Lyon, France

3:36 p.m.

What a weekend! Thursday through Saturday night wiped me out completely! I went out on Thursday night and went dancing and drinking. It was a great time! It was so strange though, the music the bars played was mostly American music. I guess our Beyonce and Lady Gaga are popular in France as well.

On Saturday morning, I took the train with eleven other people from my group. We went to Lyon, France. I didn't really know what was in Lyon but once we got there, I found it to be an amazing city. Vieux Lyon (or Old Lyon) was the part of the city we went to. My favorite part of the trip was going to le basilique Notre-Dame by funicular (and inclined railway), The Notre-Dame basilique was a HUGE basilica that had breathtaking architechture and art inside. The colors and the intricate design made me believe that God really had to have had a part in building it, because there is no way that human beings could have made something so beautiful. I had a spiritual moment while inside, and it is something I will never forget. Also, the Amphithéâtres Gallo-Romain were ruins of an old Roman theatre. It was amazing to think about the time in which it was built, roughly 2-50 A.D. My group and I had an amazing time taking pictures and goofing off here. What was amazing to me was the idea that there had been over 2,000 years of history that has passed since the huge stone theatre was built. The link between the times is astonishing when you imagine what it would have looked like then, and then to see how the ruins look now.

I explored le Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts) and saw paintings by Monet, artifacts that dated back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Paintings from the 10th century to the present day were displayed. I was in shock to see the detail that artists used in the past, and the color. It was so refreshing to see art that was so different from our time. Looking at the actual paintings is so much more rewarding then when you see them in a book. I was amazed at the size of many of the paintings; some covered entire walls, while others were no bigger than a textbook.

We rode the Ferris Wheel at Place Bellecour once it became dark outside. The lights in the city were beautiful. The buildings were illuminated in colors and the view of the city was spectacular; even in the dark, it was painted in color. By the end of the day, I was exhausted from all of the walking! The train ride home lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, and the minute my head hit my pillow when I got home, I was out cold.