Lyon

I adore France. Adore it. There are moments when I still can't believe I'm finally here. I want to explore every single small town of this country. The small towns are the best. So far I've been to three regions of France, and each has had its own quaint little thing about it that makes it just a little bit different from the previous one. Yet they all have charm, and understated class. I love Lyon in that it's sophisticated, yet in a totally non-obnoxious way. The food is great, I could eat everything. The people are all so friendly and helpful, and I love practising what little French I know with them.

Today we went bike riding all along the Rhone river. We rented the bikes for the day, and were a bit confused at how the system worked at first, but people would always stop and try and help us. Good looking people! How embarrassing that I completely stacked it while walking my bike out. Bruises and swelling and everything hah. I love this place so much that I've found myself taking charge a little more than I used to compared to the other countries. I love navigating, and thinking up things to do this time with Grace's advice. We biked halfway through the city to a very large park, called Parc de Tete d'Or. We'd planned to do a picnic, because again the weather is wonderfully hot here. It's such a beautiful park -a large lake, botanic gardens,  a greenhouse, giraffes, lions, and apparently elephants too! I got a bit distracted with the scenery and veered off for a bit off-track, and so, lost Anna for the rest of the day! That's cool because I think sometimes you can appreciate natural places better if you're alone for at least part (in this case, most) of it. Happy ending because I got to see her later in the evening at Mass, stayed to do norms, etc.

Yesterday we went to the Cathedral de Fouviere, which is a beautiful cathedral on a hilltop, overlooking the city of Lyon. You had to take a cable-car up. It's kind of like Lyon's version of the Parisian Sacre Coer, in that it offers a nice panoramic view of the whole city. It's the most incredibly detailed cathedral I've ever seen so far (can't wait till Rome, I bet this is nothing compared to St Peter's Basilica). Anyway there were beautiful images of the Madonna everywhere. It also houses the Black Madonna: it's said that during the Black Plague the country began to be cured through people's intercessions, and this statue got blacker, like she was taking it all for the city. I whatsapp'd Mum the usual daily pics, and she said those were the most beautiful pictures I'd sent so far. Pretty funny considering I've sent her the most picturesque landscape images of misty mountains, huge cliffs, natural wonders, but hey that's just her opinion!