The Lyonnais and Lyon

So I successfully made it to the cliff jumping spot on Roc du Chere without spending hours bushwacking through a crazy steep cliff! It was so awesome! Odin, Schuyler and I met four awesome French dudes from Lyon, and we chilled with them for a while. They taxied us back to Talloires via a half-sinking old dingy, and it was the start of a fruitful relationship. We met up with them for drinks later, and made plans to hang out in Lyon.

Which brings me to Lyon! On Friday, after a nice hike with the high school students at a ski resort/beautiful mountaintop, a bunch of interns and I took a train from Annecy to Lyon. It was pouring rain, like sheets and sheets of the most hard core rain ever. So our train was delayed, and we got in to Lyon around 11PM. After a late dinner with lots of wine and good food (I tried steak tartare!), we went dancing on one of the boats on the river. We met up with our Lyonnais boys who showed us around Lyon at night.

After our late night, we were greeted by this mutton-chopped French dude with a sketchy cat at our youth hostel. We negotiated a room and slept a few hours, then continued our sightseeing extravaganza bright and early the next day. Lyon is an old city at the fork of two rivers with ancient Roman roots known as the gastronomical capital of France. This means we saw amazing views of old orange-roofed buildings, plazas and churches along the river, climbed some Roman ruins, and had great crepes and pastry. Exhausted, we slept on the 2 hour train ride back to Annecy. Great trip, but all that money, fuss and hassle makes me appreciate all the beauty and fun there is here in Talloires...