Bonjour tous le monde, from a TGV (high-speed train). As I write this, I’m somewhere between Lyon and Zurich. As the third largest city in France, I did not know what to expect from Lyon. Already lucky enough to have visited Europe on two separate occasions, the only places in France I had been were Paris (just for a couple days all up), Nice, and Avignon (honnetement, trop bref dans le sud!)
I intentionally avoided visiting Paris on this trip for a multitude of reasons, but the tl;dr version is:
- I’ve already been (twice)
- It smells like piss – I’m sorry, but it does
- It’s rampant with pickpockets and too many tourists
- Typically Parisians dislike when foreigners attempt to parlent en français
- It’s too easy to get by on English alone
J’adore Lyon, c’est très “chill”
I have packed so many adventures into what was, in hindsight, way too short of a stay in Lyon. I stayed at a groovy hostel that was recommended to me, and besides the first night where a woman stole 25 euros out of my wallet, it has been a dream. (Pretty sure the woman was homeless, and probably needed it more than me, it just made things more than a lil awkward…)
After that night I changed rooms, met some lovely humans and chatted for hours in the common room with them. Among them were another Kiwi traveller, a Lyonnais between flats (who had a similar languages and grammar obsession) and a Yemeni man emigrating to France.
Ouais, je l’aime ici
Some highlights for me so far have been using my French, connecting with new people, visiting museums, and wandering through snow flurries – a rarity in my home country. I have rapidly gained a huge amount of confidence and progress with my level of French fluency, and have set myself a goal to pass the DELF B2 this year. This level of French would enable me to be employed in a French-medium context.
Musée des Confluences
While the Musée des Cinéma et Miniatures was wonderful, first prize goes to Musée des Confluences. Not only was I enthralled by their exhibition, À Nos Amours (All Our Loves), but I also happened to meet a lovely young person and her mum – another opportunity to connect with strangers bilingually and learn about Lyon more authentically. Oh, and I got interviewed by a national news network – oops…?
What stood out to me most at the exhibition was the pure openness and normalisation of all kinds of love and sex. It was refreshing to see teenage boys – entirely by choice – sitting in front of the Consent is Like a Cup of Tea video exhibit, to see how different cultures pay respect to their ancestors, to hear real women discuss their experiences of relationship dynamics, exploring their own sexuality and learning a healthier approach to their sex lives over time. All in both French and English!
Secondly, I loved hearing a range of experts speak – from fields of sociology, biology, psychology and philosophy – about what they’ve studied and found in relation to the topic of love. One lecturer said something that stuck with me:
“People often say that people are made for each other. I don’t believe that, people are made by each other.”
– I can’t remember who to credit, but he was French
I also appreciated the acknowledgement that both French and English only really have one word for “love”, and drew a comparison with the Greek expressions of different kinds of love:
bohemianhumanist.com 