Lyon
by Nicole Ghezzi
I spent my Erasmus semester in Lyon, studying at Université Lumière Lyon 2 from January to June 2024. Although my initial goal was to enhance my English skills, living in France also significantly improved my French, which I am grateful for. I got the chance to meet people from all over the world, which allowed me to practice both English and French (and even some German, thanks to many Austrian and German students being there as well). There were numerous events organized for Erasmus students, providing great opportunities to connect with others or simply to have fun in company.
The English courses I took were very interesting as well and motivated me to learn a lot. Lyon itself is a stunning city, filled with monuments, museums, and the historical center of Vieux Lyon, which is both vibrant and wonderful. Besides exploring Lyon, I travelled around France and nearby areas, visiting Paris, Versailles, Annecy (a lovely city near Lake Annecy), Genoa, Turin. I recommend to take the opportunity to go on small trips as well, since you are in a French city that is quite close to other countries like Switzerland and Italy.
Frommy experience, Lyon is a relatively calm city, and I never felt really unsafe. This might partly be because I lived in the 8th arrondissement, known as a student area. While there are areas that are considered less safe, like the 3rd arrondissement, I found that with basic precautions, the city felt secure. I do still highly advise to always be careful because you can never know what can happen in bigger cities.
Despite some initial small complications, finding accommodation was manageable. I can only strongly recommend starting your search early, especially if you're aiming for CROUS, which offers some of the best accommodations. Since Lyon is a large city, you'll eventually find something, but be wary of scams. Using agencies like Studapart or HousingAnywhere can help ensure a reliable search.
Overall, I am genuinely happy with my time in Lyon. I fell in love with every aspect of the city, from the enriching experiences to the incredible people I met. The least positive thing about it is that these six months have passed way too quickly.
I highly recommend Lyon as an Erasmus destination to anyone eager to learn, both linguistically and personally. The city is vibrant and full of opportunities, and I believe it would be hard for anyone to leave Lyon without feeling deeply satisfied with their experience.
Université Lumière Lyon 2
Pius Hartmann, student of English and American Studies and European Ethnology
I did my Erasmus at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 in the winter term of 2022/23, which was the third semester of my Bachelor’s. Why do an Erasmus in English in a French-speaking city, you might wonder? It actually benefits you a lot, I’d say, after the semester I studied there. While French is predominantly spoken in Lyon and you might encounter some French lectures even in your English programme, everybody nowadays, and especially at university, speaks English to an extent that makes living in the city possible, even if your French skills have been dormant ever since you graduated high school. It is also the perfect city to polish up your French and broaden your language skills, and naturally, you’ll increase your proficiency in English as well, as the university also has numerous exchange programs with other European and American universities that bring an unimaginable amount of variety of people from all around the world into the pulsating French city. And no matter where they’re from, everybody is eager to meet new people and explore the city, which made it incredibly easy for me to establish new connections and lasting international friendships.
Lyon and its surroundings with its 1,4mio inhabitants proved to be the perfect size for me – it was big enough to fill all my evenings with concerts, pub quizzes, techno + house clubs and art exhibitions and provide a welcoming change to Innsbruck’s alpine tranquillity and at the same time small enough so that the way home afterwards was always short. While there is amazing and cheap public transport, the city centre, which is located on the peninsula between the Saone and the Rhone rivers, allows for hour-long strolls through the local farmer’s markets, cafés, vintage stores and bakeries and ensuing wine-laden evenings at sunset at the river banquets. Lyon’s perfectly situated in the centre of Eastern France, which allowed me and my Erasmus friends to train down the beaches of Marseille, Paris, Genieve, or even Nice or Barcelona over the weekends.
The Erasmus semester I spent in Lyon undoubtedly was the highlight of my Bachelor’s, increased my confidence, independence and my English and French language skills and opened up lots of ne
w perspectives through my international friendships. I encountered no major problems in terms of organization and accreditation of ECTS in Lyon and in Innsbruck, although I do advise you to be careful and early when it comes to finding an apartment – don’t get a place in the 3rd arrondissement, for example. But if you want to find out more about why Lyon’s now my favourite city in Europe and are considering doing your semester abroad there, feel free to send me an email!
