Brad Nguyen Photography

Sunsets from Moody

Theme #139: Sea Side

During the winter of ‘05 my brother and I heard reports of hundreds of giant Humboldt squid washing upon the shores of California. We decided to investigate the tidepools of Laguna Beach. We never found the squids.

Weekly Theme Contest

I participate in a Flickr group called Weekly Theme Contest. Each week, there is a theme and the members compete for votes. I’ve never gotten more than one or two votes, but it’s fun to participate anyways. Here are all of my entries along with the theme category listed below.

Dance

Children

Time

Artificial Lights

Purple

Cemetery

Silhouette

Parc de la Tête d’Or

Last week Nicole and I went on a date to Parc de la Tête d’Or (Golden Head Park). The lake held a beautiful azure glow that was difficult to catch on film. This park is one of my favorite things about Lyon.

Nicole Capturing the Pond

Roots and Branches

Snowing Near Lyon

This year has been disappointing in the sense that it hasn’t snowed very much in Lyon. It has been a very mild winter with a lot of rain. I don’t think there has been a single day where I have seen snow stick to the ground in the city center. However, there was one week where it snowed in two different suburbs where I work: Mions and La Tour de Savagny.

Mions at 1:59PM

Mions at 3:17PM

La Tour de Savagny from Afar

La Tour de Savagny from Up Close

Top 11 Reasons to Live in Lyon

Nicole and I decided to make a list of ten things we liked about living in Lyon. You can see the original list here. Later, I decided to expand on the list and elaborate further on my own personal thoughts. I have tried to make the list a little more specific to Lyon itself and my thoughts on it.

1. I can walk everywhere. Especially important are supermarkets, bakeries, post offices, banks, the train station, the mall, libraries, and even downtown. It’s really nice to not need to drive on a daily basis. I get my fresh air, daily exercise, and convenience all from walking.

2. Excellent public transportation. For those destinations a little farther away or on days when I’m too tired, lazy, or cold to walk, there are busses, subways, and trams. There is an excellent electric bus line outside my apartment that stops by every five to ten minutes during rush hour.

3. Public spaces. It makes being outside without a car a lot nicer. There are a lot more parks and plazas than I’m used to in Orange County. They’re usually very well-maintained and relaxing. My favorite park is called Parc de la Tête d’Or (Park of the Golden Head).

4. Two rivers. There is something nice about living next to water. To me, rivers are peaceful and beautiful. They’re very relaxing and calming. I enjoy the big, beautiful Rhône with its glistening evening lights while Nicole prefers the old-timey Saône.

5. Public events. There is always something going on in Lyon. Every day there are farmer’s markets in spread out across the city. There are also excellent annual festivals such as the Festival of Lights or the Opening of the New Beaujolais. I am often pleasantly surprised to walk through the Bellcour Square and finding another random festival.

6. Rich history and culture. Lyon was founded around 50 AD as Lugdunum. It was the Gaul capital of the Roman empire. For a time, it was one of Europe’s largest producers of silk. It later was an important base for the French Resistance during Nazi Occupation of World War II.

7. Bountiful restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, and bars. It is easy to find a reasonable place to eat or grab a drink just about anywhere in the city. It’s always fun to try out new restaurants and cafés. My favorite café/bar is a club with hundreds of board games. You pay an annual subscription of about eight bucks and get to play unlimited games all year long.

8. Ease of speaking French. I feel like Lyon is one of the best cities to learn French in. Like Paris, it is large and cosmopolitan. Unlike Paris, however, there are a lot less English-speakers here. This makes it a little more frustrating for the average tourist, but for someone who wants to improve his language skills, Lyon is a great place. You will rarely have someone respond to you in English if you speak to them first in French. The Lyonnais also lack a heavy regional accent.

9. Great hub for travel. Paris is two hours by train. Strasbourg and Germany are less than four hours. Geneva is about two. Italy is not far. Southern France is also about two hours. Lyon now has cheap flights to England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Morocco, and many other places.

10. The cost of living. Even though everyday purchases such as groceries and restaurants are more expensive, I generally feel like I spend a lot less money while living in Lyon. Our beautiful 430 square feet apartment costs only about $760 a month. A similar apartment would cost well-over $1,200 in Orange County. I get great high-speed internet, cable, and telephone service all for less than $40 total a month. I am spending $40 on unlimited public transportation instead of $200 a month on car insurance, registration, and gasoline. Health insurance is universal. The increased price of consumer goods forces me to spend less on things I don’t need.

