Weekend in France - Part 1 - Lyon

Our long weekend in France seemed very long indeed.

We left our apartment at 7 am on Saturday morning and arrived by train in Lyon, France at 9 pm. We had to switch trains in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, before arriving in Lyon.

In Lyon, we stayed with Arlin and Pam Hendrix who are missionaries there. Arlin has been friends with my parents since college at Harding, and he actually performed my parents wedding ceremony. So I've heard about them and their work in France my entire life.

Their house is a little outside Lyon, which is the 2nd largest city in France. We went to church with them on Sunday morning. It was good to worship with believers, even if we couldn't pronounce the words in the songbooks, or understand all of the sermon. Pam sat next to us and wrote summaries of what Arlin was saying onto a notepad so that we knew what the lesson was about and what scriptures he was reading.

Then we ate a traditional French meal at their house. It was delicious, especially since we haven't had home cooking in over a month. We had bread and salad with breaded goat cheese for the first course. This is actually the first time I've ever had goat cheese and liked it. Then we got up and prepared the main course of the meal. The potatoes had already been boiling and the cobbler was in the oven. We also fixed the green beans, and cooked the pork chops and wild mushroom gravy. Then we sat down for the main course. The next course is cheese, and I tried only one kind because I knew dessert was still coming and was already getting full. Barry had a soft, spreadable cheese with herbs in it on a piece of French bread. Then we had a pear cobbler for dessert. We arrived home from church at 12:30 and were done eating at 3 pm.

Then Arlin and Pam took us on a 3 hour driving and walking tour of Lyon to see the historical sites. We saw ruins of an amphitheater where Christian martyrs were killed. We saw an overview of the beautiful city from a park on a hill. Then we went to the heart of the town and walked around. We went into several courtyards inside the buildings that have been there for centuries. Some of the courtyards still have the well structures. We saw the ruins of a Roman amphitheater that actually was a theater. It held around 11,000 people, and it was amazing to realize how old it was. Then we went to a huge Catholic basillica (meaning the pope has visited it) that sits on top of a hill overlooking all of Lyon.

It was a wonderful tour, and a beautiful city. We wish we could have spent more time there, but we had to catch a train that night back to Paris.

Click here to visit Arlin and Pam Hendrix's mission web site.