9/8/11

Today was a historic day for Lyon. I think I wrote in here earlier how the Arch Bishop was coming to Lyon to bless the city like he does every year. The city was in jubilance. We woke up and met Canova in the metro station and he said we had to book it up to Fourviere because the monasteries and nunneries surrounding Notre Dam de Fouviere were, in celebration of the day, having a sort of flea market of their books and pictures they’ve collected and don’t need anymore. On the way up Canovas told me that he collects antiques. Especially books. He has a collection of books so rare the ASU museum has part of his collection on display. His crowning piece is an official document had written on velum and signed by Louis XVI. That is seriously incredible.

Once up there I went into a frenzy. The books were BEAUTIFUL. And because I was a student they sold them to me for dirt cheap. I got four books for 6 euros. The books have incredible spines and odd swirly patterns all over them. Canovas explained that it was a combination of oils and water that separate from each other and make those cool designs. That’s how they used to decorate books. The books are right now my prized possessions. I don’t think I’ve ever owned anything I’ve loved more. Most are from the 1850s but my oldest one, an edition of one of the books of Psalms is from 1815. They are sitting on my shelf and I’ve been staring at them lovingly all day.

While we were all fawning over our books and waiting for Canovas to finish sniffing out all the most amazing ones, the churches on the hill started to celebrate the arrival of the arch bishop in Lyon with bells chiming. We were standing in Notre Dam de Fourviere’s courtyard at the time and it was overwhelming. It was beautiful, I’ve never heard anything like it. I took a video, hopefully I can put it up eventually. After that we went down to the renaissance district and went on another history tour. We went to the Cathedral de San Jean, or Saint John the Baptist’s Cathedral and looked at how the base stones of the foundation were actually stones from the old temples and other roman buildings up on the hill. There were still engravings in Latin on some of them. Next to the cathedral are old ruins of other parts of the church complex during the renaissance ages. There was a small perish for locals, and also a baptistery. One of the interesting things I learned about the baptistery is that in the early ages of Catholicism, they did baptism as Mormons do. They had a huge basin where people would go in and become fully emerged and rise out of the water a new person.

Those two parts of the church complex fell to ruin because the cathedral was still in progress. That particular cathedral took over 300 years to complete. So at the time they were part of the cathedral but once the cathedral progressed in size they weren’t needed and were blocked off.

After that he took us to see a house of a noble family that lived here in the renaissance. It was incredibly ornate and beautifully painted on the inside. They had they’re own well and a coat of arms on everything. He told us that Lyonaise people are different from most people in Paris or other parts of France. He said that Parisains are very flashy and ornate and the Lyonaise are more conserved on the outside, but once you walk inside it was lush and beautiful but never overdone. It could be his bias for the city, but I believe him.

He took us to a restaurant for lunch and we had a traditional 3 course French meal. It was insane and I’ve been stuffed ever since. It’s a bit ridiculous. After that the girls and I went back to San Jean and looked around inside. It was BREATHTAKING. I felt like I was walking into a picture in one of my art history textbooks. The beautiful vaulted ceilings and the stained glass windows… I really don’t know how to put into words. When I have more time I’ll try. Haha

I had the second part of my placement test today. Listening and reading comprehension. Honestly I think it went really well. But that kinda scares me. Haha. Its hard to gage whether or not you did really well or not. I did realize however how much I am picking up here. I didn’t think I was really doing very well with the language but the amount I caught off the bat today was awesome. I am really excited. But at the same time I still have quite a ways to go and I am so rearing to go.

Well off to our next adventure! A bientot!