Sunday in Lyon…

I woke up too late to accompany Michael and Ellen on their walking tour of Lyon. They do guided tours for opera buffs and are scouting everything before they bring people here. I wasn’t in the mood for a serious walk today in any case… my leg is a bit worn out from getting lost last night while trying to find the restaurant. We walked about 2 miles, and I was wearing my very non-orthotic dress shoes with leather soles.

Roy had to be at the opera house at 2pm to begin preparations for the 4pm premiere. as it was about 1130 by the time we rolled out, he decided to just dress for the evening. I wore shorts, tevas, and a long sleeve shirt, and I look like an American tourist. Oh well. I sweat a lot when I walk for more than 5 minutes and intend to be comfortable for it.

The plan was to let everyone know I was alive at the cybercafe next door to our apt, then walk down to the opera neighborhood to find a coffee and some lunch. I sent a few emails out from my phone when I got here, but nothing since. Because it’s Sunday very few places are open.

Roy said he found a place in the opera house where if you sat right next to a particular window on the floor you could get a signal, so I ran back up to get my laptop. We stopped at a sidewalk cafe/restaurant to get coffee. This was the first menu I had seen translated to English, and it turned out to be a bad omen. When the waiter finally came out and we ordered a coffee and tea he angrily insisted we move to another set of tables (nearly all were empty btw). As I was packing stuff up to move he tried to shoo us again. We both shot him the evils and he went away to place the order and we moved as soon as we were repacked. Merci, dick.
So we had our coffee and went up to the top floor of the opera house to look for a wifi signal. After wandering around for a bit I located an open signal but it was really weak. I managed to fire off one of the queued blog posts (with only a single image attached) over the course of 15 minutes. The other one has several pictures and there was no way that was gonna go through. I also managed to send out a short e-mail over my mac webmail before I got bored.

While there Roy showed me a toilet that has the weirdest automagically self cleaning toilet seat. The whole seat spins around under a sponge thing like a giant can opener while emitting a redonkalus peach odor. My ass probably smells like a cobbler now. I made a movie of the action which I will post in a few days when internets are being nice to me.

After lunch we found a nearby restaurant with a menu that primarily featured “Brick”… which turned out to be more or less a turnover. I got something that had beef in it which sounded good, and it was amazing. Think square and heavily seasoned and sauced meatloaf wrapped in a pastry and deep fried. We split a chocolate mouse cake thingy and another praline type thing. Praline here isn’t candied pecan. It’s something else that’s bright red, candylike, and tasty. So imagine this candy on top of a tart. Whoah. The restaurants all have little cards.

Ian Mckellan is teabagging. No I don’t know why either, but you go girl.

Silence of the lambs (fat suits for something at the opera)

Art in the the plaza next to the opera house

A view of some beautiful hulk of a building across from the opera house, and the opera house itself

One of the many Arab markets that are open on Sunday. The neighborhood I am in is heavily Arab, so there are plenty of fruits, veggies, and cigarettes to be had. Nearby graffiti. Condition des Soies is “The Silk Condition” whicfh didn’t make sense at first… until I ran into a more formal sign up the block that illuminated. Lyon was a textile producer in the long long ago (the before time). And this particular district I am in was the silk district. And this particular building is where the relative humidity of the silk was measured for weight/price calculagtions. The Silk Condition is a nifty name for a band.

Here’s a map that Roy drew for me to get between the opera house and the apartment. I got lost the first time I tried to use it (at night, after 14 hours of travel, by myself)… but it’s a great map otherwise.

Stairs and shops along the way to the apartment. (Yes. It is. No laws against it. Imagine the size of the dog.)