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| The Ferris Wheel in Lyon's Main Square |
On the 21st of December I took off from Madrid and landed in Geneva to meet up with my roommate from last year, Emilie. Tears were shed when we hugged again after so long, it was unreal to be able to see her again!
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| Reunited!! |
Emilie was nice enough to invite me to France to spend Christmas with her & her family. It was difficult to be so far away from home for the second year in a row, so I was happy to spend Christmas with some familiar people and with a family in general. Emilie & her boyfriend's families welcomed me with open arms and with TONS of food on the table. It was a little complicated because I can't speak French and many of them don't speak English or Spanish, so we had to do a lot of translation, but it worked.
We spent two nights in the country at Cedric's father's house, one of them being Christmas Eve. It was a gorgeous, big house with a beautiful view of the country. The house was full of family and warm feelings. Cedric's father had the funniest questions for me about America and our culture and his grandmother loved my name and she constantly asked Emilie if I was alright and if I was comfortable and had had enough to eat. Speaking of eating, the food was absolutely divine. My favorite meal was the Christmas Eve dinner of venison & chestnuts. One thing that I found really funny, but loved at the same time, was that after every meal they brought out a drawer of cheese for everyone to eat. I swear that I could have chosen from at least 6 different types. If I didn't like any that were open, they would have more in the storage. When they say that the French love their cheese, they are not kidding.
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| Wine & Cheese in Lyon |
We spent Christmas Day at Emilie's parent's house. We had a wonderful lunch (complete with the cheese course, of course) and a great visit. We visited all afternoon with her parents and her foster sisters. Her parents even bought me a Christmas gift (a silk scarf typical of Lyon). I was so, extremely grateful.
Apart from the Christmas festivities, we did some tourism in the area. We went into the city of Lyon a couple of times. We found the only lights that were still up from
Lyon's light festival that takes place in December and then went out for some wine & cheese (which was MUCH more expensive that in Spain, might I add). They took me to a really interesting miniatures & cinema museum. It had actual pieces from movie sets and then really cool miniatures which were kind of like little dollhouses with lots of style and detail. We also visited a really interesting
house museum that was NOTHING like I expected it to be and another adorable medieval city.
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| Abode of Chaos |
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| Abode of Chaos |
Then on my last day, I had to get on a train from Geneva, Switzerland, so Emilie and I spent the morning visiting the city. Turns out that the city is actually worth a visit. Everything was absolutely gorgeous, I would definitely go back again to dig a little deeper into the city. One thing I really liked about it is that it is very glamourous. There are high end shops everywhere you go. I could never afford to shop there, but it was fun to walk along the streets doing a little bit of window shopping.
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| Jet d'Eau (Geneva) |
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| Geneva |
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| Obligatory photo with a Christmas tree at Christmastime |
I always have a great visit when I go to France because I have the best hosts there. They always find new things for us to visit and we always have the best time. I'm afraid that I don't think I will make it there again before I go back home, so I am hoping that I will be able to go back in the future and also that I can return the favor to Emilie and have her visit me in New Hampshire! It was very interesting to see how Christmas works in a different country and in a different family. I am so grateful that they had me, but I am looking forward to having Christmas at home this year for the first time since 2010.
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| Merci Merci Merci!! |
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