Lyon, France

Warning: this is a long one, sorry! It has been a while.

My first couple of weeks in Lyon passed in a crazy blur of administration: enrolment and orientation at Lyon 2 Lumière uni, working out subjects, moving into my uni residence, opening a bank account, getting no less than three different sorts of insurance, getting a public transport card and setting myself up for living out of home. Mum left after a couple of days here helping me settle in, to connect with her flight back to Oz.

I’ve now had 6 weeks of class, a week of hols, and another 3 weeks of class. We’ve got 3 weeks of class left, one week of assessment, one of hols and then I’m home! It’s not long now, which is exciting and scary.

My French is improving dramatically, especially having to speak it at home. I’m living at a uni residence called Andre Allix, in a Unité de Vie. 6 of us share an apartment, with communal toilets and showers and a kitchen, and each of us has our own bedroom. Better than sharing kitchen etc with an entire floor, and better than living on my own. We have a lovely Romanian girl called Cristina, a French guy Fares, a French girl Laure and an American girl Katie. We get on quite well and it’s interesting (in two senses) to have multiple cultures and languages. Having my own independence has been liberating and a great learning experience, as well as a bit tiring. My uni subjects have been great: French language, contemporary French literature and culture, Middle Age and Renaissance French literature, African history and history of Lyon. But to be honest, uni has played a minor role in my time here – we’re only just beginning to realise that we should actually do some work now. For me, the most important and exciting part of living here has been getting to know people and experiencing the culture here (including the bad parts).

It’s been great to see Meg and Jonathan and Ruth. There are also lots of Aussies studying here in Lyon, with most of us hailing from Melbourne. There are about 10 of us Aussies living in the same building at our res, so I’ve got a built-in group. I got to know these guys early on at a Saturday night exchangie picnic on the banks of the Rhone. Then I’ve got classes with other people from Oz. And I’ve met some great Aussies at church and GBU, the Christian group here. It’s been great getting to know these guys, and having a slice of home here. One of the girls used the word ‘chockers’ the other day, which made me laugh. I’ve also gotten to know some exchangies from other countries: England, Switzerland, Jordan and China. Getting to know Frenchies is hard, especially in class. Us Aussies congratulate each other when we manage to have a conversation with one of them! Although I’ve spoken to a couple of girls in class, and they’ve been really lovely and helpful! Church and GBU have been very different experiences to Australia (of course), which has made me appreciate CU and unichurch. But I’m starting to get to know people here too, and am loving my current church. We had an awesome GBU weekend away with people from GBUs in the Rhone-Alpes region, where I got to know more great Frenchies.

In terms of cultural things, I’ve managed to pack lots into the last 11 weeks. And when I say culture, I don’t necessarily mean exclusively French culture… Early on, Mum and I visited Fourvière, the cathedral here, and I went on two tours of Lyon, so I’ve seen all the touristy stuff. I’ve wandered a few times through Vieux Lyon, the old part of the city. We’ve experienced one longer public transport strike as well as a couple of one-day ones. The long one went for two weeks, which wasn’t as bad as the 90 days they were threatening. Thankfully during the strikes they don’t stop everything, although buses to our residence would run every 30-45 mins. And the tram out to our suburban campus ended at 7pm, so we’d only have half an hour of my 6-8pm class before we all went to catch the last tram back into the city! Early on, Meg put on a raclette lunch for a bunch of us Aussies, which was fun and yummy! I’ve had various dinners at the res with us Aussies, and at Lis’ place, a Melburnian Christian. And dinners out: with Claudia, and then me and another Aussie girl and two French girls (us Aussies spoke French and the Frenchies spoke English, good practice all round!). Lis put on a dessert soiree, where we had 3 courses of dessert! And at an exchange party I unknowingly ate frog! It was only afterwards that we saw the sign saying what it was. I had thought it tasted a bit weird, but it wasn’t too bad. I’ve been out for lunch and dinner with various groups of Aussies at bouchons, traditional Lyonnais restaurants. Lis, Claudia and I went out for dinner at a Paul Bocuse brasserie (well-known Lyonnais chef) to celebrate Claudia’s engagement. At home I’ve enjoyed regular baguettes, viennois (sweet baguettes), good French cheese and nutella. I’ve had lots of crepes and patisseries, including a macaroon, éclair, religieuse, and an ecstase (!). I’ve been to a couple of food markets, but have been a little disappointed by them – will have to try some other ones. I went for a walk around Parc de la Tête d’Or, a huge, beautiful park here. With GBU I saw Le Petit Nicolas, a very French film. Some of us Aussies went out to a jazz club called “Hot Club de Lyon”, which was excellent! Poppy and I went to a photo exhibition on Lyon. Lis and I went on a day trip to Chambery, an old town nearby, where we found a great market and patisseries. During the hols I went down to Marseille, Cannes and Nice with a couple of Chinese girls. It was good to get out of Lyon and into the warmth of the south, and to see these beautiful places. And I’ve managed to buy a few French things: boots, socks, PJs, a shirt, an umbrella…

