My School in Lyon

While I am in Lyon this semester, I am attending IDRAC, a marketing and management school with a presence in numerous French cities.  Although Washington & Jefferson will always be my "home"... I find that IDRAC ranks high with it.  Not only are the faculty and staff great... but the students are amazing.  Incredibly welcoming and friendly.  They are also certainly creative.

As a project several years ago, members of my current class put together a lipdub video of themselves in the IDRAC building.  It is absolutely awesome!  It has also given me a few ideas...

But go ahead and check it out when you need a laugh... and see where I go to school.

W&J in Lyon

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, October is certainly my busiest month while I am here in Lyon.  In this month alone, I’ve already finished four of my courses for the semester.  I am extremely thrilled to say that they are all going very well, though.  Our fall break at W&J was last weekend (which is usually the time I am in need of a few nights at home with my parent’s cooking and being in my own bed while watching reruns of Golden Girls and Friends to de-stress after midterms and build my energy back up to finish the semester).

Although going home wasn’t really an option, I was surprised to actually get the W&J home feeling here in Lyon.  During the week, I was visited by a member from my college’s Global Education!  Sara was doing a tour through France and meeting with not only W&J’s partner institutions, but also the students from W&J currently studying abroad.  I was so thrilled to be able to show off IDRAC and the city of Lyon.  It was also great to be able to go out to eat and catch up on everything.

Now I mentioned in my post about food that I would be blogging about the restaurants.  WELL… I thought I would give you a glimpse of the restaurant where I ate last week...  Le Gourmand De Saint Jean.  It is certainly an incredible restaurant with the traditional feel of a Lyonnaise bouchon.  I was also personally thrilled to have a traditional Lyonnaise salad as well as duck (which is rather difficult to make in my apartment without an oven).  The night was ended perfectly by eating some delicious desserts of panna cotta and a molten chocolate cake.  French Desserts = Happy Jeffrey.



Since I have neglected the blog recently, I will be posting a handful of posts this week.  For instance, I will be showing you an awesome project that my school here did a few years ago.  I will also be sharing pictures and stories from this past weekend’s adventure.  Now that I have a little time to breathe, I will begin the writing and photo uploading.

Cheers!

Ardèche: Part II

 

            As I mentioned in Part I of my Ardèche post, Ardèche is certainly known for its geographical features.  Having explored the mountains and caves the day prior, it was time for us to explore a different part of Ardèche.  The River.

            The Ardèche is a river (about 125 kilometers or 88 miles in length) that flows in south-central France through the valleys of the French department, Ardèche.  It is an absolutely stunning view when looking at the river as it flows through the gorges of the Ardèche cliffs.  It is also even more stunning when looking at the gorges and landscape views while on the river.  That’s right!  While in Ardèche, we went canoeing on the river!  I know that many of you right now are counting in your head the number of things that could have gone wrong with me in a canoe on a 125-kilometer river.  Surprisingly... I managed rather well!

               Our journey began with suiting up in lifejackets, getting our waterproof containers and paddles, and pulling our canoes down to the river.  It was certainly a beautiful day to go canoeing with the sun shining.  Unfortunately, it was not enough to warm the waters of the river… so stepping foot into the river to launch the canoe was certainly an awakening to us all.    One by one, we all launched into the river and began the 31-kilometer journey.  That’s right… 31 KILOMETERS!  (Equivalent to nearly 20 miles!)  This was going to be a long day.

            The day was filled with adventures, laughs, huge rapids (if my friends are reading this) / small rapids (if my parents are reading this), beautiful scenic views, and numerous breaks.  In all seriousness, the “rapids” were more like faster flowing sections of the river (which was touchable in most parts just by standing up).  In fact, it was rather comical when somebody would get stranded on the rocks since it was too shallow in some sections.  The overall boating experience was incredible, though!  It was certainly great walking around a bit and enjoying some down time during our breaks for lunch and relaxation.

            One of the most amazing sections of the river is at the Pont d’Arc.  You can see a picture of the arch attached with this post.  It was incredible being able to go under the arch and then stop to walk around and take pictures.  Ardèche has plenty of eye-catching geographical features that certainly make the 20-mile journey enjoyable.  The journey down the river was certainly a bonding experience for us all as well as a chance to discover our strengths (both physical and non-physical).  I am certainly glad that I was able to say that I conquered the Ardèche river… or at least a portion of it.  


I certainly slept well on the car ride back to Lyon.

Who knows what the next adventure may bring...

Ardèche: Part I

            

I apologize for the lack in posts over the past two weeks.  October is turning out to be my busiest month while I am here in Lyon (both in and out of class).  Last weekend, I had an absolutely incredible time traveling to Ardèche, which is located in south-central France.  Although not very well known when considering tourist areas in France (such as Paris, Marseille, or Nice), Ardèche is certainly famous for a very unique feature.  It’s Geography. 

Ardèche is a very diverse area when looking at its geographic features.  The towering mountains, incredible plateaus, scenic valleys, and winding river (which I’ll specifically mention in my next post) make traveling to Ardèche an absolutely amazing experience.  What is even more fascinating about Ardèche is that some of the earliest known cave paintings were found in the caves of Ardèche.  To give you an idea, it is believed that the paintings were created approximately 30,000 to 32,000 years ago.  Evidently, I did not inherit this artistic gene as humanity evolved.

However, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to travel here last weekend for two days of sightseeing, cave exploring, and kayaking (which I will also discuss in the next blog post).  After a car ride with incredible landscape views, a small group of us from my school arrived at the Aven d’Orgnac.  Here, we had the chance to go within the mountains to see the incredible cave systems.  

It was absolutely magnificent to see the varying rock formations rising from the floor and hanging from above.  Although I have a picture on here, it doesn’t do the cave justice.  I have attached a video below that shows some of the marvels of the cave system.  I am also proud to say that despite my usual clumsiness, I made it through the journey in the cave without falling, stumbling, or hitting my head on any stalactites.  My tours for the Office of Admission at W&J are paying off.

            After leaving the cave system, our group went to our overnight location where we had a picnic for lunch, rested, and had a scrumptious dinner.  I was extremely pleased to find that we had a VERY traditional French dinner (as you can see above).  The amount of French influence in the meal was just overwhelming.  BUT... we certainly needed to build our energy for what was coming the next day.