Brittany Burkhalter: The Crazy Frenchies & How Do You Think That It's Pronounced!

Back again! Brandon came to visit this weekend from Vichy. There was some problem with the trains, so he got in really late Friday night. We all went to see Ann-Sophie, because she is moving back to Germany. That was the rest of Friday. Now, onto Saturday.

Warning! There are a lot of pictures after this, get ready! But I promise, it will be entertaining.

And Saturday begins!

Claire made us lunch!

The bread thing is a Lyonais speciality. It is a brioche (which means it's delicious) with a sausage in the middle. It was super good!

After lunch, we decided to go do something! Obviously! Our plan for the day was to go to the grocery store, and then ride a boat to a the new mall that just opened this weekend. In France, Easter is a huge holdiay, go figure, so everyone has Monday off. Additionally, since Monday is a jour ferier, a holiday, like Sundays, everything, and I mean everything, will be closed. So, we did need to stock up on some food for the weekend if we wanted to eat.

I think each of us has already made that mistake in France, not having food for the holidays, because if you don't prepare, there is literally nowhere open.

Brandon buying metro tickets for the day! They were 4,90 euro each. Eh!

Meanwhile, Claire took some passport pictures to send to her new school. So this is odd for America, but not in France. These machines are EVERYWHERE! Seriously, there was one in a bathroom that I went to the other day. There are picture booths to take passport pictures in. I guess this makes sense, because, like every form that you submit to the French government requires at least two pictures, but seriously, a bathroom location!

Anyway, Claire is submitting something for her grad school next year, she needed two pictures, and she had a 5 euro bill so viola, she took some.

Then Brandon tried to mess her up. She was unfazed.

Going into the metro!

Brandon's eyes were very blue today, he usually has brown eyes.... but I am not sure that you can really tell that they looked blue from this picture. Later, Claire's eyes turned green. Mine were still brown. :(

We finally made it to the grocery store. We came to one like a 45 minutes away: a walk, two metro changes and a tram ride and a walk, from Claire's house. It's called Auchan and Ikea is next to it! We came here to see Ikea and because Auchan is huge!

But, by the time we got there, we were tired, so we took a coffee break. Really, really good coffee. We sat next to a girl who was super thin, and was eating four pastries and a coffee. Hmm...

On to Auchan!

Okay, so we walk into Auchan, and what is the first thing we see.... unsupervised wine tasting! Enjoy, it's France!

Play on words for those French. Kind of how you say eggs....

Keep in mind this place is massive!

My obsession! This cereal never gets old. I think that I am going to try and bring boxes of this stuff home! It's like that best thing ever!

So, we're walking around Auchan, and let me tell you, it is nuts. It is so crazy, there are so many people here! I have never seen this many people in one store, not even in a Costco or mall at Christmas. They were like ants, everywhere. You would have thought that the food was free.

Haricots Verts!

This was the check out line. It took us at least 30 minutes to get to the front! Our line was called Mimosa!

Leaving Auchan, they has a climbing and ropes course for kids that ran the entire length of the store. Claire told me that I was going to get arrested for taking pictures of children.

Back at the apartment, we dropped our stuff out, prepared for cooler weather and headed out again! Time for the boat and the new mall!

I love Brando's face is the picture above, so funny!

Not exactly ready for that one....

Better!

This is the opera house in Lyon.

A cool fountain.

Pretty, I believe that this is the Saone! There are two rivers that run through Lyon, the Rhone and the Saone. Ann-Sophie told us that we should ride a boat from here to the new mall.

But, when we got there, the boat wasn't supposed to come for 45 minutes. So, we went across the street to an English Pub! Claire and I were going to get our Gin & Tonic and Vodka Tonic respectively, but then.... we saw... that they.... had.... Strongbow..... on tap! So we each got a pint! That was a lot! Then of course, we got hungry and had onion rings.

Notice the "Voisin," bag, that is filled with chocolate for Easter! We ate some of that too!

Here comes the boat!!!!

Okay, so here it the new mall. It may not look impressive, but it was THE COOLEST MALL slash place that I have ever seen! It is so futuristic I can't even tell you! It is like Star Wars meets Back to the Future II, but all modern and in 2012, not the 80's! It was so cool!

Here we go!!! Getting closer to the mall!

Inside!

There was a Hollister!!!!

Okay, so this is the roof, and it changes colors all the time!

A climbing wall inside!

Now the roof is blue!

Okay, get ready. This where we ate for dinner. Why? Guess!
How would you pronounce this? We kept saying that name over and over, well actually, I kept saying it a lot... it was so funny! But first.... I had an emergency!

I had to pee really badly after that pint, so here's the bathroom.... it was really, really cool!

Check out the sink! It was just one long sleek thing and then all the water would drain towards that line in middle under the faucet! Super cool!

Escalator anyone?

So, we finally made it to Fuxia. It was crazy in there too because it had just opened, but we were starving. Didn't even take a picture of food because we were so hungry! The wine here was totally mediocre, but did that stop us, no! The food was really good though, a bit surprising.