Back to school

First day of university today. Together with my aunt we managed to figure out exactly where to go and how to get there. So with a cool breeze and the sun out this morning she walked with me to the station. It felt a little bit like the first day back at school; excitement and nerves.

The commute from the house to IDRAC University took me just under 30 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. The university is in a more modern part of the city and is situated on the west side of the river Saône. Lyon is separated into 9 divisions, and IDRAC is just between the 5th and 9th division, by Gorge de Loup, not too far from the old town of Lyon.

This morning’s induction session was an opportunity for us to meet other exchange students, to understand IDRAC’s student life, and to get to know our way around the university campus a little bit. In the afternoon, me and 2 other exchange students took the opportunity to sort a few things out together and explore the city a little bit. After making our way through the long queue at the ‘Gorge de Loup’ station, we successfully managed to sort out a monthly TCL card, for public transport throughout the city. We then headed towards Place Bellecour (where this picture was taken), the 3rd biggest square in France, on “presqu’ile”, which is translated as ‘almost island’. Presqu’ile is the ‘island’ between the two rivers; the Saône and the Rhône, just before they meet and merge together as the Rhône slightly further south.

Place Bellecour is surrounded by a number of streets with French cafés, restaurants and quirky shops, a pleasantly buzzing atmosphere of people wandering about, enjoying the sun and going about their daily lives. Wherever we went, people were generally friendly, patient and happy to help.

Definitely a good first impression of the city! And I’ve even got a bit of a tan