Wow, that went by quickly!
There's an old joke about a guy who decides to become a monk so he joins a monastery where he had to take a vow of silence. The only exception to this rule is that once a year--at his "annual review"--he is allowed to say just two words.
So at the end of his first year he is asked if he has anything to say.
"Bad food," he says.
Noted.
At the end of his second year:
"Hard bed."
At the end of his third year:
"I quit!"
"Well, we're not surprised," said his superior. "You've been complaining for three years now."
I'm not complaining--not too much. But after all, A Rock In My Shoe is about, well, rocks in your shoes. So I do have a couple of rocks. Not about "bad food," of course. Lyon is the food capital of France, if not the world. But we did have a "hard bed" and we had to go out and buy better quality pillows.
After so many trips to France (and other European countries), the one thing I must finally admit is that I'm not a fan of "old French charm." It's pretty to look at. But to live in it--no thank you. I need my modern amenities--heat that works, doors that don't stick, washing machines that have a drying cycle, etc. I'll probably write more about this when I get home, but for now I'll leave it at this.
Lyon is a lovely city. This was our fourth time visiting here in just the past five years or so. We can see ourselves living here--in a more modern building, of course.
The only thing I missed was that we didn't really make any new friends while here, as we did last year in Dijon. There are a couple of "expats groups" that I researched online before coming here. But they appeared to be mostly younger Americans who needed/wanted to be around other Americans for support. I had no interest in hanging out with Millennials at the Hard Rock Cafe or getting together to take salsa lessons. At my age, I'm now more interested in hanging out with Vietnam vets and podiatrists.
So we will have to work on the networking thing. Be that as it may, the people we did meet--like in stores and restaurants--were mostly very charming.
We did explore some neighborhoods--and I think we now have a pretty good sense of the city.
Today we are packing for our return trip home. We go by car tomorrow morning to Paris and we will stay there Friday and Saturday nights. Then fly back to New York on Sunday.
Here is a link to some pictures I took. I didn't take as many this time, but the ones I did take I think are kind of interesting:
https://www.arockinmyshoe.com/lyon-2019.html
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