the checklist

this week in between trips has been all about completing the checklist i made of things i still want to do in lyon. there are a couple i'm not sure will pan out, but here it is:
only lyon sign on the quai. eat grenouille. olympique lyonnais soccer game. soccer in the park. rent a velo'v. bike by the quai/all the way to the confluence. lumiere museum. gadagne museum. gallo-roman museum. soie museum. salsa dancing. paniches. billiards. buy lyon tshirt. get new lyon map. find message wall. find croix-rousse. find other cross?. adventure path at fourviere. get chloe a millefueille. visit veroniques school. le mur des canuts. granita. la voile.

the rain that suddenly arrived in lyon with my return provided an excellent opportunity to knock a couple museums off the list. the soie (aka silk) museum, or la maison des canuts, was tiny, but pretty cool. i wish some of the silk scarves weren't so expensive or i'd want to buy one!

we found le mur des canuts next. it was pretty realistic if you ask me.

the lumiere museum was pretty cool too.. and much larger. we got to see some old cameras and how films started out.

along with the specific checklist, i also just wanted to explore more of lyon. samina and i even found an amazing view we had never seen before! (pretend all of these pictures are in a line as a panoramic view.. haha)

tuesday was a big day and i got a lot from the list accomplished. chloe, patrick, juan, and i started up at forviere and i showed everybody the france adventure path that id found before. we continued to check out the cemetery.

and then patrick showed us the "message" wall which he had been trying to tell me wasn't that exciting. alright. it was basically a tonnnnn of stairs, and along the way there were a few small paintings on rocks. but at least i got to see it!

then it was time for some food. we wandered through vieux picking up bread and cheese and of course millefeuilles from my favorite place.

then we found a bench and ate our bread and cheese :) yummyyy

juan and patrick decided to get a beer next, so we all sat down. when the lady came to take our orders and both chloe and i wanted nothing, the lady got mad at us saying something about it being rude.. we thought it was wierd since its not like it was so busy we were taking up seats, and we were sitting outside anyways. whatever. the guys got her back by paying in change haha.
then we all made our way to the quai where we would eat our millefeuilles :) so delicious.

next up we made our way to the park. patrick took off ahead on his bike so he could go to chloe's place to get the soccer ball and then met us there. a french guy started talking to us so he joined us when we started kicking the ball around. soon we were playing a game, and shortly after a bunch of probably ten year old boys joined us. our own rule when they asked to play with us? ya gotta lose the shoes. we were all barefoot since chloe only had sandles and we didnt really feel like having them step all over our feet.. especially since at least one was wearing cleats. it was a ton of fun though. im not even sure who ended up winning.. not that we kept score after a certain point of course.
i returned home sweaty and exhausted, but pleased with all that i had accomplished and with what an amazing day it had been.

then today chloe and i spent the whole day outside again. this time we started at the park but began by renting velo'vs! so much fun. we biked around the park for about half an hour before stopping for our picnic lunch. im really not sure why i havent done that before. i miss biking.

after lunch, we biked around a little more before leaving the park to head north on the rhone in search of a sandy beach. we found it! ok.. it was really small.. but it was exciting to be so close to the water rather than just standing on the quai.

after a bit of relaxing.. and having some wierd guy come up to us and repeat phrases in english such as "i love you, good afternoon, cup of tea", we got back on our bikes and headed south on the rhone on the quai headed toward the confluence (aka where the rhone and the saone come together).
along the way, we stopped for a break when we came upon the only lyon sign that likes to travel around the city.

after taking some pictures we continued on our way. i'd never been that far down the river before.. sadly i didnt really take pictures because i dont have enough skill to be able to ride a bike and use a camera at the same time. but parts of the patrh were really pretty. and we made it to the confluence!

sadly, there was no bridge for us to cross there. it felt a little unsatisfying.. but oh well. so we headed back up the river again. we only got as far as the university before we returned the bikes and decided to cross the river to the presqu'il to get some granita because we were so hot and an icy beverage sounded so refreshing.

what a great week. i got to discover more of my amazing city. hang out with some pretty cool people. do stuff ive been planning on doing for who knows how long. and enjoy the sunshine!