Sitting down for dinner at 8:30PM tonight, I was trying to figure out what meal this was.

Surely my breakfast today was cereal. But I think that was actually on Wednesday? I think breakfast must come after a fast, or else what are you breaking? Since I haven’t slept since Wednesday, everything coming after Wednesday lunch must be dinner. So I have come to the conclusion that I was having 4th dinner.

First dinner was at the airport, Wednesday evening.

After picking up Luka from daycare, then picking up Mom from Ahna’s, I was dropped off at the airport. I often get anxious about the start to trips. This time it was especially hard. I’m not sure I yet understand why. Very likely, it’s due to having to say goodbye to Luka for so long. It could also be that I haven’t done a big, wandering, trip like this for a long while either. There was also issues with my seating. Having paid for extra leg room, I was not actually given a seat with any. I just don’t know how to deal with Airlines anymore!

I wanted to get to the airport early to deal with the seating issue. We made it through security and grabbed dinner at Northern Soul. Wednesday was it’s grand opening at the airport. (Highly recommend). After waiting for a few hours and figuring out seating, we had to wait an hour or two until the boarding completed.

After a relatively uneventful flight, including another meal, and some coffee (I think the caffeine is disorienting my internal clock, which is a good thing, right?), we made it to Charles de Gaulle airport. Mom and I both got our first stamps in our passports!

Our train for Lyon wouldn’t leave for another few hours, so we played some cribbage, had a baguette, and just chatted to pass the time. The train would arrive soon after.

The train ride went blindingly quick, going 200mph toward our destination.

From the Lyon train station, we grabbed a cab to where we were staying, near Lyon’s Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules. We walked past the Bartholdi Fountain to Le Café Des Fédérations for a prix fixe meal.

Mom and I swapped bites. She nearly wretched at the flavor that I was attempting to wrap my mind around. It wasn’t…. great… but I didn’t want to be an uncivilized American. Wikipedia describes my andouillette as such:

Andouillette is a French coarse-grained sausage made from the intestine of pork, pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. Andouillettes are generally made from the large intestine and are 7–10 cm in diameter. True andouillettes are rarely seen outside France and have a strong, distinctive odour coming from the colon.

That was enough to set my stomach churning too. The rest of the meal was quite nice. A pear sorbet, Lyonnaise salad (similar to a recipe I’ve made before), a dijon lentil salad, some wine, and a cheese course.

We went back to our stay, and hopefully will get enough sleep to get on the next train tomorrow!