Grenoble, Lyon
The bus for Lyon left at 8:30 in the morning. I hurried from my apartment to the bakery down the street to get baked good for the ride. Luckily, the tram was functioning so I was able to get to the station without any difficulty. The ride was about an hour and a half, so I took a light snooze after watching the mountains disappear behind us.
Our first stop of the day was a guided tour of a former state prison facility. Montluc opened in 1921 and originally served as a military prison. However, due to the lack of wars following WWI, it sat empty for a long period of time. When the Nazis invaded France, the prison served as a holding ground for members of the French resistance, communists, and Jews. After the war, the prison was converted for use by the general public. Walls in the prison separated the male and female prisoners. Eventually, the facility held only women. In France, women are allowed to keep babies with them inside prison up to 18 months. Because France does not allow male guards in women’s facilities due to the high rate of abuse perpetrated by male guards on female inmates, some children do not see men for the first year and a half of their lives. The prison was closed in 2009 when Lyon closed two other facilities to build a new building that was up to date on prisoner conditions.
Many of my classmates did not care for the tour, however I really appreciated because of my time in the Prisoner Creative Arts Project. It was shocking to me that people were forced to occupy that building until 2009. Cells weren’t big enough to fit a full bed inside. There were no toilets, no sinks in cells. There were only tiny windows, no furniture was provided until the late 1990s, and no common places for socialize. Essentially every cell was solitary confinement. I was surprised to see that women and men were in the same facility and that in many places in France they still do remain in the same facility. We got to see where resistance fighters were imprisoned during WWII, one of them Jean Moulin who was eventually tortured to death by the Nazis. I was saddened by the general conditions and couldn’t help but think of how the women, children, and men who were imprisoned there must have suffered on a daily basis.
Following our tour, we were allowed to split into smaller groups for the day. We had about six hours of free time, so I really wanted to maximize what I got to do. Brenna, Jillian, and I started the day off with a nice lunch. Though it was incredibly windy and sometimes rainy, it was enjoyable to sit on the patio and watched people walk by with their dogs. I had duck with figs on top, a salad, and cheesy potatoes with my meal. I also enjoyed a great panaché.
From the restaurant in Vieux Lyon, we hiked to the La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. It was grueling, but I was all the more happy to reach the top. The chapel was breath taking. The amount of detail in the gold work, the mosaics, and the paintings was simply incredible. While there we saw the main church, a small prayer chapel, and the catacombes below (which host a series of moderately creepy versions of the Virgin Mary from around the world).
Next on our list was the Roman ruins. Much of this part of France is covered in Roman ruins due to their occupation of Gaul. The ruins we saw included columns, walls, and entire theaters where bands were warming up for a concert they would give later that night. I thought it was wonderful that the structures were still being used for their original purpose.
The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière sat directly next to the ruins, so of course we had to go in. We got to see a lot of items that were discovered throughout the city, similarly to the museum that I had visited in Grenoble. There were vases, tools, jewelry, mosaics, and more. The temporary exhibit was on toys throughout the ages. It features balls, sculptures, and went all the way through to modern video games.
Brenna was getting tired, so we all stopped for a snack. I grabbed one of my favorite desserts, the tarte-aux-fraises (strawberry tart).
After replenishing our energy, we walked across the street to the massive church in the square. I was surprised to find that it was the Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste! A beautiful cobble stone square sat in front of it, complete with a wonderful fountain depicting saints completing miracles. The interior of the church rivaled Notre Dame de Paris. The ceilings were incredibly high, the stained glass windows beautifully intricate, and the treasures were priceless. I was so thrilled to discover two of my favorite people in French history (Henri IV and Marie de Médicis) were married in that church! Jillian discovered that it was commissioned by St. Louis, the holy king of France. It was a wonderful stop on our trip.
We wandered back to the meeting point, completely exhausted. There was still a little time left so I explored the surrounding area, discovering a monument to the Armenian genocide in a nearby park. Beyond it sat a series of fountains that children were playing in, a huge metal bouquet of flowers, and the shining blue waters of the Rhône river.
The ride back to Grenoble seemed to pass in an instant. I was so exhausted that I fell right to sleep. Dinner that night was simple because of the intense heat – no salad, just baked tomatoes stuffed with spiced ground beef and rice. For dessert we had bread and cheese.
I decided that because it was likely my last weekend in Grenoble, I should go out to the concert in the park. I met up with several others in my class and enjoyed talking and dancing with them to a group that sang in 3 different languages. It was a strange night from that point forward. The men behind us were really rowdy and seemed to be inching closer to us every minute. I moved through the crowd to be closer to the men in our group. However, when I did a man came up next to me and grabbed my hair shouting, “You’re beautiful! Your hair is wonderful!” I told him to leave me alone, but he refused to until I put his number in my phone. He and his friend finally left after agreeing that American girls were too beautiful to ignore. I rolled my eyes and went back to enjoying the night with my friends.
When the concert ended at midnight we walked together to a local dancing bar. I’ve decided it’s a gay bar, because I never see straight men or women there. Tara and I split a bottle of raspberry wine and had fun dancing to bad American pop music with everyone else. By 1 am we realized the trams would be stopping soon, so we all left the bar together. Tara was heading another direction than everyone else, so I volunteered to walk her to her tram so she wouldn’t be alone. My house is only about 5 minutes away from the stop so I didn’t think it would be an issue. However, when we reached the stop we realized that the trams weren’t running at all because of construction in the area. It was a 40 minute walk to her house. I asked her to stay with me, but she refused to I decided to walk with her for a few minutes and then to talk on the phone as she walked. When we got up from the stop a man started following us. He repeated asked to add us on social media, for our numbers, and we repeated said no that we wanted him to leave us alone. He continued following and asked in French and then through Google translate if we would have sex with him. I raised my voice at him and told him off in French, finally he slunk away.
We stopped at the next tram stop and I asked her again to walk with me, but she said no. Another group of men came up and sat by us. They asked us to split a cab, to walk with them, or to tell them which way we needed to go. We said no and tried to ignore them, we didn’t want them to know where we were going. The man sitting next to me told me it was smart to avoid men, because “they only want one thing.” He leaned over and asked if I knew what it was and if I would describe it for him. Tara and I loudly said he needed to leave to find his friends. Tara decided she would start walking so we took out our phones and were talking as we walked. I happened to pass a McDonald’s and saw two of our male friends inside. I told them that we had been followed and Tara needed help getting home, that I didn’t feel safe with her being alone. I am so thankful that they ran to find her down the street. They all were able to take a cab together back to her house and she got home safely. I made it back fine and stayed on the phone with my cousin. I was yelled at a few times on the way back, but no one followed me.
I was shocked and am still shocked by the experience. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me. I am so thankful that nothing worse happened.
Mary-Est-En-France 