Erfahrungsbericht Universität Lyon Sommersemester 2018
Sophia Maria Reitspies
Das Sommersemester 2018 verbrachte ich dank des Erasmus+ Programms in Lyon. Ich studiere Lehramt Englisch und Französisch und daher war die Möglichkeit an einer französischsprachigen Uni Englisch (und Französisch) zu studieren für mich perfekt.
Vor meiner Abreise musst ich alle Dokumente beim International Relations Office einreichen, was ich aber als wirklich nicht kompliziert empfunden habe. Was jedoch sehr kompliziert war, war das Finden von Kursen der Université de Lyon. Leider gibt es kein Lehrveranstaltungsverzeichnis aller Kurse und daher muss man sich mit veralteten Kursauflistungen auf den Internetseiten der einzelnen Institute zufrieden geben. Schlussendlich habe ich aber meine Kurse zusammengefunden. Leider wurden die meisten aber dann in Frankreich nicht angeboten und ich musste mich erneut auf die Suche von passenden Kursen machen. Dazu musste ich von Institut zu Institut gehen und mir Listen der Kurse (mit Uhrzeit und Raum) ausdrucken lassen. Ich habe aber schnell meine Kurse gefunden und das Problem war gelöst. Des weitern gibt es ca. eine Woche vor offiziellem Unibeginn von jedem Institut eine Infoveranstaltung für Erasmusstudierende. Dort bekommt man ebenfalls Kurslisten und Informationen zu den Kursen. Das sollte man also nicht verpassen. Außerdem können alle Studenten und Studentinnen einen Sportkurs kostenlos belegen, für den man ECTS bekommt. Jeder weitere Sportkurse ist gebührenpflichtig, aber trotzdem sehr billig (ca. 10-30€/Kurs). Die Kurse sind sehr angenehm und vom Aufwand her mit einem reisefreudigem Erasmusleben in Frankreich gut kombinierbar. Alle Kurse haben 5 ECTS und es gibt zwei Arten von Kursen, nämlich „CM“ = Vorlesung und „TD“ = Übung. Für die CM bekommt man 5 ECTS und für die TD ebenfalls. Die Franzosen und Französinnen müssen beide Kurse besuchen, als Erasmusstudent und Erasmusstudentin muss man das nur bei einigen Kursen so machen. Ich würde empfehlen, eher TDs als CMs zu besuchen, da diese in kleineren Gruppen stattfinden und man so mehr Leute kennen lernt. Besonders toll war, dass ich Kurse für beide meine Fächer inkl. einem ILS Kurs besuchen konnte. Die Institute der Universität sind sehr locker was Erasmusstudierende betrifft und freuen sich, wenn man einen Kurs bei ihnen besucht. Man ist daher nicht nur auf ein Fach beschränkt, sondern kann auch aus dem anderen Fach Kurse belegen.
Die Suche nach der Unterkunft stellte sich als einfacher heraus als gedacht. Ich habe mich über die Uni vor meiner Anreise für ein Zimmer in einem Studentenheim beworben und hatte das Glück eine Zusage zu bekommen (nicht jeder der sich bewirbt bekommt eine Zusage). Ich musste das Zimmer innerhalb von einer Woche bestätigen. Nachdem ich aber einige negative Berichte über die Heime in Frankreich (alle nicht privaten Studentenheime sind von der Uni aus organisiert und heißen „CROUS“) gelesen habe, habe ich mich schnell auf die Suche gemacht und innerhalb von wenigen Tagen eine private Bleibe in einer Wohnung gefunden. Ich habe das Angebot des Studentenheims daher abgelehnt. Das Studentenheim wäre zwar um einiges billiger gewesen (ca. 230€/Monat), mir war jedoch die Sprachentwicklung wichtiger, daher entschied ich mich um 450€/Monat bei einer Frau und ihrem zwei Jahre alten Sohn auf den ich von Zeit zu Zeit aufpasste zu wohnen. Die WG habe ich über eine facebook Seite gefunden. Die meisten meiner Erasmus-Freundinnen waren privat in WGs untergebracht.
