Adventures in Montpellier: Lyon et Genève

So sorry I haven't posted in awhile this week has been crazy busy. We had our first week of real classes at the French University which included struggling finding the classrooms at the very unorganized french university as well as actually having to pay attention since all of my classes are in French. But here is my class schedule it is pretty freaking awesome! On Mondays I have Contemporary History of Monotheism. The CM (or lecture) is from 5:15-6:45 and then the TD (or discussion) is from 6:45-8:15. This wasn't my first choice in class but I am getting credit at Villanova for my history minor and the teacher is super nice and talks more slowly "so us American students can understand." Although going to class in French for 3 hours straight is pretty draining. This my one class with only French students so it is pretty intimidating but the foreign students have a curve and I am actually understanding a lot so we will see how it goes. Then on Tuesdays I have French Theater from 10am-12:30, the teacher is really chill he comes into class and decided the original start time of 9:45 was too early for him so he is changing it to 10. Basically all of my friends are in that class and I'm getting my fine arts credit for taking it so that is sweet. On Wednesday I have Medieval French Literature from 9:15-11:45 and Advanced French Grammar from 2:15-5:15 so that is my long day! Thursday I have French Conversation from 9-11 and then I am done for the weekend! Conversation is by far my favorite class. There are only 6 of us and our teacher brings us breakfast everyday and then we just talk to each other and play charades and discuss different topics of French culture it is really fun!

So since my weekends are so long some friends and I planned a trip to Lyon, France and Geneva, Switzerland this weekend. We left Thursday afternoon and took the 2 hour train ride to Lyon, which I didn't realize is France's second largest city and it was huge completely different from Montpellier. We just hung out and walked around Thursday night and then got up early on Friday and walked all around Lyon. Cutting through the middle of Lyon is the Rhone River which is beautiful. We saw their art museum, a silk museum (where I got a cute scarf for only 5 euros), the huge Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviere, and an old Gallo-Roman amphitheater and La Cathedrale de Saint Jean. Lyon was beautiful and huge and I was very proud that we were able to navigate the Lyon transportation system and not get lost once.

The Rhone River on a beautiful morning in Lyon

La basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviere

Me overseeing the beautiful Lyon skyline

Gallo-Roman amphitheatre

La Cathedrale Saint Jean

Here is where the weekend gets interesting. Our train from Lyon to Geneva was at 8:30 pm so we went to the train station found our gate and got on the train to Geneva or so we thought. About an hour into the trip the conductor comes around to check our tickets and proceeds to tell almost everyone on the train that they are on the wrong train. The train we were on was actually headed to Evian les bains, which I looked up when I got home and it is the home of Evian water and actually has a lot of spas, but regardless we didn't want to go there and proceeded to freak out. We got off at the next stop and the conductor told us that it actually wasn't our fault but Lyon's fault because they posted the wrong gate at the train station. So us and a bunch of other confused passengers waited 40 minutes for another train to take us all to Geneva.

Once we arrived in Geneva an hour later than expected we just crashed at the hotel to get ready for a busy day in Geneva. When we woke up it was raining and kind of cold but we went to the ATM to withdraw some Swiss francs since unfortunately they do not use the Euro there. Then we walked to Lake Geneva which was beautiful even in the rain and saw the fountain in the middle (Le Jet d'eau). The best part of Geneva was just walking around the old city it is such a beautiful cosmopolitan place with all these fancy stores like Hermes and Gucci but it retained the old and beautiful architecture. We walked around and saw Le Mur de Reformateurs, Les ramparts et les cannons, La Cathedrale Saint Pierre and of course bought a lot of Swiss Chocolate to take back home! By the end of the day the rain cleared up and it was a beautiful day in Geneva. It is definitely a city that I would want to visit again.