oddities of lyon

Things that are strange here include:

1. statues and rivers
2. advertisements
3. arbitrary rules

The first: Lyon, as you may know, is a city that lies between two rivers: le Rhone and la Saone. From their articles, you can tell that the Rhone is masculine and the Saone is feminine. In Lyon, they really care about this. In Place Bellecour, there's a statue of a horse with statue personifications the Rhone on one side - looking all powerful and manly, of course - and the Saone - rocking some feminine curves - on the other. Those statues I've gotten used to. But, the other day, Joe and I were enjoying the first sunny day of the year, and we came across this statue:

If I'm understanding that correctly, the Rhone is virile and swimming forward, wanting to conquer, while the Saone is kind of passive and crushed beneath him. Weird! But, I guess that the Saone is, in reality, the less powerful river. Following is a photo of each river so that you can decide for yourself.

Le Rhone:


La Saone:


Second: advertisements. A lot of the cars here are plastered with ads -- if someone is driving a company car, you can tell. Also, France is really into naked ladies. I think that both of these things are hilarious.

Yum, tomato, parmesan, paprika pasta:


Naked lady is having an orgasm from putting on socks:


Lastly, arbitrary rules. Joe and I decided to get a petit gateau individuel at a cake place and relax in their mini restaurant to eat it.  The snappy lady behind the counter asked if we wanted any sort of drink with our tiny, adorable cake. I, remembering the menu had had nice sounding wine, asked for a fillette du vin, s'il vous plait. The lady first had no idea what I was saying because, since I am not French, I am obviously a moron not worth listening to, then got a strange look on her face and (without explanation!) went to cluck at the manager (?) for a few minutes. She came back and refused our request, explaining, "I am sorry. No. We only serve wine with savory things. We do not serve wine with sweet things." Weird, non?

Delicious petit gateau individuel: