Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
As part of my assessment for French lessons my prof rang me today to have a chat to see what my spoken French was like – en francais evidemente .
It was tres difficile avec beaucoup de errrrs and ahhhs on my part. And it lasted vingt-huit minutes.
But in the end I got there and the lessons will start in a week or so.
I told a French colleague that it had been exhausting and they said: That’s what it’s like for me to have to speak English! Right I’d better pull my finger out.
I decided to make my first journey to work by bike. Lyon has a lot of Boris-bike-style bikes and an app that makes it very easy to use.
Or so I thought until I tried to ride one this morning. I couldn’t get it to work and ended up in my usual dash for the tram.
While on the tram I worked out what was I doing wrong. So was ready to try again at the end of the day.
During the day, I looked out of my office window and saw a cormorant dive under the surface of the Saone and come back up with a big fish in its beak. In my old job I was based in the basement with no view at all, now I have real life wildlife to gawp at.
At the end of the day it was time to try again with the hire bikes. The app worked, I unhooked a bike – you get to choose which one you want by looking at their ratings!
My route home took me along the banks of the river Rhone with some pretty decent views. I had to keep remembering to cycle on the right but other than that it was fine.
Quite a pleasant commute. Might try it again.
La troisieme semaine est commencé aujourd’hui et j’ai porté quelque choses à Euronews avec moi ce matin.
Une plante, une tasse, du lait and du thé.
Et j’ai fait un essai de mon niveau de Francais. J’ai pris 46 sur 70! Pas mal!
Et puis, sur le voyage au domicile, j’ai vu un nouveau oiseau sur les infos de T1!
Heartening to see all these young French amantes outside the local fleuriste on this special day.
In order to improve my French a bit I went to the local cinema ce soir to see a film in French.
I checked out the films at the big multiplex in Westfield, Part Dieu, but in the end opted for a tiny cinema around the corner – Cinema Bellecombe.
It was advertised in the retirement complex where I am currently staying so when I got there, there were a lot of us oldies waiting to get in.
I saw a film called Farewell Monsieur Haffmann. Now I’m not saying I understood every word but I followed it and it made sense. And it was also a great film.
Might do that again.
Look what I just missed by a matter of weeks. Lyon’s answer to the RSPB’s big garden birdwatch. At least I know there are other birders nearby.
When I came back to my apartment with a colleague who is also staying here, he opened the door with a fob. I have to punch in the code every time. So today I asked at the accueil for: “le chose qui ouvrit la porte” When I asked the name for the fob, I was told it is called le badge noir.
A colleague recommended I go and explore la croix-rousse area of Lyon so on Saturday I set out to have a look. There are plenty of traboules there so I wanted to trabouler un peu.
La croix-rousse was home to the canuts – Lyon silk weavers. I need a better guide book but it appears the canuts protested by coming down the Montée de la Grand Cote on more than one occasion.
There are plenty of hidden passageways here – traboules – but they are so well hidden, I couldn’t find them.
I did find this loving-looking chocolate shop. So I bought a big brioche aux pralines and asked if it was a Lyonnais speciality.
Mais bien sur, monsieur.
And just like that week two is over.
I had a meeting with the French unions which sounded scary but was fine. I told them I wanted them to believe I was a great digital brain – but as someone from the technical support team was there who had to help me make the camera on my laptop work by flicking a switch – I needed her to forget that.
One of the real joys of the Euronews newsroom is its multilingual nature. But because my French isn’t good enough it means everyone around me speaks to me in English.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a stickler for people using less than/fewer than correctly. But I find myself having to bite my tongue and not jump in and correct colleagues when they get it wrong. Their English is sooo much better than my French.
The worst moment of the week was when I asked someone where another colleague worked. She said Ajar and I thought – there’s another part of this organisation I’ve never heard of. When I asked what they do she looked perplexed and said Ajar? It took me a while to realise she meant HR. We were both a bit embarrassed -but me more than her.
The good news is I’m seeing someone about starting French lessons next week.
I finished the week by going to some leaving drinks with colleagues from distribution and the press department.
The drinks were in the bar of the Mob Hotel where we stayed when we first came to Lyon. It was a fun evening – meeting new colleagues and getting a bit drunk.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 