I got quite a kick out of this, since it is something that NEVER happened to me any of the places I studied or worked abroad in the past (Chile during college, Japan and China after college). The especially gratifying thing is, most of the time I actually could answer people's questions, since they tended to be about either well known landmarks (Excuse me, where is Sacre Coeur?) or local services of which I am a fan and frequent user (Excuse me, where is the post office?).
But on Thursday, it was time for us to uproot from our somewhat familiar surroundings in central Paris and make the two-hour high speed rail trip about 300 miles southeast to Lyon, our second (and last) home base on this trip. We haven't had time to see much in Lyon yet, so for this post, I will just add a few "goodbye, Paris apartment" pictures.
Goodbye, low-ceilinged sleeping loft....
Goodbye, vertiginous little staircase....
Goodbye, view of Sacre Coeur....
Goodbye, St. Eustache....
The trip to Lyon went smoothly -- the weather reverted to brilliant blue skies for a change, and we managed to get to the train station in Paris (Gare de Lyon, appropriately enough) on the metro without having to squeeze our way onto any tightly packed trains or lug our suitcases up or down too many flights of stairs. The man whose apartment we are renting in Lyon had given us detailed directions for how to get from the train station to the apartment by bus, and his niece Clementine was waiting for us at the apartment when we arrived to give us our keys, answer our questions, and settle the bill for the remainder of rent owed. I'll post some pictures of our new place once we are fully unpacked and our suitcases are out of the living room!
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