November update

Please forgive my negligence once again. I've been meaning to write; I swear! But you know what they say about good intentions...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I'm a fall fanatic. As I write this I'm listening to an autumn playlist on 8 tracks while drinking chai tea and burning a pumpkin-scented candle (courtesy of my wonderful family's care package--thanks mom and dad!) So naturally during the month of November I've been trying to soak in as much crisp, apple-cinnamon, red and orange and yellow goodness as I can. I've been back to visit my favorite outdoor places, and if I thought they were beautiful when I first arrived at the end of the summer, then they're absolutely magnificent in the fall. I know spring/summer is supposed to be the peak tourist season in Paris, but I personally recommend the autumn months. I guess I'm a little biased, though.

With regards to the Lyon trip, it was a great weekend! I think a pretty apt analogy would be to say that if Paris is New York, then Lyon is the equivalent of Boston. It has a slightly more laid-back feel but is definitely a city in its own right. A city with excellent cuisine, I might add! Two of the standouts for me were a cheesy polenta side dish and a soup I had with lentils, chickpeas, pepper, and lamb. The absolute best though was a Lyon-ese (I think I just made that word up) specialty called quenelles. They're essentially cheese dumplings that you can have either grilled or fried. I chose grilled, and they almost ended up like a toasted ravioli with cheese instead of meat inside. ALMOST but not quite. Or maybe that's just my wishful thinking because I really miss toasted ravioli...

Lyon used to be a textile capital, and now there are only 5 master weavers in France who know how to operate one of these bad boys.

At Les Halles market in Lyon 

Quenelles!

Not bad, Lyon. Not bad at all.

Between Lyon and Paris we stopped at a teeny tiny village called Pérouges. It has about 150 inhabitants and looks like a post card. Also--some of the best fall foliage I've seen! :)

A cow? I don't think we're in Paris anymore...

The town "center"
 

A lovely countryside panorama taken by my friend from his wall-top perch.

Back in Paris, we've been exploring the Bastille and Saint-Martin neighborhoods a bit more, as they are both adjacent to our little Oberkampf district. The Place de la Bastille is surrounded by lots of great little restaurants and bars, and on Sunday mornings they have a giant outdoor market. Saint-Martin (the area around the canal by the same name) is a very young area with a kind of hipster vibe. Lots of cozy cafes!

Back on Oberkampf, we've steadily become friends with a waiter and bartender at a place right next door to us. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but they play awesome music and its reasonably priced, and it's usually fairly crowded but we can typically find a place to sit which can be rare on Friday and Saturday nights. One of my favorite things in the place is a sign that says: "The bartender is always right. If they aren't see rule number one." A far cry from the customer always being right in the states, eh? But I'd say that pretty much sums up the French dining experience. There's also this gem.

Yoda is saying "Drink you have; but hurry I should, because 8:45 it is." Happy hour ends at 9...such wisdom.

Other than that, it's been pretty standard routine. I've been to a few more cool museums. The Jeu de Paume has an amazing photography exhibit by Garry Winogrand right now. It's sort of like a primitive humans of new york project with just pictures and no accompanying stories, but he essetinally traveled from coast to coast from the 50's to the late 70's taking candid photos of people. I also got to go on a tour of the French National Assembly with one of my classes, and I visited the National Museum of Immigration. Very cool! And in an attempt to be budget and eco-friendly (full disclosure: mostly the former), I switched out my metro pass for a Velib one, which is the French equivalent of the city bike system, and I've been trying to bike most days when it isn't raining! European drivers are crazy though, so please keep my in your prayers as I navigate the bike lanes of Paris. Hugs to everyone back home...the countdown stands at less than 5 weeks! :)