There are a few frustrating things about France, that have played a big role in my time here. The bureaucracy has got to be one of the most frustrating things about this place – I’ve gotten used to simple things taking lots of time and multiple visits. They have crazy inefficient and complicated systems. And the French aren’t the hardest workers either – they often chat with their colleagues rather than doing their job – and everything closes for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and finishes for the day at about 4.30pm. I’ve become used to having to queue and wait a while for everything – I think coming back to Australia everything will seem very easy! We only got wifi access at our residence at the end of the first week of classes, after signing up a week earlier. And the net often doesn’t work. So communicating with family and Paul back in Melbourne has been another of the most frustrating things. Skype is blocked at my residence, so my anticipated main form of contact went out the window. For a while I skyped Paul on my laptop at uni or wifi cafes. Which became less feasible as cold autumn kicked in. I spent a long time and lots of frustration looking at other communication options, including paying 50euros/month, which I discovered didn’t support skype, just as I was about to buy it. I eventually found iChat to use with my family, and googletalk with Paul. It’s so good to be able to talk to them all regularly and from home! Us Melbourne uni people have come to love Alloc8 (a computer system that organises your timetable for you, which used to drive us nuts). Here at Lyon 2 you have to go to each faculty that you want to do subjects in, which are invariably on different campuses in different buildings depending on the year level it’s taught at, and get information about when and where the classes will happen from a noticeboard outside the office, which often changes. We had to get info for backup subjects too, to make sure everything worked with Lyon 2 and with Melb uni. I got stuck in the lift in our building a while back, which was mostly pretty funny. Less funny was, on getting out after not too long, being patronised by the lift repair guy asking me if I’d tried using the emergency call button in the lift – no, I saw that button and decided I wouldn’t use it: of course I tried every button in the lift! And I was patronised by a builder earlier that day, as I asked him what the heck he was doing making a ridiculous amount of noise at 8am in our apartment, especially when we didn’t know he was coming. The strike was quite a pain, but generally the public transport here is excellent!

So that’s one of the great things about Lyon: metros, trams and buses, which are widespread and frequent! And the metro’s beeping noise as the doors close sounds exactly like the start of the Kings of Leon song Closer – gets the song in my head every time I take the metro! I’m living in the west of Lyon, which (once I’ve gotten out of the dingy modern residence) is beautiful. We’re up a huge hill that has amazing views out over Lyon. On my way down to uni on Monday mornings I can see the sun rise over the city. I’m quite close to one of my uni campuses on the banks of the Rhône, on a scenic tree-lined boulevard. And on that positive note, that’s plenty for now.

