Vacationing from Vacation

I'm trying to get back in the groove here, bringing you accounts of two weekend trips that were, as the title suggests, something in the vein of vacations from the great vacation that is this semester.

So we left for Lyon, the whole happy CUPA family of about 40 students, on the morning of February 6 and traveled the ~250 miles in a little more than 2 hours thanks to the TGV (high-speed train). We stayed at a really nice hotel within walking distance from Vieux Lyon, the old quarter with all the historic buildings. Somehow, my roommate Allison and I landed some kind of luxury suite with a great balcony! After lunch, our time was devoted to a walking tour of the city, which was very pleasant since the temperature was somewhere in the 50s, the sky cloudless and, most notably, the afternoon light abnormally stunning. We wound up at the top of Fourvière Hill, from where we had a panoramic view of nearly the entire city.

From Fourvière

The main feature of the hill is its totally over-the-top basilica, built between the 1870s and 1890s. Not a centimeter of the church's interior has escaped unadorned. Nevertheless, it is quite impressive, particularly its iridescent mosaics.

Inside Notre Dame de Fourvière

We continued down to Vieux Lyon by foot, stopping partway at the ruins of the Roman amphitheater, built around 15BC in what was then called Lugdunum. (This was one of the things I remembered best from my previous visit to Lyon). We also went through the Gallo-Roman Museum, which boasts quite a treasure trove of ancient artifacts and is built into the hillside with two windows that look out onto the theater. Some of the most interesting pieces, I thought, were the equivalent of Roman street signs: big marble slabs that said things like, "Stay away from this aqueduct! It's not for your personal use!" and so on. One can only imagine the people of the future oohing and aahing over our 'no parking' signs.

With friends in front of the Roman theater

Everyone ate dinner together at a nice restaurant just next to the basilica (personal highlight = pumpkin soup). Unfortunately, the area around the church locks at 10pm or whenever the fancy strikes the guy in charge. Apparently locked in, about 20 of us went on a wild goose chase - in total darkness - through the park that covers the hillside and which is populated at night only by eerie Virgin statues around every bend. At the bottom of the hill, some time later, we found the gate... locked. Eventually we got out, some by climbing the gate and others by less dramatic means.

The next morning, CUPA took us to the Institut Lumière, the childhood home of and museum dedicated to the Lumière brothers and the invention of cinema. My favorites were an 1896 short by Louis Lumière of workers sack racing at the family factories and a collection of photographs of Morocco (of course!) in the early 20th century by Gabriel Veyre, a cameraman for the L. brothers who spent the second half of his life there. I also liked the peacock theme:

I know it seems like I talk about food a lot, but in Lyon, eating is a really key part of the experience. We had lunch at a traditional lyonnais bouchon (the word for 'cork', as in the kind you stick in a bottle of wine, or a restaurant in Lyon that serves a lot of serious meat). Unable to stomach the innards, I opted for a delicious quenelle, a sort of fish and egg loaf in cream sauce (also a regional specialty). My friend Isabella ordered what she thought was a conservative choice - pork cooked in a 'red wine' sauce. Surprise! The waiter announced with glee at the end of the meal that she had actually eaten copious amounts of pig's blood.

Une quenelle

After lunch we made a brief run through the Musée des Beaux-Arts before heading home to Paris. 

The other foray I've made outside Paris was just this past weekend, when I went with 4 friends to Nantes, in Brittany. You may remember it from the Edict of Nantes, which Henry IV signed in 1598 and which gave rights to French Protestants... Anyway, thanks to heroic efforts made by all, we got a 6:30am train from Paris (after I pulled an all-nighter), and when we arrived at our destination 2 hours later, there was still a thick morning brouillard. This pleasant mist lingered on as we traversed the cobblestone streets of the old quarter. Nantes is the 8th largest city in France, but it feels very intimate -- and in fact we walked everywhere we needed to go all weekend! The Nantes Cathedral, begun in 1434 and finished in 1891, naturally has a melange of styles but is mostly Gothic (though much simpler than the basilica at Fourviere!) We also visited the crypt the next day...

Cathedral in the brouillard

We found ourselves next at the city's main attraction, the Chateau of the Dukes of Bretagne. It no longer has the original furniture, but does have a nice, glassy moat and extensive exhibits about local and regional history. The most interesting part, I thought, was the room dedicated to Nantes' significant role in the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century -- thanks to its strategic location on the Loire River. The chateau itself was built in the 15th century on the site of a 12th century castle, which was in turn built on the site of the city's ancient Roman walls. 

The Chateau

The rest of the day was spent strolling around the city, listening to accordeonistes, and eating fresh vegetables. We bought delicious local cakes and chocolates for dinner and brought them back to the hotel - ah the life! 

The next morning, after a goood sleep, we went to the Musee des Beaux Arts, which had a fantastic collection from all periods: in the 19th century rooms, where I spent most of my time, many of the artists were students of the great masters but painted regional subjects, for example. There was also an interesting temporary exhibit called "Le Théâtre des Passions" about the connection between art and opera/theater in the 18th century. Afterward, we walked to the Île de Nantes, which is being gentrified and revitalized, to see a museum of mechanical animals that reopened only a week earlier. The "machines de l'Ile" are not old - in fact the workshop where they are built is part of the museum visit - but they are inspired by a 19th-century aesthetic, and especially by Jules Verne (a local). The masterpiece of the museum is a mechanical elephant that carries several dozen people on its back and makes 45-minute tours of the premises. Most of the others are sea creatures of various kinds, which visitors to the museum may be invited to ride.

The mechanical elephant takes off

We ate Chinese food for dinner: it's not the same as Chinese food in (a) the U.S. or (b) China... much milder, as if everything were cooked in French sauces. My first ethnic food experience in France other than falafel, however. Afterward, we explored the nightlife in the old part of the city, which was very pleasant if one could avoid drunk old men on bikes and/or rollerblades. In fact, it was warm enough to sit outside! The next morning, we strolled around the Jardin des Plantes, basically just a really nice park, until it was time for our train. The highlight, if one could call it that, was the goat that tried to eat my dress (but really). On the train, we amused ourselves by reading our horoscopes aloud in French from Cosmo.