Vacances de Toussaint Parts 2 & 3 - Lyon and Grenoble

PART 2: LYON

After a 5 hour train ride, we arrived in Lyon late in the evening. We were picked up by Boris and his roommate at the train station, to begin our next couchsurfing experience! Their apartment was, luckily, very close to the train station, and we didn't have far to walk. Icing on the cake: the apartment was CLEAN. I could've kissed the floor...quite a few people were at the apartment, and it was quite an eventful (and late night) as everyone stayed up drinking Jack Daniels (sauf moi) and speaking a bizarre mix of French and English. But our new hosts were extremely friendly and welcoming and we felt right "at home" in no time!

Robyn and I were practically falling asleep on the couch in the living room (it was about 3am by this point) and I was so grateful when one of the roommates, Julia (from the UK) told us we could go crash in one of her roommate's rooms, who wasn't there at the moment. Grace a dieu! We passed out pretty quickly. 

Getting up in the morning was no easy task, but it was a beautiful day and we wanted to make the most of it! Luckily Andrew had been to Lyon before so we (blindly?) followed him as we found our way downtown. Lyon is very big and grandiose with large open streets and sidewalks lined with shops. Definitely a great student town! The Rhône river cuts through the city, making for some very picturesque views.

random jump shot in front of a fountain downtown

We got to Place Bellecour, one of the largest Places in France, for some photo ops, and stopped at a cafe to sit for a much needed coffee and plan out the day. Our feet served us well that day as we climbed up (and down) a bajillion steps and then took a long, winding path through the wooded hilly area to get to Basilique Notre Dame de la Fourvière, Lyon's main Cathedral, which was absolutely amazing.We enjoyed just sitting and staring in awe of the architecture, intricate stained glass and painted ceilings...mostly to catch our breath as well. 

We then headed out to see the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre, which although has been fixed up and is still used for events, still very much resembles its former self. 

After chilling out on the steps for awhile, relaxing and absorbing the sunshine, we walked allll the way back down to the old city (our knees a bit wobbly once we got to the bottom) to grab a bite to eat and head "home". We were so tired from a day of walking, we mostly just relaxed in the evening and the 5 of us, along with Boris, went out for a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant.

The next morning we just relaxed and sat around chatting to Julia (UK) and petting Guacamole the cat and finalizing our plans for the day - ie heading to Grenoble! Luckily there were trains running about every hour and Miss Skillful managed to find us another couchsurfer to stay with, so we were set to go! Unfortunately Robyn had to go back to Nancy, so she snuck out at about 6 am before any of us were even conscious. She admits herself that she is quite adept at sneaking out of houses, crafty Scots....

PART 3: GRENOBLE

That afternoon we caught our "train" (it turned out to be a bus) to Grenoble, only slightly over an hour away. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, the sun shining and about 16-17 degrees! Both Julia and Andrew had spent a semester in Grenoble as part of an exchange program at Boston University, so Rachel and I felt very lucky to have 2 tour guides! We started the last leg of our journey by heading to the university office to drop off our bags (and for Julia and Andrew to say hello to a few people...but it was mostly to drop off our bags) since our couchsurfer wouldn't be home until later. However in the meantime, we had gotten a text from another interested couchsurfer we had contacted, who a) lived closer and b) sounded cooler, so we cancelled on girl #1 and decided to go with the latter. We walked around the city, which is completely surrounded by the Alps - mountains and hills everywhere you look! - and ate crêpes and churros in the park before exploring the city on foot a bit more and heading back to grab our bags and get to our new couchsurfers place.

mmm churros!

Again, much cleaner, and Thomas, our main contact, was awesome and very friendly and welcoming (a common recurring theme among couchsurfers, apparently...). We had a great evening with Thomas and his friends/roommates/neighbours chatting en français and drinking wine (another common occurring theme?) before heading out to a bar for the night. Perhaps the funniest part of the evening was discovering that Thomas's neighbour Magalie was friends with Boris, our couchsurfer in Lyon! SMALL WORLD OR WHAT?!
We had a decent night out and rounded it off with the BEST falafel/kebabs EVER! Now, I've eaten my fair share of falafels in this county, probably far more than I'd like to admit, but this particular falafel beat them all. Why you ask? Oh, it was the cheese naan. Yep, fresh homemade naan with melty gooey yummy cheeeese in it. Everyone agreed (as we all stuffed our faces), we had found the best kebabs in France. (We went back the next morning, not 12 hours later, to have them again for breakfast...)
A very restful sleep later, we were up and out of the apartment and on our way to take the funicular up to the bastille and do some hardcore mountain hiking!

inside the "bulles", or bubbles, (funicular) that takes you up the mountain

view from the funicular

The ride was short but up top at the "bastille" (old city fortifications) we had a spectacular view of the city and the mountains surrounding it. Photo ops galore!

We then began the hike up the mountain, following a lovely path among many trees and nature, and Rachel was delighted to find many a lizard scurrying among the brush. We got quite warm walking up and we kept stripping away layers along the way. It was a tiring walk but beautiful and very worth it. Pictures can really only describe the view from up top - just mountains, mountains, mountains, and the city far below. We took the opportunity to get some jump shots, among other rather entertaining action shots:

It was nice taking the time to relax after the amount of energy we had exerted getting up there, and just enjoying the view. However, what goes up must come down, and so we began the long walk alllll the way down, no funicular this time. The stairs, oh god the stairs...our legs were literally shaking by the time we got all the way back into town, by which time we were well overdue for a coffee. We also had to find a way of getting home, so we stopped by one of the SNCF stores to buy tickets back for the following morning (at 5:45am, ugh!) We went back to Thomas's apartment to relax a bit before heading out for dinner, and he very nicely gave us keys to get back in later since no one would be around. We went out for a fantastic dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant in town and met up with one of Julia's friends who was studying in Grenoble. Afterwards we headed to a bar familiar to Andrew (for a bit of nostalgia) and headed back "early" since we would have to get up at 4am...
The next day getting home was suuuuuper long. We got up and got ready at 4AM to catch a tram to the train station. Our train from Grenoble to Lyon was only about an hour long but unfortunately with all the strikes, we had a 2 hour layover in Lyon. We hung out at a cafe near the station for breakfast and much needed coffee before the long-haul to Strasbourg, about 5 hours. Since we had all bought our tickets separately we were all in different cars, so I managed to doze off for an hour and spent the rest of the trip admiring the beautiful french countryside and listening to music. The train is definitely one of my favourite modes of transport, so zen! We had another layover in Strasbourg so we grabbed a quick dinner before the other 3 had to run for their train to Metz/Sarrebourg, whereas my train was an hour later and, of course, was 20 minutes late. Figures. I got home to Nancy that evening and was exhausted, but in a good way. I had had a great vacation travelling around with very fun and easy going friends, had met a ton of amazing people, saw 3 very different yet beautiful cities, walked my ass off, drank a lot of coffee, and overall had an unforgettable trip. Vive la France! (and your many, many weeks of vacation :)

That's all for now, sorry for any weird spelling/grammar errors; it's late, and I've written a lot.

A la prochaine!