11. The availability and affordability of fair-trade and organic produce. In the United States I almost never bought anything organic or fair-trade because of the ridiculous mark-ups. To me, it was never worth the extra health or ethical benefits. In Lyon, it is incredibly easy to find organic and fair-trade produce for very little more than regular price.

This list is neither ranked nor exhaustive. I initially wanted to make a list of my top ten favorite things about living in Lyon, but I couldn’t leave out the affordable organic and fair-trade stuff, something I absolutely cannot get in Orange County.

What do you particularly like about your hometown or region?

O Christmas Tree

Nicole and I found a Christmas Tree branch. We decided to take it home and decorate it into a real Christmas Tree! It’s planted in a jar of bulgar and lentils.

Fête de Lumières 2008

This is the 2008 Lyon Festival of Lights. Though I think that the 2005 version was a little bit more impressive, this year’s festival was still great. I got to see a lot more of it this year. I went out on all four nights instead of just one. Unfortunately, I only had my point-and-shoot the first night when my mini-tripod broke. I really enjoyed the integration of music and other sounds the better integrate guests into the scene.

Please leave a comment and say which photo you like the best. Thanks!

1. On the 8th of December, the people of Lyon leave little candles on their windowsill

2. Latex Gloves Coming Out of a Box

3. Butterflies in a Phone Booth

4. Flying Fish

5. Lights for Sale

6. Silhouettes of Primates

7. A Haunted House Show

8. Outside Hôtel de Ville

9. Lotus Projections

10. A Light Armada

11. Gravestone Light Sabers

12. Beings of Light in a Field

13. Mermaid Through a Port Hole

14. Deep Sea Creatures

15. Hard Rock Skeletons

16. Making Music from Sixty Feet

17. Hôtel Dieu

18. Bellecour Square

19. Fourviere Basilica and St. John Cathedral

20. Riding the Metro for Free!

21. Inside Hôtel de Ville

22. A Carousel of Light

St Martin en Haut

A few weeks ago, one of my coworkers invited me to go on a hike near Lyon. I was very pleased since I generally love hiking. I had no idea how well-organized it would be. It turns out that many small French villages host scenic hikes every year. This one in particularly was orgaznied by the local bicycling club. Basically, they have set up four different routes: 7km, 14km, 21km, and 28km. If you want, you can also pay for a meal ticket. For the 14km hike, the price was 5€ and included 3 meals.

Although there were some elevation gains throughout the hike, most of it was a pleasant stroll through the woods or countryside.

About about an hour, we reached our first pit stop where we were served bread, sausages, sweets, and juice.

Then it was off to some more hiking through the woods.

We eventually stumbled upon some chestnut trees. Nicole and I gathered a little baggy full of them and later had roasted chestnuts for dinner.

Before long, we reached our second pit stop, based out of someone’s garage.

We spent the last our meandering through the countryside.

Though a pleasant stroll, at times it felt like we were in a great marathon, trying to avoid the huge pack behind us.

After about five hours of hiking and resting, we eventually made it back for some satisfying French Onion Soup.

C’est gagné, we did it!

Having lived out of our suitcases for exactly one month, we finally moved into our apartment on Friday, October 10th. Along the way we had stayed with the Aurelie, Christian, and Anna in Nanterre; Isabelle and Alain in Caen; Sara, Seb, and Maya in the Point du Jour neighborhood of Lyon; Céline and Julien on Presqu’ile; and finally Annie and Pierre in Bron.

It’s been a huge relief to finally have a place to put everything. I think our apartment is really nice, but Nicole thinks it looks like an 80’s hotel room. We have wood floors, a seperate bedroom, a washing machine, an oven, a fridge, and a dishwasher. The rent is about 580€ a month which is pretty fair considering how nice it is.

Nicole and I both started working on October 1st. She teaches elementary school kids, while I work with elementary school teachers who need to work on their English skills. My job has been a bit boring, but it’s probably the easiest one in the entire assistants program.

Hopefully, once I get all settled in, I can find a second source of income. 780€ is great when your expenses are only food and rent, but it’s nothing when you want to travel and have credit card bills to pay. The Toussaint holidays are coming up, and I’m itching to travel, but I don’t want to dig myself further into debt until I get my first paycheck.

My brother’s coming to visit on Wednesday.

Everyone else is also invited.