Lyon

Regarding: The New York Times, October 31, 2009, “French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality” Dear Editor, As an American who has recently returned from living in France, I definitely agree that France’s Vélib program has been fraught with problems. However, this in not the case in Lyon, where my wife and I lived earlier this year. In fact, France’s second city — which was the first French city to start a bike-sharing program (“Vélo’v“), two years before Paris — has…

Well, our seven-month contract here in Lyon has finally come to a close. We’ve had ups and downs, like with anything — but overall, Becky and I agree that we’ve had a fantastic time. We’ve made some wonderful friends, and have had a chance to experience a taste of French and European life. Things I’ll miss about Lyon: 1) People! Big thanks go out to Wolf, Rebecca, Romix, Lucy, Loïc, Brad, Nicole, Birgit, Clément, Didier, and many others who made…

Here’s a quick list of my favorite four WiFi cafés in Lyon. At two of them (except Lipstick and Pamplune), you have to ask for the WiFi code at the bar, but it’s still free and it won’t expire after 30 minutes or anything stupid like that. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments! 1) Le Voxx 1, Rue Algérie M: Hôtel de Ville Le Voxx (pictured above) is my favorite WiFi café in town. First it’s got…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Urban Pacman in Lyon is airing today. (Scope my photo as Pacman here.) It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

I spent a couple hours this weekend making this map based on info collected by Lucy Vanel and by the city of Villeurbanne. Feel free to send me updates, tips, or suggestions!

Hey guys, Sorry I haven’t emailed or blogged much since I’ve been here. We’ve been couchsurfing and can’t move into the aforementioned totally awesome apartment until the 16th, at which point I’ll have regular Internet access and will be able to respond to the backlog of emails that have been piling up in my inbox. But the short version is that yes, we’ve started school. We’re still in the sort of introductory phase — I’m spending a lot of time…

Right now I’m sitting on a TGV that’s about to depart from Lyon back to Paris. It’s a quick two hour trip between boths stations. With comfortable seats, food/drink (hell, beer and wine are served on board!) and stations in the center of town — this high-speed stuff is definitely the way to travel. (Everyone’s voting for the California high speed rail ballot measure, right?) Becky arrives early tomorrow morning and I’ll head to the airport to pick her up…