New Year's Day in Lyon

Dimanche le 1er janvier
WOW!
Today was our first real day in Lyon, and I think that Scottie and I fit in a fair amount of sight-seeing, even though we (accidentally!) slept in until noon. We got up with the intent of wandering in the general direction of Vieux-Lyon, since Kate DeNeveu told us that there would probably be some activity there since it tends to be a little more touristy. We walked around and were suitably impressed by all the little shops and restaurants, although none of them were open. We even found a pirate restaurant! Now I know that I can live in Lyon. Right as we were both getting pretty famished, we turned a street corner and Scottie saw a man carrying some food. I don’t think that I actually saw the man, but I did smell what he was eating!! We immediately ran in the direction that he had come from and found a pretty little bakery – an open pretty little bakery!! Scottie got a quiche au fromage and a baguette for later and I got a croissant. We wandered about until we found a dry spot to sit down, which happened to be in the doorway of a church. I had this image in my mind of the service letting out and all of the congregation coming out and wondering what these two silly Americans were doing on their doorstep.
From there, we wandered a bit more and located the Opera Lyon, which is a large, moden-looking building with lots of crazy aluminum staircases and shiny black décor. Too cool! We decided to come back later to see if there were any tickets left for the ballet – le Casse-Noissette. Then decided to make our way back by way of quai sarrail, which is where our apartment will be. We weren’t exactly sure where this was, so we surreptitiously stepped into a little park to examine a piece of paper in my purse that just happened to be a map. We’ve been told that the French do not like maps – too much extraneous information. Apparently, they would rather be told directions that are slightly wrong or incomplete than be shown a route on a map. Interesting cultural tidbit.
Oh! I almost forgot one of the most important parts! Right after we crossed the bridge from the Opera, a car stopped and rolled down their window to ask for the directions – to the Opera! We were, needless to say, very proud of ourselves.
We also found the apartment just fine, then went to a little tabac right outside and bought some necessities (Fanta!! Fromage! A phone card for Scottie!). I think that it took us about 30 min to walk back to the hotel, which is very near the Universite Lyon 2… A little longer than I had hoped, but maybe we can knock that down a little once we’re more comfortable with the place…. We came back and crashed in the hotel for a little bit, then decided to try for the Opera. We experimented with the metro and ended up taking a stroll through the rue de la Republique, which looks like a very chic little shopping district. It was sectioned off from the regular streets so it was just for pedestrians, and there were lots of decorative lights all over the place (for the holidays, I guess) that were very pretty. Just as we were beginning to wonder if we were walking in the right direction after all, we just happened to meet two of Kate DeNeveu’s friends who were also going to the Opera. (Just for the record, my sense of direction was taking us the right way!) We arrived just in time for the show – there was an organ grinder outside playing music from the Nutcracker – and we went inside to beg for tickets. We got some of the very few tickets left. They were only 8 euros, but we were on the side of the very top balcony – but all the same, I was enchanted! It was a really cool theater. Again, very modern. The walls on the way in were either black and shiny or red and cushiony. The whole show was very “modern” and almost surreal, and entirely different from any performance of the Nutcracker that I had ever seen before. They abandoned the traditional period costumes and storyline and come up with something very different. All sorts of inanimate objects were portrayed by dancers (the tables in Clara’s house), and there was an entire segment at the beginning with ice skaters who skated on a lake of fog, and a swan, trees, and lots of snowflakes. The choreography was really cool, too. It had a lot of clownish influences and movements… again, very surreal, but once I stopped thinking about all the ways that it was different from the usual ballet, I really enjoyed it. We’re back at the hotel right now, munching on some snacks… I’m going with Christina now to find something to eat. A plus tard!