My summer internship at the Métropole de Lyon in France 2016

I studied at a bilingual Highschool in Germany (German-French). That’s why we had many different programs to spend some time in France. One of these programs was a 4-week summer internship at the administration of Lyon (Métropole de Lyon). I applied for it and got an offer for June/July 2016 just after graduating and before leaving for Peru. I went there with two other students from my school.

Pictures of Lyon: 1 train station; 2 fresques (wallpaintings); 3 place des Célestins; 4 fresques (wallpaintings)

The accommodation was great! it was a student house, but as the university was over and everyone was on summer vacation, we had the entire place to ourselves. It was all paid for and organized by the DFJW or OFAJ, a German-French institution for cooperation between young people. The accommodation was only a 30-minute walk away from our workplace.

I had two different jobs during my internship. The first one was at the "direction de l'éducation" (education office). I did a lot of statistics and internet research, but also a lot of secretary tasks, such as archiving or sorting files. My largest task during the two weeks (which took me more than one week) was to make a large table on which school uses which sports facilities and how far they are from the school. The goal of this Excel file was to see how efficiently the sports facilities were used by the schools nearby.

I spent the second part of my internship at the “direction d'attractivité et relations internationales” (International Relations Office). I wrote a lot of emails and made phone calls. I also had to translate a lot, because my main job was focused on the relationship between Germany and France.

The best thing about our workdays was the food :D French food is really good and we could eat at the canteen of the administration without paying for it. The food was amazing – we always had an entrée, a main dish, and a dessert. 

Pictures of the Métropole de Lyon and our food

In my free time, I did a lot of cultural activities. In addition, we often went to the UEFA Fanfest, because it was the time of the Euro Cup 2016. We watched the semi-finals (Germany-France, Portugal-Wales) in a bar. Germany lost to France in the semi-finals, but we didn't care because the atmosphere in France was just fantastic.

Pictures of the Fifa Fanfest in Lyon 2016

Another nice thing in Lyon: each summer the city organizes a summer festival called “Tout le monde dehors” (everybody outside) with over 300 free activities. These include concerts, dance evenings, cinema evenings, readings, sports activities, etc. And the best thing is that everything takes place in nature!!! We went to watch a Greek theater in French, listened to an open-air concert by the Lyon orchestra in front of the Place des Célestins, danced salsa, and watched a Spanish crime movie.

Pictures of the Greek theater in the park and the concert at the Place des Célestins

Another highlight was the 14th of July, France's national holiday. That day we went to see the fireworks on the river with some friends we had met. It was so nice! But unfortunately, we received the news that there was a terrorist attack in Nice the same night. That hit us very much. I was particularly touched by the minute of silence at work a few days later. All employees gathered in the foyer and the director said a few words before calling for silence. Above all, I remember his appeal to us to keep meeting and having fun, singing and dancing, laughing and enjoying ourselves together, and not letting these terrorists intimidate us and our lifestyle.

Fireworks at the river for the 14th of July

I really enjoyed my time in Lyon: I learned a lot and I could improve my French. In particular, I would like to thank:

• my school Anton-Philipp-Reclam-Gymnasium for this opportunity
• the DJFW/OFAJ for the scholarship and the organization
• the Métropole de Lyon for having me as an intern (especially Joelle and Anna for helping me improve my working skills and my French) 
• Lina and Robert for their company and our time together