Family Visit

Rick and Paul in the neighbourhood
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Rick:

We have spent the last couple of days in Lyon visiting Kyra's family.  It is interesting to meet and see the extended French family.  Cousins, aunts, and uncle have converged to see Kyra, and to meet me too.

Hurdling down hills faster than we could pedal

Kyra's grandmother has come to live with her aunt Mylene and uncle Jean-Paul.  She is getting near the end, so we are glad to have seen her.

En Route
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Kyra's cousins Paul and Emilie live here in Lyon.  Helene and her partner Michael have come up from near Marseilles.  Armelle (who Kyra traveled with in Ecuador) has come down from Paris.  Aunt Dany came in from Tosse.  And cousin Stephane came from Oyonnax with his wife Nathalie and their kids, Manon, Alex, and Nathan.

We have had a great time with the various cousins.  I am at sea most of the time with the language.  I have had some amusing conversations with Emilie, she speaking English and me attempting French.

with Mamie
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The city is pretty cool.  The architecture is incredible, such a range in age.  Real history.  In the Old Lyon, we walked through these passages between buildings.  They were used in the silk weaving industry as a means of getting product from place to place without exposing it to the weather.  These passages became likely places for muggings and murder.  Built up over many years, there is an interesting variety of architectural styles.

We had an interesting time yesterday when we had to meet Armelle at the train.  5 of us rented these public vending machine bikes and went on a breakneck race down through the city.  We dodged through traffic, passed busses, weaved our way through pedestrians, and hurdled down hills faster than we could pedal the 3 speed public bikes.  Fun.

Cobble Alley
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This afternoon we head toward Marseilles with Helene and Michael.  We will spend the night with them and meet our boat the tomorrow.

Kyra

Rick is right, it has been an eventful couple of days!!  We literally traveled for 24 hours before arriving to Lyon, we didn't have time to be exhausted - we've been very well fed (thank goodness Paul my young cousin put me through my paces) - we went running together - some of Lyon is very hilly! We did abs and a crazy series of pushups  - I think he was secretly enjoying torturing me!

Kyra and Friends
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The old Lyon is very cool: narrow cobblestone streets, cool little wine bars and cafes.  One shop window had a display of Barbapapas - these cute amorphous characters from my childhood... Some aspects here are particularly familiar, from my childhood and from my visits to France over the years.

Getting to know some of my cousins is a true novelty - it's very cool to realize how much we have in common - the language barrier between Rick and my relatives is repeatedly amusing - and I don't always correct mistakes for my own entertainment - hee hee!

Kyra, Paul, and Emilie
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I am grateful to have connected with my grandmother, I know this is the last time I will see her - in truth this is our goodbye.