Sunday night was a night in with the family where we had soup, cheese and crêpes; oh my!!!
Monday I went for a walk around Vichy and came home for an early night.
Tuesday was [enter events here!] I think I went for a walk and a chat with my Spanish friend Beatriz but I can’t remember!
Wednesday night I went to the fête des lumières in Lyon. It was very pretty and wonderful insight into French fêtes. On the Journey I met some Australians!!! (as well as some other Anglophones) It was good to speak in full sentences after 4 days of feeling like a child, a child with terrible French skills that is!
The festival started with people putting candles in their windows and now it is a huge event. Lifting the truly accurate and historically detailed description from Wikipedia (because I am far too lazy to explain it myself);
“The unique Lyonnaise tradition dictates that every house place candles along the outsides of all the windows to produce a spectacular effect throughout the streets. The origins of the festival date to 1643 when Lyon was struck by plague. The municipal councillors (échevins) promised to pay tribute to Mary if the town was spared. Ever since, a solemn procession makes its way to the Basilica of Fourvière on this day to light candles and give offerings in the name of Mary.”
As for the lights themselves, it was lovely to see the mix of traditional candles in the windows of the houses amidst the multiple light instillations across the town. (Yes, including a giant ‘mock’ moon which, aided by a crane, was raised above the towns buildings every 20 minutes). The church in Lyon is amazing! Its structure is so impressive, particularly the detail in even the most hidden and out of reach places.
Later in the night we found the markets where I drank a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) while listening to a marching band play MJs 'killer' and watched a police officer have a fight with a festival goer. He was yelling something like "if you go over to them, they are going to break you head" (haha) Oh the French! We arrived back at Vichy at 2:45am, giving me just enough time to get confortable in my bed before I had to get up for class.
Thursday night I went to the degustation at Cavilam where I ate local cheese, drank (terrible) wine and met some new friends. By the end of the meal I was playing UNO with Spaniards and Chinese students in French. After that I went to a bar for drinks with my Australian friend, Nivek and students from New Caledonia, Slovenia the Philippines and Spain. There we met up with some locals who are studying graphic design at the local university (they did not speak much English). It was funny having half the people only understanding half of what is going on but between English and French and $6 cocktails we had a great night.
Friday was another dinner with the family. I made sushi with my host mother and, if I do say so myself, it was amazing! After dinner I was quite exhausted so I went straight to bed. (Mum; I finished Jasper Jones. I loved it! Silvey has the most brilliant ways to articulate the simplest of things)
All in all an exhausting week; bring on the weekend!
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