Bonjour tout le monde !
Being March, I’ve heard that back at the Auckland campus, you all are just starting out with the semester. But I’ve been at uni since January!
I’m studying in France, in Lyon which is the second (or third, depending on who you ask!) biggest city in France. It’s about 2 hours by bus to Geneva, and 2-3 hours by train to the Southern coast of France.
I’m staying in a student residence about 20 minutes away from uni taking the underground metro, which is so fast! I met a really amazing group of friends at my residence and also in some classes. It’s really great being able to pop upstairs to someone’s room for a cuppa and some delicious Bonne Maman Madaleines to share, which are these delicious buttery muffin-type things (no offence French people for the comparison). Especially after living at home for my first year, it’s great living with and spending so much time with other students, especially being away from home!
Without further ado, here are some photos and stories of the things I’ve done here!
We went on a walking tour in the first week we arrived to explore the city, which was a bit of a grey day unfortunately. It doesn’t rain here much though, I kinda miss the Auckland rain all the time to be honest haha! The tower on the hill in the distance is a radio tower, and apparently some proud Lyonnais (residents of Lyon) say that if you include the hill below it, it’s technically taller than the Eiffel Tower! I loved that.
Here’s a pic of me at the top of the hill! We have a really beautiful Basilica (read: big old gold fancy church) in Lyon and you take a little tram up the hill to get there. It was freezing cold that day! It was so cool though, I finished class at 2 that day so just went for a little wander. Some lovely Turkish students who were just visiting for a few weeks took this photo of me.
Here’s a picture of the Rhône, or the Sâone, I can’t remember which because there are two rivers that meet in Lyon, which is why it became such an economic hub back in the day. Lyon was very famous for its silk production, which is why in the Old Town, a lot of doorways are exceptionally tall because people needed to fit the looms into their houses where they would work!
I also got to go to Carcassonne in January for trip to a film festival run by a student organisation, which was really cool! It’s how I became really good friends with a Wellingtonian exchange student who I went to Italy with in the recent uni break, which was also amazing.
Got to try an Orangina in Carcassonne, the original French beverage of choice (not counting wine lol), which was delicious:
But as for photos of the scenery…. well, Carcassonne is known for its medieval fortress, which we were able to explore. It was magical, especially being there in the middle of winter where there was virtually no one there.
Just to the side there was a beautiful view across the little city of Carcassonne. I was surprised to know that Carcassonne is actually smaller than Napier. Being an Auckland city girl, I always thought that international “cities” were really big but it makes me realise just how big Auckland actually is!
At the start of February, I was also able to go to Annecy for a day trip, which was only 2 hours away on the bus. It’s considered to be “little Venice” because of the quaint little river running through it! It was magic, though, we got to eat galette – think light crispy savoury crepe, mine had egg and goat’s cheese and greens which was yum – right next to the river gushing by. It was freezing, but beautiful!
Here’s a photo of the bakery we stopped at in Annecy, which was lovely. The owners came up to us and explained all the different kinds of pastries, or pâtisseries. The pastries here truly are amazing, wish I could try them all. I had this delicious chestnutty one you can see at the bottom of the photo.
Featuring me in the background! I was with a group of Canadian exchange students that day, mainly from Toronto. Here they’re trying to travel as much as possible, they’re now over halfway through their goal of visiting 10 countries while on exchange, which is crazy!
Here’s a serene picture of the lake at Aix-les-Bains where we stopped on our way back to Lyon. We walked along and it was great getting to know other students. A lot of exchange students here are from English-speaking countries.
As I mentioned, I went to Italy at the start of this month however I will stick to France with my photos for the sake of documenting the exchange experience! I will say though that it was also incredible. We went to Rome and Venice (where I got food poisoning unfortunately) and I had this surreal experience, or a renewal of it, like you can’t believe you’re really there. I’ve always wanted to travel, to France, to Rome, Europe (but also everywhere to be honest) and I’ll be going to the UK after the semester before coming home, but I never imagined that it would happen so soon in my life! It’s also a really soul filling feeling to meet the kindest and most interesting people overseas. It makes me feel like you can find friendships, and you can find incredible people wherever you go. I feel there’s something about being on exchange and overseas in general puts people in a kind of environment that makes them stick together. I think it makes us value people more when you’re not in your normal environment and you know that people are always there, and so you don’t really reach out to them or appreciate them as much as you would otherwise. It’s a totally different social feeling here which I really love and would like to bring with me back home.
I think I’ll leave it there for today and leave the rest for the next post! If you’re thinking about going on exchange to France, or even to a non-English speaking country, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Bisou, Chloe 🥐