As travelers, we all have memories over which we constantly reminisce. There are the hazy snapshots from our first time on an airplane, the impromptu 8-hour bus ride because tickets went cheap, the spontaneous road trip with friends and that dreamy European city that made us take the leap and move abroad. Every experience is meaningful in its own right but the one milestone I tend to think about the most is my first solo trip to Lyon because of what it taught me about anxiety. One of my 2019 resolutions was to explore more in France Yet, May came along and I had still only managed to visit one city… Paris. With the academic year over, I was determined to make the most of my summer. Some googling away and my itinerary was set: for the first leg of the trip, I would visit some friends in Grenoble and then I would travel solo to Lyon. To top off the solo experience? Going to the Nuits Sonores festival to watch live my favorite artist, James Blake.
Lyon, France’s third biggest city, was an absolute joy to discover. It is a luminous city, and I mean this quite literally: it is famous for the Fête des Lumières in December and the Lumière brothers are lyonnais. Located in south-east of France, the people are incredibly welcoming (dare I say they’re the sweetest in all of France?).
After checking into my hostel room and as I was ready to set out for a first glimpse of the city, I felt my all too familiar anxiety bubbling up. Here I was, the epitome of an introvert in a city I’ve never been before, with hardly any research done prior to my arrival and barely knowing anyone. But, as J.D. McClatchy said, “anxiety is sewn into the lining of euphoria.” So I started wandering around aimlessly and my feet eventually carried me to the Cour des Voraces. Through the shortcut there, I climbed up the slopes of La Croix-Rousse and took in the beauty of the city from above, before entering Vieux Lyon where I fueled up on the local cuisine. And you can’t possibly be in France if you don’t visit at least one cathedral. There are two must-sees in Lyon; the Saint Jean Cathedral and the Notre Dame de Fourvière up on the hill. The fact that I didn’t properly do my research came back to bite me because I wasn’t aware of the fact that there was a funicular and I had to climb some very steep steps. For those wondering, by the end of the day I had walked 20 kilometers
