Month: July 2022

La formation civique – jour un

Today was the day of my first session of Formation Civique. Because I was refused a talent visa the conditions of my one-year work visa is four days of training about life in France.

We looked at five categories of life in France

There were five parts to the day. First up was France. We learnt about the Regions, Departments and Communes of France.

I did learn a few things. About the symbol of my department Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is made up of a volcano from the Auvergne, the river Rhône and the Alps.

Volcano/river/mountain

It also has a president – Laurent Wauquiez

Coucou Laurent

The flag of France has meaning – blanc pour la monarchie, bleu pour Paris et rouge pour la revolution

I didn’t know Gaul was the Latin for cockerel and thus why le coq is one of the symbols of France.

Le coq Gaulois

I didn’t know the emergency numbers – 15 for le SAMU, the paramedics and 18 for les pompiers – who also help you if you are ill. I learnt about un medecin traitant – a GP. And there are levels of medecins – 1 et 2 – and their prices vary.

I need something called Responabilite civile insurance and need to keep household bills for five years and payslips for life!

I learnt some new words:

Hebergement – accommodation

Par le bouche-à-orielle – word of mouth

Puce electronique – chip

I also learnt that when renting a flat, the higher the floor the more you pay! Unfortunately this session on renting came a bit late for us and our new fifth floor flat.

But I’m not sure I needed the advice about how to write a CV and what to wear to an interview.

Or how to enrol my children in a crèche. If you do however you can go here.

Fortunately, there are only three more days of this training to go.

An embarrassing cock-up

I had my French lesson today with the wonderful Frederique and we were discussing my plans for the impending visit of my father.

To show off that I had remembered a word I learnt last week I said I wanted to take him for a drink on a barge moored along the Rhône.

These are two barges where you can booze

The word for barge is la peniche but – and I blame my sister-in-law for this as she told me it as an aide-memoire – instead of peniche I said penis.

J’etais tellement gêné.

Kitchen and bed shopping

With the flat secured we had to start shopping for some essentials – like an oven, hob, washing machine and dishwasher as they are not included when you rent a flat in France. We also think it’s worth getting a new bed so trips to Darty, Boulanger and IKEA were in order.

This bed took our fancy
And we tried out some matelas

Then it was off to price up some kitchen appliances.

Here’s us looking at a fridge

The good news is they can be delivered and fitted quite quickly. But we realised we don’t know the flat number. We might just wait a few days until we have signed the contract and paid our deposit before we buy them all.

Centre Nautique Tony Bertrand

Another day, another swim – this time at Centre Nautique Tony Bertrand – an open-air 50m pool on the banks of the Rhône.

It being 36 degrees there were queues to negotiate once again.

But the prize looked good.

On peut entrer?

There is a fun pool for splashing around.

The kids’ pool

And a 50m Olympic pool – never swum in on one of those before – so did a quick kilometre.

The 50m pool was long

And some funky architecture.

A concrete wave?

It was an enjoyable way to cool off on another sweltering day. We’ll be back.

Le Quat-phworze Juillet

Phew it’s hot! Cath suggested going to a local lake where there is a beach and a swimming area so we went – along with the rest of Lyon.

Il y avait du monde

Like everyone else we headed for the shady spots – and there weren’t many left. As the thermometer reached 36 degrees I headed into the water to see if I could have my first proper swim in months.

The water was lovely and there was a clear stretch to swim across so I thought I’d try to do a proper distance. The fact is I enjoyed myself so much that I did 20 lengths of an area that must have been about 120m long and stayed in for over an hour!

I lost track of time

By the time I got back to our shady area there was no more shade and it was time to move on.

We drove up to Le Mont d’Or to show Cath’s sister Sally, who is staying with us for a few days, how the other half live.

I joined in with a fancy ploughman’s
Even the pigeons are posh in St-Cyr-au-Mont-d’Or

BREAKING NEWS

After two-and-half days of anxious waiting – and having largely given up hope – I just got the call to the say the flat is ours!

Our dossier won out over the rival six bidders. From 1 August we have a proper home.

See you soon.

Les moineaux sont partout

One thing you see a lot of in Lyon is les moineaux – house sparrows. They are everywhere – even in the newsroom.

This one hops around the newsroom floor picking up crumbs

They are better than hoovers picking up all the crumbs on the floor.

And if you sit outside for lunch – well you are asking for it.

Vous avez finis, monsieur?