In Lyon gibt es ein sehr gut ausgebautes öffentliches Netz bestehend aus U-Bahn, Straßenbahn, Bussen und sogar einer Standseilbahn. Ich habe jedoch kein Abonnement der Öffis in Anspruch genommen (obwohl es einen Studentenrabatt gegeben hätte), weil ich eine Dauerkarte der Stadträder gekauft habe. Das war wirklich nicht teuer und die Stationen für die Räder sind überall in der Stadt verteilt. Die Räder waren in einem sehr guten Zustand und man hat mithilfe einer App die nächste Station bzw. die Kapazität der nächstgelegenen Station vorab checken können.
Das Leben in Frankreich war toll und ich habe es sehr genossen. Gerne denke ich an die Zeit zurück. Die Musst-See jedes Lyon-Aufenthalts sind jedenfalls der Marché de la Croix-Rousse (in diesem Viertel habe ich gewohnt) und das Piscine du Rhone. Ich vermisse meinen französischen Alltag und die angenehme Atmosphäre der Stadt und würde daher jedem und jeder einen Erasmusaufenthalt in Lyon ans Herz legen.
Lyon
by Florian Kraml
Why exactly would anyone want to go to France to study English?
From the moment I handed in my application, I heard this question every time I told somebody of my plan to study abroad. Why not go to an English-speaking country? Why does it have to be France? I am sure, of course, we have all heard of the French’s endless affection towards English speakers (and vice versa).
The main reason I went – apart from massive amounts of good quality cheese and a great recipe for baguette – was that I wanted to experience the best of both worlds. I have great appreciation for the French culture and their attitude towards life and I did speak a bit of French before I went to Lyon. Speaking the language definitely helps with regard to daily life, but I also met students who survived without speaking a word of French (funnily enough: they were British). As concerns the English department at the University, the teachers were either English native speakers or had lived/taught in English-speaking countries. As a result, everything in the English department was in English even though the course titles and some of the course descriptions were in French. The classes in Lyon were structured similarly to the ones in Innsbruck: a class that covers a certain topic, e.g.: “Shakespeare et la Renaissance Anglaise”, consists of both a lecture and a seminar or tutorial, in which either aspects of the lecture or certain aspects of the topic are discussed in greater detail. In general, the classes seem to have a special focus on cultural aspects as well as English literature, and the lecturers usually have a profound knowledge of the topic.
During my time in Lyon, I lived in a student residence, which made it very easy to meet other exchange students. Due to the fact that there were mainly people from English-speaking countries, the main language at the residence was English as well. My room was about 9m2 big and I had to share the kitchen and the bathroom with 25 people on my floor. This was all right for one semester, but I suppose if you were to stay for one year, it might be best to look for something bigger or more private. The student residence offers bigger rooms, too.
As for the French bureaucracy: it is all about paperwork, but there are Erasmus organisations that help you with that and the old cliché of the French not being able to speak English properly proved to be ill-founded. Rather, the opposite was true: whenever natives found me struggling with a word, they offered help and switched to English immediately. In general, I can say that the Lyonnais people are very kind and friendly and the city is absolutely gorgeous. The aforementioned organisations also help Erasmus students to connect not only with other international students but also with natives, as they arrange meetings, trips, and also parties.
In short, my time in Lyon was a fantastic experience, and I can recommend studying in France to anyone who wants to go abroad. For those of you who do not speak French very well, rest assured: you will be perfectly fine without it and maybe you can improve it just as much as you improve your English skills.
Florian Kraml, WS 2015/16