Train ride for the vacant mind and voila! Lyon!

Finding your way through a French train station is not easy if you don't speak the language but thankfully there are little icons that could guide you or confuse you even more.  For example, a little picture of a train and an arrow could indicate that your train is that way or it could mean that if you go that way there might be a train, not your train necessarily, but some train. In a large train station there might be several halls, as they are called, that might have your train, but there is no guarantee of that, you must either trust that a train could be there or shake your head in resignation that all is lost.  Then go get a coffee and a croissant and wait for enlightenment.

Being paranoid of missing my train, I was at the Gare de Lyon about an hour early, which was fine because it gave me time to get that coffee and croissant in plenty of time for the enlightenment. The other thing about the train station, unlike an airport, is that there is no announcement about trains leaving the station. The French expect you to be grownup enough to get your ass on the train without being prompted.  At about 20 minutes before my train was to depart I was tired of sitting in the Waiting for Enlightenment section (having finished my coffee and croissant) and I wandered over to where I thought my train might be and it appeared that people were casually walking down the path to the train. "Well then" I thought so I did the same and after stumbling around a bit trying to find Voiture 3 (car 3) I foolishly asked a railroad person for clarification and of course they (there were three of them in one group) all shook their heads collectively and did that French lip purse thing until one pointed at the train car nearest me that clearly was marked Voiture 2 and said "Ici." Then he said it in English in case I didn't know was "ici" meant which of course I did but really? I even showed him my ticket which stated Voiture 3 but he was undeterred. So I got on car 2 and went upstairs as he pointed and he was correct, of course, my seat number was there, although nowhere did it EVER say 3. I was grateful for his help but puzzled at the mystery.

Sigh.

Train rides are so lovely, so soothing, your mind can just go away for a while. It was only a two hour ride, I could have stayed on that train for another two hours. For me there is always something about traveling in a foreign country that makes me want to change my life and nowhere does manifest itself more clearly than on a train ride through the countryside.  Don't ask me why, it just happens. Four hours is the perfect distance, so this was short by half. But here I am, in what is definitely a person's apartment unlike the flat in Paris which was so casually sterile. I think it will be a good city for two days, at least the part I saw today was new to me, old to France, there's an old section (in which I am staying) and a newer one just across the river which is just across a bridge from my flat. I found snacks and a couple of places open tonight (it seems Lyon takes a break on Mondays) if I decide my snacks are not cutting it for dinner.

Here is a photo from my 6th floor flat and my snacks, which could be my dinner.