Our busy little street

One thing about living in a major city: there's always something going on. For example, tonight we'll probably venture out after dinner to check out the "Fête de la musique," a multi-genre music festival in dozens of locations spread throughout the entire city. A plaza just a few blocks from our apartment has pop-rock bands lined up every hour from now until midnight.

Our street is one of the busiest boulevards in the 6th arrondissement of Lyon, so from time to time we see a lot of activities outside our window -- free entertainment, if you will. In the past month, we've enjoyed three such events.

The first was a bike race called the Critérium du Dauphiné. It was an individual 10K time trial, and the starting point was just 2 blocks from our doorstep. Greg and I sat on our balcony early in the morning drinking our coffee and watched as giant RVs rumbled down our road, one after another, transporting the athletes, their equipment, and their support teams. Later, we walked outside to watch the action at the starting line, cheering whenever an American cyclist took off.

A cyclist warming up outside his tour vehicle

And the race is on!

Just a few days later, we experienced the "4 jours de l'avenue de saxe." I'd seen signs advertising this event in all the store windows, but I had no idea what it was until I walked out of our apartment one morning and almost smacked into a table loaded with clothes and jewelry. It turns out that the "4 jours" was a four-day sidewalk sale spanning several blocks. All the ground level stores on our street pulled their merchandise outside, and several other vendors took advantage of any vacant corner to set up shop. At first it was fun browsing through all the booths and tables, but by the final day I was glad to see the vendors loading up their leftover goods and getting out of the way.

A clothing vendor right outside our door

African street vendors in France - who would have thought?

The next weekend, Greg went down the street to grab a few items from the grocery store and got trapped by a huge Gay Pride parade. He ended up ducking into a local pharmacy to escape the crowds. Later he read that about 10,000 people marched in the parade!

Gay Pride parade -- can you almost hear the techno music?

So there you have it, just a sample of the life we live in the Big City. It's a far cry from the rural roads of South Carolina, that's for sure!