5/20

Lyon.  What an amazing city.  Our journey to the hotel primarily took us through the newer part of the city, which gave me a pretty low first impression of Lyon.  However, last night we were able to walk through old Lyon and see all of the shops, restaurants, cathedrals and beautiful old buildings that provide so much character and personality to the city.  It was a good reminder not to make up a decision  before really exploring the depth and details of that decision.  Being able to reserve judgment until all of the facts have been collected is a valuable skill.

The walking tour that we took today only confirmed my feelings from last night.  Lyon is a cool city with a rich history, cool secret passages, beautiful landscape and friendly people.  They used those passages to hide jews during WWII and during the religious wars many of the statues on the cathedrals had their heads cut off, just to give some examples.  At the top of the hill over looking old Lyon lies ruins of on old Roman theatre, potentially 2,000 years old, incredible.

This evening we were treated to an awesome dinner experience at this old winery in the Beaujolais.  Wine, cheeses, bread, chicken, pastries and much more.  The hosts were hilarious and had us doing all of these activities that I really didn't understand but it was still fun.  Our main host, Jean Pierre, busted out some wine from 2003, which was the last year he had run the winery himself.  It was such an honor to share that with him and with my classmates.