Lyon

We took the train to Lyon this morning.  At the trainstation we met up with Elise, who is actually in my grade at Saint Paul, and her family.  The train unfortunately broke down on the tracks for twenty minutes, so we were late for lunch.  There I met Marie, the Bultez's ten year old daughter.  From watching Louise hug me so much, she almost immediately adopted me, too!  We had giant US portions at the restaurant where we ate. 

Afterwords we took a tour with a guide of vieux-Lyon.  We began with the statue of Charled de Gaulle.  Since the grande place is so large, the typical meeting point of the Lyonnais is under deGaulle's horse's tail.

We had to hurry after that to go to the church Saint Jean to look at the clock.  It was the coolest cuckoo-clock in the history of intensely-cool cuckoo clocks.  A sentinal walked around the tower, Mary turned toward Jesus, the Holy Spirit came down, God blessed everyone with the cross, and the rooster flapped its wings! 

We then walked through the traboules.  Traboules are open passage ways that cut through apartment buildings to get from one street to another.  We finished our tour in the shop of a silk scarf maker.  While everything that he made was beautiful (more or less), I am glad that I don't have to put up with the noise of his giant weaving machine.

We ate dinner in the Nord (return home!).  I sat next to Elise.  I'm so glad I met her because we get along really well, and she's so nice!