France

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We have been to Paris many times, and on this occasion we were on our way back to Hong Kong from Bueons Aires (Argentina), stopping over Paris for a few days to see friends and relax a bit before heading back to Hong Kong's busy lifestyle

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We went to Lyon and took on a 2-week course at Lyon Bleu International, a small friendly French language school near the central area of Lyon. We heard about this school from a former teacher who now lives in Hong Kong. We had a fun 2-week and met many nice classmates from Germany, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden etc. Adding multimedia elements like music and movie to the traditional teaching, we think this is something in between our Paris School (very interactive and more practice on spoken French) and the Antibes School (more traditional teaching). Paris is a busy capital with many interesting things to offer, and Lyon is more relax, cleaner and nice in many other ways.

The school helped us to find the accommodation and the rate was quite reasonable and included breakfast and wifi access. The room was pretty decent with ensuite toilet, shower, kitchen facilities. It was also within walking distance (20 minutes on foot) from the school.

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Lyon is the second largest city in France, we decided to come to Lyon to do a 2-week language course on the recommendation of a French teacher whom we met in Hong Kong. We quite like the city, as it is not as busy (and stressful) as Paris, there is an old town which is both interesting and historical e.g Ancient churches, Roman Theatre, French Puppet (Guignol) etc. Lyonnais cuisine has it own unique offering, we had dinner at some well known restaurants like Orsi (Chef Perrie Orsi, nice and high-end restaurant), Brasserie Georges (nice and affordable) and Le Sud ("The South", also nice and affordable one of the restaurants by "The best chef in France" Paul Bocuse). Paul Bocuse's flagship restaurant is also in the outskirt of Lyon, we missed it this time.

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While we were staying at Annecy, we took this boat ride around the lake and stopped by Tallories which is a small town also by the lake side. We visited a small shop and met with the owner's family who appreciates oriental culture very much, and they have spent much time in places like India and Nepal.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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Annecy is a very beautiful city by the lake and there is a river that runs through it which gives a feel of Venice. There are many nice restaurants. There was a marathon while we were there. We enjoyed walking along the art market that is open every Sunday morning. We also took a very pleasant boat ride around the lake. It was very sunny weekend.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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We had a pretty relaxing time in Dijon visiting gardens and some pretty government buildings.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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Bourgogne is of course famous for its wine. Here we visited some wine yard and tasted some wine, we had a very knowledgeable local guide to explain to us and show us round. Learn more about what it means to be Grand Cru wine.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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Beaune is a small town with some historical site such as Hotel Dier Hospices de Beaune which was builr in the 15th century and was once used as a hospital. We had a very nice dinner at a local restaurant (rather expensive) but was well worth it, it is called Le Jardin des Remparts.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

We wanted to experience life together as students and we have always wanted to learn to speak more languages. So when the opportunity arised at the end of 2005, we decided to seize it and planned a 3-month French Language Trip, 4 January to 4 April 2006. Our course was split into 2 locations in France, namely, Antibes (South of France) and Paris.

This site serves as the logbook of our study trip, it contains our dairy, photos of the schools and the places that we visited during our stay. Hope you enjoy our sharing!

In particular, I would like to share with you:

Ownership Vs Freedom

After thought
It was indeed a fantastic journey, we are able to make simple conversation in French and we find it very amusing. The experience was simply great and we would recommend everyone to take some time off at some point in their life, drop everything, forget about the usual busy life and learn a new language. You won't regret it! Life is too short!

We will continue to take classes to improve our still beginner level French....