This week’s blog post is written by James, a French and Russian student who reflects on his time in Lyon as part of his year abroad experience...

I spent the first nine months of my year abroad living in Lyon, France, studying on Oxford’s exchange programme at the École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon). Initially, I was somewhat sceptical about studying during my year abroad, imagining that I would envy my friends who had opted to teach, intern, or volunteer; however, this turned out not to be the case at all. I should really say that I ‘studied’ in France (in huge inverted commas), as, compared to the hectic Oxford schedule, I spent remarkably little time actually studying. This occupied a few hours a day for maybe three or four days of my week, conveniently clustered around the midweek so that I had extra-long weekends, which proved excellent for travelling across France.

During such weekends, I managed to visit many other places in France, from iconic Paris to Pérouges, a tiny medieval citadel not too far from Lyon. If my maths (and memory) is correct, I visited at least 15–20 other places in France, personal highlights of which included Nîmes, Annecy, Nice, and especially Strasbourg for the Christmas markets the week before Christmas. Lyon also benefits from good transport links to other European countries, so I also managed to visit Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, and Spain too – all relatively cheaply, and with friends I’d made at the university.

Whilst all this travelling was absolutely the highlight of my time in France, I did also really enjoy the university side of things. I enrolled doing a major in Russian, with a minor in contemporary French literature, and my classes were both fascinating, and a great opportunity to immerse myself in the French language and challenge my abilities, giving presentations to classes full of French students, or even translating literary texts between my two non-native languages, French and Russian.

ENS Lyon is quite a small university, with two campuses about ten minutes apart on foot, and I found that this size made it quick and easy to settle in, meet people, and make friends. There was a really friendly atmosphere on the whole, and the university guaranteed accommodation for exchange students, so I got to live on campus and share a flat with French students. The accommodation itself is basic and not the most attractive in the world (though having come straight from an Oxford college perhaps skewed my perspective…), but it was incredibly cheap compared to Oxford – and made cheaper still by a French government subsidy, CAF, which was well worth the paperwork – meaning that I had plenty of money left from my student loan and Turing grant to fund my gallivanting across Europe on the long weekends. ENS Lyon also had a really active social scene, with regular ‘festives’ (basically BOPs à la française), ‘afterworks’ (French, believe it or not, for a weekday evening of drinks and a BBQ), a gala night, and plenty of extra-curricular activities. I joined the university orchestra and choir, and took beginner’s German classes too – but I had friends who did all kinds of sports, learnt to dance, and even joined the university’s beekeeping society.

Lyon itself is now possibly my favourite city ever. I think it’s like the Goldilocks of French cities – not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold, not too English-speaking, not too critical of my occasionally very shoddy French (or very good Franglais, depending on your perspective), and it’s a truly beautiful city to live in. From the cobbled streets of the old town, Vieux Lyon, to the breathtaking Basilique de la Fourvière atop a hill overlooking the city, to the Parc de la Tête d’Or (with pedalos on the lake and a zoo – what more could you want?!), there was so much to see and do, as well as lots of cultural activities (museums, galleries, concerts, films, etc.) with really good student tickets.

Although, of course, it took a little while to settle in, I soon felt completely at home in Lyon, so much so that I was very sad to eventually have to leave. Overall, my nine months in Lyon were some of the best of my life – it was transformative for my French language skills and cultural knowledge and appreciation, but more importantly I made great friends, saw so many amazing places, and left with nothing but incredible memories and a very full camera roll. And, as I discovered when I flew back home, 20kg of books I had ‘accidentally’ bought, perpetually unable to resist the allure of a good French bookshop.