanted to take a nap. It was a good afternoon, and I spent some time getting to know my German dorm mate who happened to have lived in Reykjavik for a year.

My full day in the city was very nice, I visited a couple of Strasbourg’s museums and walked through the most scenic parts of town as the sun shown overhead. I started at The Tomi Ungerer International Center for Illustration, a recommendation from Papa, which is a small museum devoted to the work of that great illustrator and rotating exhibition in illustration. It was fantastic. I read several of Ungerer’s books when I was little, and I’ve always loved his style, so seeing original illustrations and sketches was very cool. I also loved the exhibit they had on display upstairs which was about a group of french illustrators who worked with The New York Times. It was incredibly interesting to see this high quality work outside of the context of an article, and it gave me a deeper appreciation for the both the power of that context and the strength of these pieces on their own.

I then headed for The Musee des Beaux-Arts, which was a fairly typical historical art museum. They had a good collection and are housed in a beautiful building right by one of Strasbourg’s major attractions, its cathedral.

After spending my morning in museums I spent the warm and sunny afternoon just walking around this picturesque little village. I went through the area known as Le Petit France, which was charming, but touristy, and La Place de la Republique, which was impeccably manicured and beautiful. I only had one full day in Strasbourg, because I’m planning on taking a day trip to Baden Baden tomorrow, but I really enjoyed my time here.

p.s. I added a couple more photos from today to the gallery.

I had my first real planning breakdown my third day in Paris- I was going to go to two museums, Musée d’Orsay and Musée Rodin, but I completely forgot that it was a Monday, and that almost all museums are closed on Mondays. Whoops. So I decided to walk towards a large glass building in the distance which turned out to be the Grand Palais, and they are open on Mondays. There was an odd exhibition going on, and it was entirely in French, so I was a little lost as my French vocabulary is really limited to the everyday basics, and this exhibit was some sort of puzzle/ matching game that provided a common element through seemingly unrelated works. It’s called Carambolage, which I was told translates to billiards. That turned out not to be the case, Carambolage is a term used in the game, but I am grateful to the patient frenchwoman I asked for her answer.

I then walked along The Avenue des Champs-Élysées for awhile before heading for The Seine towards the Eiffel Tower. Visiting that famous monument wasn’t on my list but it was easily visible from my starting position and I need a strong visual guide in order not to get lost. I’m very good at getting lost. Yes, going to see the Eiffel Tower is a completely oversold tourist activity, but it was amusing to watch all the tourist from different countries and speaking different languages taking the same photo with their arms raised, fingers pointed down ready to squish the very top of the impressive tower. I didn’t opt to walk up the, I’m assuming, 5 million stairs but the weather was very pleasant and I had a nice walk through the park, so I count the experience as a success.

I caught the metro by the Eiffel Tower and headed back to my friend’s apartment. I spent the afternoon walking around in her neighborhood with my camera, trying to see something new, but I got the feeling that I’ve gotten a lot so far in Paris– that this place has been bled dry by many generations of amazing artists. I’m looking forward to coming back to the city, if only just to visit all of the museums I missed out on, but right now, I’m not worried about leaving it.

My last morning in Paris was spent doing errands and playing cello. It was wonderful. I woke up, went to the bakery, went to the Monoprix, and then walked the 7 minute trip from where I was staying to the luthier’s shop. He handed me a french cello with a fresh and open tone and just let me hang out in his studio for a little while and noodle around. It felt amazing to play again, even if it wasn’t my instrument and I didn’t have any music. Then I headed back to the apartment, packed up, and took the metro (which I really mastered– I am very proud) to Paris L’Est, Paris Nord’s pretty little sister. I hopped on the train to Strasbourg, and here I am, ready to explore a new city.

I arrived in Paris in the early afternoon after my lovely morning in Brussels and made my way to a friend’s apartment whose couch I would be crashing on. The journey from Paris Nord to Villiers was fairly smooth, the Paris metro is not the best introduction to this beautiful city, but it was a nice slice of reality. I spent the afternoon wandering around her lovely neighborhood, the 17eme, and staking out bakeries for breakfast.

I spent all of my second day at The Louvre, which was incredibly easy. That museum is a whole world, and I definitely got lost in it, metaphorically and in the sense that I needed to ask for directions several times.

After sleeping in and I headed back into the metro and headed for the Palais Royal stop. I’m still under 18, so my admission to almost all museums is free. I spent 6 hours in The Louvre and I did not see close to everything, but I had the luxury of going at my own pace and being virtually alone. I highly recommend museum visits in Christian countries on Sundays!