Mes Rêves #1, 3, 7, 11

I've had a lot of time to think over this past week because I spent most of it in my bed. And what I thought about most was how much time I was wasting by lying in bed. Today I was determined to stop wasting time.

#1: See the Saône River flowing North. ✓

The Saône, like any other normal river, flows south. However, it moves so slowly that if it is windy enough outside it will look like it is flowing north. Well, it was windy today.

And the Saône river was flowing north.

 #3: Take a picture with every cathedral built before the 18th century in Lyon. ✓

Before researching this goal, I had visions of myself running around Lyon taking pictures left and right trying to get a picture with all of the cathedrals. It turns out there is only one cathedral in Lyon. Luckily, it was built before the 18th century.

Cathédrale Saint Jean-Baptiste - 1480

But I was determined to run around Lyon anyway, so I expanded my criteria to include all of the religious buildings - churches, basilicas, and temples. I got all but two because my phone had a heart attack at the end.

Saint Polycarpe - 1670

Saint Bruno des Chartreux - 1690

Notre-Dame de Saint-Vincent - 1789

Eglise Catholique Saint Paul - 549

Temple du Change - 17th century
This used to be Lyon's Stock Exchange. But it's old and has the word 'Temple' in the title, so it counts.

Saint-Martin d'Ainay - 1107

Eglise Saint-Bonaventure - 1327

Even though they weren't Cathedrals, most of these buildings were pretty cool, and it was a fun quest. Plus, I got to go through some parts of town I had never seen before, which inspired my new song titled Sketchy-McSketchyville.

UPDATE: Just for good measure I decided to make it out to those other two churches:

Chapelle de la Trinité - 1622

Église Saint-Nizier - late 16th century

 

#7: Eat gelato at the Roman Amphitheaters. ✓

The gelato stores around Lyon finally opened at the beginning of March. So today I got some gelato and started running to the Roman Amphitheaters.

I made it halfway up these stairs before I stopped running. I was wearing two jackets because I thought it was going to be cold - it wasn't - and I was dying from the heat. But I needed to make it to the Amphitheaters before my gelato melted so I continued up the giant hill.

At one point I stopped to take off my jackets and get a picture of the hill I was walking up. Unfortunately, I was caught taking a picture of myself by some of the other students in my program. They were nice about it, though, and even offered to get in the picture with me.

I eventually made it to the top and got to eat my gelato at the amphitheater while reading Harry Potter. The best part, though, is that exactly one year ago, on March 16, 2012, I tasted speculoos gelato for the first time. Today I was reminded why I should never eat any other flavor.

#11: Walk to the top of Fourvière (and make it to the church). ✓

Sometime at the beginning of my time here in Lyon I decided it would be fun to walk to Fourvière. I followed the signs up a giant hill only to end up nowhere near the church. Rather than wander around and try and find it, I went back down the hill and looked up with disdain at the church from the river.

I was so disappointed in my failure that I made it a goal to actually walk to the top of Fourvière and make it to the church.

It turns out that I was about 10 meters from the church and if I would have walked two steps in ANY direction other than back down the hill I would have realized that. Which made today's accomplishment a little less exciting than I imagined. But it was still satisfying.

I also got to go inside the basilica because they finally finished the construction work. I walked inside and realized that I had completely misjudged Notre Dame de Fourvière. The inside is simply stunning. 

The outside is just so-so, though, and the crypt is super lame, so I don't feel very bad about my misjudgment.