Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
Quand j’ai marché dans la rue j’ai entendu un bruit qui est mon bruit préferé. Le siffle des martinets.
Les martinets sont arrives a Lyon un peu plus tot qu’en Anglettere.
Nous habitons sur le sixieme etage et alors les vues de ces oiseaux sont magnifiques de la fenêtre.
Tonight was the night of the second round of the French elections – Macron v LePen.
I came to work to make sure everything was ok and to help out where I could.
In the end it wasn’t as close as many people predicted.
Everything work-wise went well – we had a great team on, got the result out quickly and were one of the earliest with the key challenges for the new president on re-election.
One of those must be to work on his standing with the French people. He is just so unpopular in France. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t really strongly-dislike Macron. He’s got five more years to try and win them over.
My sister-in-law speaks excellent French – she has lived most of her life in France. And I was trying to eavesdrop on her French all weekend.
One of the things I struggle with most is when someone wishes me a bonne soirée for example.
I know the correct answer is: Vous aussi but I always want to say A vous aussi and it all falls apart from there.
Sally was always chatting to shop owners and bar staff etc and I was always trying to pick up what she said.
In one such exchange when they wished Sally a bonne weekend – or somesuch- she said Également.
So that’s the answer from now on – Également.
Cath’s sister Sally came to visit this weekend so we took the chance to go up to visit La Basilica Notre Dame de Fourviere- the big white cathedral at the top of a hill looking down on Lyon.
Although I tried to visit in my first week here, I failed to get to the top so it was time to put that right.
This time we sensibly took the funicular up to the top and we’re rewarded with some tremendous views.
The cathedral was paid for by the people of Lyon and built in 1872. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who it is said protected the city from the bubonic plague in 1643.
The basilica is built on the site of a Roman forum built by Trajan – Fourviere being a corruption of Vieux Forum (so the guidebooks say)
Next door is an equally impressive Roman amphitheatre from which you can see the snow-topped Alps.
The basilica is know locally, affectionately, as l’elephant renversé – the upside down elephant.
For our first Bank Holiday in Lyon we decided to drive to the Beaujolais region to have a nose around.
We drove through some lovely little villages and then ended up here:
It is a really beautiful spot but how do you say it?
Cath worked it out by comparing it with how you pronounce vingt so went with Oingt.
We celebrated our first Easter in France with, as you might expect, some nice chocolate.
After another lengthy French Mass Cath had booked a lunch at Brasserie des Brotteaux.
There I ate:
Then we went for a walk around Parc de la Tete d’Or in the spring sunshine- along with the rest of Lyon.
I got a bit of a shock when I discovered that Good Friday was not a holiday in France.
It meant going to work when I would normally be off. At least someone was glad to see me.
Instead of Mass at 3pm, when I got home it was off to church in the evening.
Other than that, it was very similar to Good Friday Mass in England. But fasting and abstinence was a bit harder in France.
One of the deals of getting a work or tourist visa for France is you have to have an x-ray of your lungs to check you are not bringing anything nasty like tuberculosis into the country.
Well I’ve been here 11 weeks now so if I had anything communicable I might have infected a few people by now.
But no point arguing or questioning. Just get on with it.
Not sure what I do with it now.
Euronews is such that this week I find myself flying to Bucharest to visit the digital team working for the franchise operation Euronews Romania.
Our head of news is from Romania so I asked him for some advice about where to eat after I landed in the evening.
He recommended a restaurant where it’s traditional to start with a plum brandy so we did, followed by polenta and mince wrapped in cabbage leaf and some more….. cabbage and polenta.
Might try something else tomorrow night.
While in Bucharest we got the chance to tour the Peoples Palace – built by Ceaucescu and one of the biggest buildings in the world and billed as the heaviest!
I did my latest French lesson from my hotel room in Bucharest – en Roumanie. We spoke work-related vocuabulary as well as a false friend that I knew nothing about.
Here are some of the things I learnt:
Je suis un nouveau venu – I’m a new employee
Ce n’est pas une priorité – It’s not a priority
D’abord, en premier – ways to say first
Properietaires – owners
Une clause de cessation de travail – a voluntary redundancy process for journalists. (I didn’t ask about compulsory redundancy – still too raw).
Ils partent avec une indemnité – they leave with a payout
Tout le monde attend ce qui va se passer Everyone is waiting to see what happens
Tout d’un coup – all of a sudden
Tout ce bazar/Tout ce bordel/Tout ce bruit – all this mess, noise
Ca me revient aux oreilles – This got back to me
And did you know, because I certainly didn’t that eventuellement does not mean eventually in French. It is a false friend.
To say eventually you say: En fin, a la fin
Eventuellement means possibly. Wow.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 