Lyon: the food capital of France (Likely untrue).

How much more delicious French food do I have to eat in order to become a real-life Frenchie? It's amazing how much French you actually learn when you are totally immersed into the language. I now can say "Bonjour" and sound totally legit. Sometimes, if I'm feeling confident, I'll ask "C'est combien?" (How much?) while purchasing soap, wine, or whatever other under-priced luxury I can think of. 

What an awesome flower exhibit. 

Two nights ago, we did a little more exploring (shocking, I know). My body is in a constant struggle between gaining 15 pounds from French food and losing 15 pounds from walking 19 miles a day. 

Our new little favorite restaurant.

We found this awesome restaurant directly across from school. For those of you who have never visited France, it doesn't get dark until about 10:30PM, so whenever my pictures are dark, it's likely around 11PM. Yes, on a school night. Sorry, mom. 

Of course, we walked in, sat down, and were immediately served wine, water, and bread. We ordered the special, which consisted of a three-course meal with about 5 choices for each. I chose the feta and tomato salad. Not knowing what to expect, my expectations were not high. 

Feta and tomato salad. 

This thing was legitimately the most delicious meal I have ever put into my mouth. Timothy and I talked about this feta cheese for at least 30 minutes, and I'm still talking about it now. In America, I hate feta cheese. It's crumbly, chewy, and tastes strange. In France, it's thick, flavorful, and a gift from the heavens. After biting into the feta, your mouth FLOODS with its flavor, and it lingers on your tongue for 5-10 minutes after. The feta soaks up the vinaigrette, and I cannot even put into words how amazing this cheese was. Also, it was totally in-house made. Goodness.


After savoring my salad for approximately 30 minutes, our next course came out. I ordered the duck, which was a little risky because I dislike duck, as well. Once again, the duck in France tastes and looks totally different than duck in America.

In France and at this restaurant, the duck was thickly sliced and perfectly cooked. It was overwhelmingly juicy, and Timothy eyed my entree the entire meal (as usual). Of course, I shared half with him, but not before I took this mouth-watering picture.

Duck entree. 

Every meal in France seems to soak up more juice and flavor that I've ever experienced. Every potato, green bean, and slice of meat explodes with flavor every bite you take. It's an entirely new experience for this American girl, one that I don't want to end.

The "special" menu at La Sud. 

 So two hours later, our third course (dessert) comes. We ordered espresso because we're super French now. I enjoyed waffles with melted chocolate and homemade whipped cream. Easily, this was the most scrumptious dessert I've ever eaten. Will my meals ever stop satisfying me?

Heaven. In waffles. 

Maybe enjoying my waffles a little too much. 

We <3 expresso.  

After dinner, we strolled around(/walked off the 10 pounds of food we just ate) Lyon a bit more. I snapped this amazing picture of our school around midnight.

Where we go to school.

Our school. You jelly? 

To appease my parents, I'll mention that school is going pretty well. Our workload is light and the classes are mostly discussion. Stolen Art is more interesting than Transnational Technology, but our TT professor is lively and fun. He tells great stories about his cats and personal life, which really excites me at 8:00AM. I'm currently in class, blogging (sorry, mom), and my espresso has still not kicked in. Come on, 10:05AM!

After class yesterday, Timothy and I tried a little pizza place. Although I was against going to a pizza place in France, we heard great things about this restaurant.

We walk in, and are immediately ignored by the manager. When he does approach us, he is rude and inattentive, pointing to a table for us to sit. We order our drinks, and then are made to move to another table, which was awkward. Finally, we get settled in an exiled table that was obviously made for Americans. Whatevs.

He brings our drinks, which are wrong. My Coca-Cola is diet (gross) and our wine is red (yuck). We corrected him, and he huffed and puffed, but ultimately brought us our correct drinks (regular coke and white wine).

Timothy and I complained a bit to each other about this guy, our first rude interaction in France. Who did he think he was? We are good-eating Americans who want to blog about his restaurant, and here he is, being a total meanie (excuse my French). Luckily, the pizza made up for his behavior.

Our pizza

The pizza was super hot and delicious, with a thick crust and creamy cheese. It was so well-made, that I ignored my rude waiter, and just enjoyed my meal.

Enjoying my wine, with a happy plate! 

After, Timothy convinced me to pass up the chocolate mousse (my favorite) to get the tiramisu. It was...all right.

Tiramisu, with wine and espresso, of course. 

Which do I love more?

To cook the pizzas, the workers made it fresh right here, in this wood fire oven:

After lunch, we fell into this spa to find these awesome fish-pedicure-eat-you-dead-skin things. I was skeptical at first, but, in the end, Timothy convinced me to do it (duh). So here we are, getting our feet eaten.

Nom nom fishies. 

Fishies love my feet. 

After all of this, we spent the next few hours resting up to join the rest of the LSU LAWers at a super fun party. Since my camera cord mysteriously disappeared, I can't upload these pictures at this time. Hopefully, I'll find the cord soon so you can indulge in our party habits in France.

It is now the weekend in Lyon. I realize that back home, it is 6:00AM. I'm sure my parents are waking up, getting ready for work, and I've been to two classes, lunch, packing, unpacking to look for my camera cord, and completed a blog post.

So what am I doing my first official weekend in France? We were supposed to go to London but yesterday, decided against it. Instead, we are visiting the Chablis region of France. Apparently, this region is known for their Chardonnays, which is my favorite wine. Thus, we will be touring vineyards and tasting all kinds of extremely delicious wines.

I will take too many pictures, as usual, so stay tuned.