Surprise Day Out in Lyon

With it being holiday season in France, and there being a 2 day holiday every week, most of my french class have left Lyon and aren't bothering with the few days a week when we have lessons. Today only 5 out of 18 turned up. So instead of lessons today we did a mini tour of Lyon, in French of course. 

I have been in Lyon 6 weeks now, and i don't know nearly as much about the place and history as i should. So this was a good opportunity for me to fill some of those knowledge gaps. 

For starters Place Bellecour. I have been here many times and in the center of the square is a statue of Louis XIV. I knew this statue well, or so i thought, until it was pointed out to me that there are two smaller statues at the base of the horse. These are of a man and woman lounging with lions. These stature symbolise the two rivers that run through Lyon. The man is facing the fast, strong flowing Rhone and the woman is facing the gentler, smaller Saône. Humm, how did i miss that one.

Further along on the tour we stopped outside the Palais de Commerce, to admire this wonderful statue. Again the theme of this works is a male and female representing the fast flowing Rhone and the gentle Saône, the female Saône flows into the male Rhone, just like the Saône flows into the Rhone. This is so far my favorite statue in Lyon, if you can have such a thing as a favorite statue. How come i never seen this before? I've walked passed it over and over again!

Also outside the Palais de Commerce, is this red brick on the pavement. This is the site where in 1894 the President of France, Francois Marie Sadi Carnot, was assassinated by dagger. There is a plaque on the wall of the building, just above the brick.

More amazing churches. Every corner in Lyon there seems to be a church that should feature heavily in tourist literature, but does not, simply because there are so many of them. This is Saint Nizier, at first glance the front looks symmetrical, but as you look closer the two sides are very different. This church is also clearly unfinished, you can see where three statues were supposed to go (on the right) before they ran out of money.

I had passed these murals before, but i had not stopped to look closely. Actually i had only seen one side of them,and if i had bothered to walk around the corner, i would have seen the full extent of them. And no this cafe and bookshop are not real, they are all painted on. The bookshelves actually go up much higher than i could take on my camera.

Well that was just some of the tour, we also did stops at Theater Celestins, Place des Terreaux among others. We finished the morning in the courtyard of Palais de Beaux-Arts, followed by hot chocolate with my classmates.  Nice day out, thanks to my french teacher (second from the right).

Learning French in France

You know it is always said that if you want to learn a language you have to actually go to the country to learn. So this is what i am doing now. I am learning French in France and loving it.

I had taken french at school for 5 years, and had learn't how to say 'Bonjour', by the time i left school (in a very strong British accent). I also did a night school class for several months a few years ago, but only ever really learn't some words and phrases. Yet i have been meeting people on the road for many years, who all know how speak English and they have often learnt in only a couple of months. 

Through studying their 'English language' text books i discovered two things: theses books are all in English and most have very few pictures. This is in stark contrast to the books i had at school. Speaking to people about what their English courses were like, they were all in English. I had also been looking into Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and liked the way that these courses were taught, but ultimately decided that teaching would not be for me.

So i decided that i wanted to give this a try for myself. Find myself an intensive foreign language course which is taught totally in that language, preferably in that country. I chose french, as it was the language i was most familiar with. In August 2012 i tested that water by singing up to a two week french course in Nice, France with alpha-B. Could these guys teach me to speak french!!??

The course was amazing, i learn't loads. It was taught in a totally different way to how i had been taught in England. This is not to say i did not have problems thought, the British educational system has left me with out some basic knowledge, such as 'what a verb is'. This is something i am still trying to correct today sitting in yet more French classes, this time in Lyon, with Alliance Francaise de Lyon. Learning about adverbs, infinitives, nouns etc at home instead of doing my french homework.

In conclusion, learning french in a french school is by far the best way to learn a language, so i have decided to stay in Lyon a second month. As i feel that i am actually learning something, but feel it would all go to waste if i just gave up now. Also i now have a friend staying in Lyon, so it will be nice to spend sometime with her.

Back in August i started my first travel blog. It did not last long, i gave up after two weeks. But i did keep pretty good account of the french course and it is still pretty relevant, so i have decided to re-post the experience of the first 5 days of the course.