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lyon happened this weekend. i finally got a chance to get out of aix and go to a different city without the program. gina and i made plans to meet up in lyon in order to avoid the fact that most of our friends were going to be off visiting their significant others while we were going be stuck in france with nothing to do on valentines day.
neither of us really knew much about lyon other than the fact that it is roughly between aix and paris and we chose it out of convenience. funny thing though, we came to find that lyon is actually a pretty cool place.
we spent most of the time being tourists, walking around and seeing the the sites. there was a huge cathedral up on a hill overlooking the city. it ended up being quite a walk but it turned out to be worth it as there were also roman ruins nearby. and even better, there was an english couple who kept on talking and it caused to to start speaking with english accents. we then went to the museum of fine arts which had a pretty decent collection of art. it took good long while to get through it, even after we tried expediting the visit by avoiding some areas.
after a nap we went out to dinner. finding a decent restaurant on valentines day is tough. especially when you don't really understand what the menu says and you risk ordering blood pudding, tripe sausage, or some other surprises. it took about an hour to find a restaurant, but it was well worth it. lyon is considered to be france's gastronomical capital, and i have to say that the food was delicious. always in the spirit of embarrassing gina, i asked the waiter on the side how i could ask my girlfriend to marry me à la français. i told gina this when i got back to the table and needless to say, she turned bright red. she avoided eye contact with the waiter and rushed us out of the restaurant. i got a bon chance from the waiter and a wink. i got props from a frenchman. baller.
all in all, it turned out to be a pretty good weekend. though i am a little disappointed that we didn't get to go on the ferris wheel. that's two ferris wheels that i've seen and have yet to get on.

and just in case you all want to know what france is really like:
voilá