Dublin, Ireland

Well, the plan for Dublin was to spend a couple of days at the end of August on my own exploring, having said goodbye to Mum and Dad in Bristol, before I headed to Lyon at the start of September. I got to my hostel Thursday night and slept the night there, but in the morning, totally out of the blue, I had a seizure and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. I spent the next week there (seeing a different side of Ireland!) as they ran lots of tests. It was alright actually! The hospital food was pretty good (potatoes with every lunch and dinner of course, and so much white tea!), and the nurses and doctors took good care of me. There were some great, generous people in the ward with me: I ended up with a bottle of 7Up, lollies, chocolates, fruit, books to read and even a mobile top-up voucher from various people! I loved that the Irish really do say things like ‘grand’, ‘cheers’ and ‘thanks a million’ all the time, and are quite like Aussies! I was able to get in touch with Mum and Dad, who were in Israel, and Katie and Em and Paul back home, and let Meg and Jonathan and my Lyon uni know I’d be getting there late. Even though I didn’t have anyone I knew in Dublin, the friendly nurses and other patients, as well as regular calls from home, meant I didn’t get too lonely or bored. My first hospital stay was actually quite fun!

Mum flew back from Israel since they wouldn’t discharge me without someone to look after me. At the end of the week, the neurologists diagnosed me with epilepsy – which sounds way worse than it actually is! I’ll be on medication for the next while, and need to be a bit careful in looking after myself, but the main advice they gave me was to keep living my life. So that’s what I’m doing. After a couple of days of decision-making as to whether I should return to Oz or continue to Lyon as planned, with a night back at the youth hostel and another at a nice-ish hotel, Mum and I left Dublin on Sunday. We flew to Lyon to stay with Meg and Jonathan and begin my process of settling in Lyon.

Wick, England

We spent a couple of days staying at a B&B in Wick, near Bristol and Bath, seeing that area before we split up. We spent an arvo wandering around Bath, seeing its Abbey, river and baths (haha). We drove into Wales for a day: saw the amazing ruins of Tintern Abbey, and crazy place names like LLandogo – where else but Wales?! And had dinner with some old friends of Mum and Dad’s in Bristol. Then Mum and Dad headed back to London to fly to Israel, and I killed time in Bristol for a day before flying to Dublin Thursday night.

Bicester, England

The next two and a bit weeks, almost til the end of August, were even more relaxing, staying in a great, big house with a beautiful garden, in a small town just out of Oxford. We spent lots of time reading, and I organised lots of stuff for France. We went into Oxford a few times, to see Wendy, a Melburnian studying theology at Wycliffe Hall. We had lunch with her at The Eagle and Child – where The Inklings, including CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to hang out weekly, and where I had the best Pimms ever. Still trying to work out what the guy put in it. She took us around some of the colleges and parts of the University and into churches, including the places used as the Great Hall and infirmery in Harry Potter! We went for drives through the nearby Cotswolds, and went to numerous pubs, including some that were used in the Morse TV show. We saw Blenheim Palace, the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, and went shopping at the Bicester Village outlet (a top and pair of jeans for £10/$20 each!). We started watching season one of West Wing, and now understand why everyone is hooked on it! I signed up to the local library and read the third Twilight book, borrowed some of The Kooks, a Brit band, and a Brit teenage movie called Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – appropriate since we were in England, I thought. Good times all round!

Raynes Park, London

The next two and a half weeks we spent seeing some more of London and chilling out some more, at Matt and Anna’s place, as they were in North America. We saw the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library. We explored the law area of Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn and the Royal Courts of Justice – stumbling upon a free chamber concert and an interesting bail application for suspected terrorists. Richmond Park is in the suburbs of London, but is huge, with deer and woods that feel totally disconnected from the city nearby. Kensington Rooftop Gardens were amazing: beautiful designs, as well as grass, trees, water and flamingos seven storeys up! We saw Les Misérables in the West End, and wandered down to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square afterwards at midnight. We checked out Borough Market, and I went to the alternative Camden Market.

