It has been some time since my exchange semester in Japan. “Back in the days” i lived in an international sharehouse, where a lot of residence actually came from Europe. We always wanted to get back together and to meet up somewhere in the world again, but thanks to COVID that has been a difficult endeavor lately. However, 2022 was the year, were we made our plans (quite spontaneously) real and did the thing! The overall idea was for Ronahi and me to first meet up in Paris. We would then go together to Lyon where Jimmy now lives with his wife Hisami and their child Hana-chan.
Departure from Berlin
Obviously, there are no cheap flights from Dresden to Paris. However, apparently there were no cheap direct routes from Berlin to Paris either, but instead, you would need to fly from Berlin to Milan and then to Paris. But before that, i decided to take my chances and went to a renowned barber to get some advice for my long hair. We somehow quickly committed to cut them off entirely and donate them to .. i guess charity? I always wanted to donate them, but to be honest, to this day i am still not sure, where that long bundle of hair landed, after i handed it over to my barber, since i got no official notification or signed paper. Nonetheless, next stop PARIS – with a short detour to Milan!
First stop : Paris
It was not until 9pm that i arrived at the Charles De Gaulle airport. Naturally, not many services would be operating at this time and although i was able to use google maps, i was partly lost around the airport. Fortunately, i could ask a couple to help me out in this dire situation. Turns out, the girlfriend is Japanese and the boyfriend in fact, studied at the same university at the same time in Japan as i did. Apparently, there are also a lot of Japanese people living in France as well, but i would learn that by experience soon enough.
Finally, i arrived at my hostel in Gare Du Nord. First things first was checking in. Now i just had to check out where the hell Ronahi was. After some cat and mouse game of “meeting in front of the station”, we managed eventually. It’s funny how we didn’t stay much in contact and how i was a bit afraid of not passing the vibe check at first, but from the moment we saw each other, it mutually felt like no time has passed within the last 4 years.
Since the both of us were already in Paris before, we were under no pressure of full filling any sightseeing to-do list, which is why we also did not make any plans beforehand. We took a healthy amount of sleep and started our morning by just strolling around. By sheer luck we discovered the Japanese restaurant quarter. Seems like Japan is calling us once again.
Food-wise we made some interesting experiences in Paris. For lunch we went to a cafe and i ordered what looked like mashed potato and sausage. However, that suspicious mashed potato was Aligot. Mainly still mashed potato but mixed with cheese, garlic and some other ingredients, it was a very welcome surprise and a good meal to regain / store some energy. We also went to the high class and noble looking cafe Cafe de la Paix. Desert would come at 15 € and a tea at 8 €. I have to admit though, that was well deserved since the desert i was served had so much variety in its flavor. It was sweet, sour, a bit bitter, looked delicate had a pleasant temperature and texture … but apparently was entirely different from the description in the menu. We pointed out that little confusion and the waiter apologized profoundly took my plate, which i only got one bite off and hastily went to the kitchen just to arrive with another desert. This one now was quite plain and in fact looked like some sundae … and still did not fit the description of the menu. When we suggested, that there might be another mistake, he assured us, that this time it would be the right desert, took the menu and hastily walked away. Funny enough, we never saw him serving us anymore and another waiter would settle with us the bill. Seems like while in Paris, one does not only need to be aware of the gamblers outside but also the ones inside. Well we took it with a lot of humor though.
Fun Fact
In france customers can order tap water free of charge (see stackexchange).
There is really nothing else to our stay in Paris. Notre Dame was under constructions due to the fire, we took a snack here and there and walked to the Eifeltower at least three times at different times to take pictures. In the evening we even managed to enjoy almost one hour of a Paris rooftop bar, until we frantically realized, that there is some last train in Paris which we had to catch.
On our way to Lyon
The next day we were off to Lyon by bus, which takes roughly 6 hours. However we both were quite tired so sleeping in the bus was a viable and welcome option. Jimmy picked us up and after some catch up coffe we unloaded our lugage at his place. Our first stop on this late afternoon would be the Notre Dame de Fourviere. When in 1643 a plague was causing massive casualties, people gathered to pray to the virgin Maria for protection. And apparently their prayers have been heard, the plague was stopped and a Basilica was build in dedication to Maria (see wikipedia). On that topic, i also learned about the separation of religion and state in france.
Fun Fact
In 1905 the law on the Separation of the Churches and State came into effect. Unlike in Germany, the state of France would not subsidies churches through taxes anymore (see wikipedia). Furthermore, the separation of church and state also includes a seclution of religious education in school. However, when the law come into effect the region of Alsace-Moselle (Elsaß-Lohtringen) was still under german jurisdiction. In Germany, religious education is compulsory in public schools, and this special ruling still remains, even after Alsace-Moselle was annexed by france after WW 1 in 1918 (see wikipedia, saarbruecker-zeitung).
Lyon is not the same as Lyon as i have learned from Jimmy. Hierarchically speaking it looks like following: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes > Métropole de Lyon ?= Arrondissement Lyon > Lyon.
Truth be told i got a bit fuzzy here, but in essence France consists of regions, such as the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. This region is again separated in sevaral Departements. Apparently the Métropole de Lyon is a recently found adminstrative formation in one of those Departments. This metropolis contains several communities, including Lyon (the third most populated city in France). So what does that all mean? Because of this very confusing structural hierachy, it seems that every city, department, region can enact their own laws (within a certain boundary) which makes law making a particular difficult and time consuming topic.
Now that we cleared that up, i can proudly say, that Ronahi and I went for an adventure of our own in the city of Lyon in the late morning of the next day. More precisely on the west side next to the river Saone. That district seems to be a tourist hot spot, with a lot of cafes and lovely narrow streets, welcoming us to just walk around and to discover. It might have been by chance or just our imagination, but we did perceived Lyon being a bit more humid than Paris and just attribute this to the two rivers crossing the city.
n the late afternoon, we met up with Jimmy and Hisami at the Parc de la Tête d’Or. It spans a huge area, where people could spend their leisure time, go for a walk, jogging, enjoying a bit of silence and includes a lake and a zoo. That zoo is indeed quiete impressive having giraffes and other exotic animals and being free of charge for that. However, it was decided, that no new wild animals would be taking into the zoo anymore, but instead the focus would be set to more local species. Existing animals would of course still be kept alive but not be “restocked”.
To conclude the trip we went for Japanese again and that was it. My flight would depart in the very early morning of the next day. Ronahi would go back to Paris by bus. And Jimmy and Hisami would live happily ever after.
Some mandatory Food pictures
