Bienvenue à Lyon France

Welcome to Lyon, France!!

Descent into Lyon

Everything from the air appeared luminously green!

Our traveling began with very little issues in regards to flights. All 3 flights left on time and arrived on time; all of our luggage made it to Lyon; customs doesn't really exist in Lyon; and Charde and I were able to sit together 2/3 flights. Couldn't have been more thankful for stress free traveling.

This made me "SMILE" when I couldnt sleep on the overnight flight over the "pond" (aka ocean)
Thanks hubby for being so thoughtful. It was just what I needed at just the right time.

Dinner on the overnight flight was not too shabby despite
eating at 9pm. I was quite impressed.

Unfortunately no one could be arranged to pick us up from the airport being Easter weekend so we were on our own to find "Residence Paradin" with an address and general transportation directions from email correspondence.

We took the Lyon express to the main center of the city and a taxi from there to our destination.
This is Charde being extremely excited that we found this place all on our own! We were impressed with our own ability even with very little direction and very little French speaking ability.

Our smile was quickly turned upside down when we realized the office was closed, no contact person or number provided (not our fault; we asked for it more than once) and the place appeared desolate other than a few students coming in and out.

So we had a freak out moment and then hounded a poor college student who turned out to be the BIGGEST blessing of the day. He went extremely out of his way.....like embarrassing to the point of knowing I wouldn't have done that much.

First unexpected metro pass

He called a residence "near by"(relative when you are toting tons of luggage) and off we went on our journey. Carrying two rolling suitcases up and down stairs plus my Timbuktu bag, on and off a metro system was not how I pictured the first day. It was a site to see and there was no denying we were tourists. But our new friend Victor stayed by our side even when we were extremely embarrassing. He did walk quite a bit in front of us most of the time :) I dont blame him.

We couldnt get ahold of our preceptors, the other residence had no record of our stay, we had no wifi access and limited international calling ability (Chardes 30 minute emergency plan was used up pretty quickly)

We made a quick decision to book a hotel I had already researched called Coll'ege. Check it out
It was expensive but it was a safe place to get to for the moment until we figured out our next plans.
The whole ordeal was 3-4 hrs. Victor made sure we made it to the hotel (which required dragging luggage across cobble stone for probably a mile with MANY people around) and we departed ways with our kind friend.

We showered, made a few phone calls to family with wifi at hotel, and rested a bit and off we went to actually enjoy "Old Lyon" with the cobblestone streets and cute French atmosphere.

First meal in Lyon: we played it safe with Italian food but it was a darling pizza parlor

I already LOVE the architecture of the buildings

 We survived day 1 and we are looking forward to 2 more nights in this "fancy" 4 star hotel (It would not live up to a 4 star hotel in the US).

Tomorrow is Easter and hoping to participate in worship with Lifepoint via live feed.

Sunday is coming.....(time change occurs in Lyon tonight so Sunday comes one hour earlier than expected :)