My gift at last

I had to pop back to London for a meeting at Euronews’s London office – which is this:

And not this:

While in London I made new Euronews friends and also saw my sons and dad as well as some former BBC colleagues.

Speaking of my ex-colleagues you may remember they bought me a leaving gift in January.

Unfortunately, because they bought it on the Printemps UK site the goods could only be delivered to a UK address.

So I finally got to pick it up and with the weather the way it was in London on Thursday, the timing was perfect. Merci beaucoup.

So back to Lyon with the bare essentials.

Scenes from La Confluence

Some Vélo’v’s this morning had adverts for le train on them. Pointing out it’s a long way to Paris by bike seemed a bit unfair just over a month before the Tour de France.

I then spotted these striking colours outside the Green Cube. A nod to our new owners?

Les aigrettes et les herons garde boeuf

I had the chance to go back to Parc de la Tete d’Or to try and get some pictures of the egrets that live on the island in the middle of the lake.

Having confirmed there are a lot cattle egrets – les herons garde boeuf – herons and little egrets – les aigrettes.

And finally I have some proof.

Couscous pour le diner

Aujourd’hui j’ai acheté du couscous de la boucherie en face de la residence. J’ai pris une portion au mouton et une au poulet.

C’etait tellement bon et pour le dessert….

Il fait vraiment chaud

Oh la la. À Lyon il fait tellement chaud.

Quand on dort pendant la nuit avec la fenetre ouvert les moustiques arrivent.

Cath a beaucoup de piqures de moustique alors on doit essayer quelque choses d’autre.

Je suis allé au Carrefour et j’ai acheté une ventilateur.

Maintenant peut être on dormira un peu mieux.

OFII-cial process to stay in France

We need to talk about the OFII – the French office for immigration and integration. It is through this department that we had our recent lung x-rays and medicals.

Because we were not granted our passeports talentes we have various stages to go through to validate our year-long visas.

For me that means doing something called La Formation Civique.

Now I have been invited to a half-day to sign my contract of integration, do a French test, watch a presentation about integration and an interview to evaluate my needs.

At least it’s not far from the OFFI-ce.

Les martinets par la fenetre

The other day I mentioned the swifts were back. I’ve tried to digiscope them from our sixth floor window but they are…swift.

An autre rendez-vous medicale

I had to have a medical for my visa last week and today I had to have my work medical.

It was in the same building as local Lyon newspaper Le Progrès which I am yet to read.

Eye test – which I did in English because I wasn’t confident enough about the letters in French – quick weight and height and blood pressure check and then we were done.

The medical lasts five years for any job in France- so if I’ve move to Le Progrès I don’t need to have another one.

Cremieu – mais pas de dejeuner

Another weekend, another day trip to a beautiful village in the Auvergene-Rhône-Alpes region.

This time it was Cremieu – a lovely setting with a Benedictine priory at its centre.

Beautiful though it was, the restaurants were all full. It’s speciality is le gratin dauphinois but we didn’t get to sample any. One restaurant had frogs legs on the menu but we eventually had to go home with empty stomachs.

On the way we stopped off at a lake.