One of my favourite places in London is Speakers Corner, where anyone can literally get up on a stand and speak about whatever they like. It’s particularly alive on Sunday afternoons, and I went a couple of times. There are always a couple of Muslims and multiple Christians, as well as some Socialists, angry people and weirdos. Interesting melting pot of ideas! Another favourite thing of mine was seeing Scott, from Swing Patrol in Melbourne, up on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, as part of an art installation. Each hour for two months a different person was put up on the plinth, to do whatever they liked. Scott advertised Swing Patrol in London, with music blaring and him dancing on the plinth, and London Swing Patrol on the ground below him, dancing away too. Awesome!

We visited All Souls and Holy Trinity Brompton churches (very different from each other!) and St Lukes Wimbledon Park with Matt and Anna. And of course, we tapped in to their DVD collection too: The Bourne Identity, Rage in Placid Lake and Bonhoeffer. We went a few times to the BIGGEST Tescos supermarket ever – it went on forever and even had an upstairs and a café inside. We were so overwhelmed that we just found what we needed and got out of there! We enjoyed English strawberries, which are so much tastier than Aussie ones. We had lunch out with Andy, Kim and Jonny, and dinner at our place with Sally, a Melbourne girl living in London from Mum and Dad’s CU days. Dad celebrated his birthday with a crazy day of picking Manna and the twins up from the airport, racing to pick up the hire car before they closed and minding the girls for the arvo while Matt and Anna recovered from jetlag.

We spent a few days in our last week travelling down to Kent and Surrey, south of London, to see places there. Hever Castle was owned by the Boleyns, Chartwell House was Winston Churchill’s home for most of his adult life, Leeds Castle has been inhabited by various aristocratic families through the last centuries, Knole is a house with huge grounds, right in the middle of Sevenoaks and Sissinghurst has a beautiful garden created by Vita Sackville-West and her husband. We stayed with Gillian and Humphrey, friends of Mum’s parents, for a night in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Lewisham, London

For the next week, July 16-23, Mum, Dad and I stayed in the flat of our English friends, Andy and Kim, as they holidayed in Spain. Once we’d put Katie and Em on the plane, straight away we kicked off with a tour of Parliament House by Matt, an Aussie friend living in London, then collapsed of exhaustion after a crazy five weeks. We spent the week seeing some of London, but we realised we could walk more slowly, which was exciting! We’d all already seen a fair bit of London, so there was less pressure to do everything. We explored Little Venice (London’s own canal system), Regents Park and nearby Greenwich, including the Meridian line. We had lunch in Chinatown and walked through Soho, and happened to have lunch at a pub near Lords as the Third Ashes Test was ending – the one Australia lost. We visited St Helens again, this time chatting to William Taylor and Dick Lucas. We spent plenty of time watching some of Andy and Kim’s extensive DVD collection, including Amelie, Elizabethtown, Closer, Kate & Leopold, Spooks, Gladiator and Ricky Gervais. Who needs to see London anyway?!

Paris, France

We stayed in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, in the house of the Mullins’, missios from NSW. We covered lots of ground in our five days, including Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées. Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter are my favourite parts of Paris from last time I was there. But I also thoroughly enjoyed whiling away a sunny Sunday afternoon with Katie and Dad in laidback chairs in the Tuileries garden, and the Musée de l’Orangerie. Riding bikes around the Grand Canal at Chateau de Versailles was a highlight for all of us, as were the Bastille Day fireworks around the Tour Eiffel. Katie and Mum’s birthdays happened to fall on our last day in Paris, so we had a huge day celebrating. It included the Musée d’Orsay, shopping, lunch at a pub in St Germain, seeing the newly released Harry Potter 6 movie, and climbing the Tour Eiffel at night – awesome! We made sure we savoured plenty of baguettes and brie/camembert, and yummy patisseries. I enjoyed getting a chance to practice my French before starting uni there, but it sure made me realise how tiring it will be operating in French all the time, particularly for the first couple of weeks. At the end of our Paris time, we headed back to London, and put Katie and Em on the plane home, ending our five weeks travelling as a family. Was sad to see them go, but a huge relief to slow down after a fairly fast pace through Europe.