Lyonnais Sunset

Captured this today (click to enlarge):

Feel the Velo'v

You may have heard about the awesome public bicycle rental service in Paris known as Vélib’. BUT did you know that the idea actually started in Lyon with its Velo’v* rental service in 2005...2 years before Paris copied it and people went gaga over it. What can I say...Lyon is awesome.

But then again, maybe you have no idea what the hell I am talking about. If that’s the case, I’ll explain. All around Lyon are stations (343 to be exact) that contain racks of bicycles that are electronically guarded and controlled. With a daily, weekly or yearly subscription, one is able to rent a bike at any of these stations. The rates vary depending on the length of the subscription you have, but this document explains it pretty well:

I personally get the first hour free and to be honest I never use it for anymore time than that. The service comes in handy after late night excursions downtown and the metro is closed, or perhaps you have an emergency to attend a mile away and waiting for a bus won’t cut it. All you have to do is go up to a station and do this:

I was originally thinking about buying my own bicycle - or even bringing my own from the states - but I stopped looking when I realized that I have all the benefits of a bicycle without the hassle of worrying about it getting stolen or vandalized. Granted, they’re not the lightest or sharpest looking machines, but with a 3-speed Shimano Nexus hub, front and rear drum brakes, front and rear full fenders, bell, front basket and built in lock for the quick stops, they get the job done. I wouldn’t use them in a race or to do cross country biking in, but European urban cycling? Sign me up.

* Vélo'v is a portmanteau of the French word "Vélo" meaning bicycle and the English word "Love"

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I’ve had a few hilarious encounters with the munchkins lately. In one class we were doing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and when I got to ‘Mouth’ I took my index finger, circled it around my mouth and repeated the English word a few times. Then a kid asked me outloud, “So mouth means beard in English?”

I had a group of 1st graders today who were curious about my beard, pulling it and asking me, “Why don’t you shave?”. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “Because.” But then one girl yelled out, “Because he’s Santa Claus!”

With a different group of 1st graders, we were playing Duck, Duck, Goose, except in French it’s called Tomate, Ketchup. So in France, kids tap you on the head going “Tomato, tomato, tomato...” and when they want to pick you, they say, “Ketchup!”. Then if you get caught and you’re supposed to go in the pot, they yell over and over, “A la soupe! A la soupe!” (In the soup! In the soup!). Needless to say, having a bunch of 6 year olds screaming out loud to you to get in the soup is, at the same time, totally adorable and totally frightening.

I also played a color game with the smaller kids where they’re split up in two groups and the group that guesses correctly the most colors in English the fastest wins. So I get to white and I hold up a white block and this 6 year old up front, who is obviously getting really excited, yells out - in English - “FUCK!”.

His team didn’t win.

Chez Moi

Here's a quick video of my apartment.

Vacation Already?!

The one nice thing about France is all the vacation time they get! Especially as a teacher! I am currently on the Toussaint (All-Saints) vacation which lasts between the 24th of October to the 5th of November. After that, we have Christmas Vacation (December 19th to January 4th), Winter vacation (February 13th to March 1st) and finally Spring Vacation (April 10th to April 26th)

I spent my Toussaint vacation in Paris, hanging out with Ashley before she shipped back to the States. She continued giving English lessons before her departure so I found I had a lot of free time on my hands. I’ve been to Paris so many times before in the past, that there really isn’t anything there for me to see that I haven’t seen before. At least, I thought that was true until I happened to see a metro map of Paris and realized that Versailles was only an hour ride away on the RER C line. All this time I’ve been here and I thought you had to drive to get there. Ashley had an afternoon full of lessons one day so I packed my bag and headed to the former home of the French royal family.

As I suspected, the place is a giant tourist magnet, the likes of which rival the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. While I’m happy I finally crossed that place off of my to-see list, I can’t help but say that the whole experience left a very funny taste in my mouth. For starters, the castle was built by Louis the 14th in the 17th century with the purpose of moving the capital away from Paris and to help take power away from the nobles by making them spend time at his cool, new pad and in the end declare himself complete ruler of France. Well, there were also a bunch of people in his kingdom starving and dying of disease, so the fact that the “Sun King” spent a grotesque amount of money for his own selfish desires instead of his people just makes the whole palace seem like such a giant waste of resources.

Back to the present day, I bought my ticket and did the tour complete with my portable audio-guide and while the gilded woodwork, the tapestries, the antiques and the paintings were all wonderful and beautiful, they didn’t excite me. I felt like I could have been walking through the Decorative Arts section of the Louvre - something I’ve done more than my fair share of. Have you also ever noticed how annoying tourists can be? It’s not so much that people traveling to places that annoys me; it’s the whole tourist mindset that disturbs me. If visiting a country or city becomes a checklist of things to do, where’s the enjoyment in that? Likewise, why do people take so many photographs or videos during their trips? At Versailles, for example, everyone was crowding in a bedroom, pushing people to take a photo, holding cameras above people’s heads. What’s the point of taking these horrible, terribly exposed, poorly composed photos when there have got to be better photographs taken by pros with professional equipment of the same room somewhere online. Again, the waste.

If there was one positive thing I got out of Versailles, it was the adjacent gardens which were GIGANTIC (1,976 acres!!) Not to mention it was 100% cheaper than the tour of the castle. The thing is practically a city park, and had I more time or a friend to walk around with, I would have definitely stayed until past dark.

The rest of the trip was merely a 12 day sojourn in which I did nothing any of you would be interested in hearing about. I ate, cleaned, wrote, drank wine, walked, watched some TV, etc etc. A real vacation in my opinion. But now I’m back in Lyon, all of my stuff is unpacked and I’m ready to start a new chapter in my visit here. The future is definitely hazy, but it sure looks promising.