Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
As well as helping with the clearing out of our London house, these 11 days in London gave me the opportunity to see three Fulham games – two wins, one defeat and six goals.
Fulham have eight points already which feels great – and it meant I got to spend more time with these two – even if they were drunk.
With no car, we had to hire a van to take some things to the dump, a lawnmower to my dad’s and loads of other things – including garden furniture – to our sons’ new place.
Emptying a four-bedroomed house and garage is no mean feat. Cath has done most of it and a lot of furniture has gone to Whitechapel.
But with this trip we have got rid of/recycled/loaned out most of it. I reckon there’s only one trip to the dump left.
And a bit more quickly than expected we have sold our car. I thought it might take a while but webuyanycar.com made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.
It’s been a great car but keeping it in France involves too much paperwork. So it was time to say goodbye to the best car we’ve ever owned.
We will look to buy a left-hand drive car in France once we’ve been back for a few weeks.
My return to the UK meant I could also visit my second home for the first time since January. Fulham are now in the top flight and today’s opponents are local rivals Brentford.
It was nice to see fans in the new stand and the result was amazing. A last-minute winner from Mitrovic.
After the drive from Troyes I arrived back in New Malden. Things look a little different.
The house is quite a bit emptier – Cath has been busy. The boys have moved out but both came round to see me.
At least it has a new home in Whitechapel.
Having said goodbye to the Cogedim, after work it was time to say goodbye to Lyon for a couple of weeks while I work from London and help with the clearing out of our New Malden home.
I drove to Troyes (pronounced like trois) and had a brief look round before dinner and bed. The centre of the town was nice.
Today I left the Cogedim after six months of living with some of Lyon’s finest senior citizens.
Christened Golden Oldies HQ by an erstwhile colleague, it’s been fun bumping into neighbours who want to know how tall I am or who tell us off for being too young to live here.
It’s been a lovely first home in Lyon – even if U Express deliveries were a bit noisy first thing most mornings.
And here’s the last list of activities that we could have gone to but didn’t.
I spent a large part of the long weekend taking stuff from our old apartment to our new one.
The only problem is the old place is looking a tad empty.
Found out a little bit about the new area too.
As it was 15 August it was L’Assomption en France. And so a trip to Mass at a new eglise – the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
In the last few years I have normally spent 15 August in Sicily – Ferragosto – and so have learnt that the word for womb in Italian is grembo.
That’s because in the Gospel today we have the line:
Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
So I was excited to add the French word for womb to my vocabulary. But, then, this:
En elle? That’s it? There is a French word for womb – l’uterus. But clearly not how the Gospel is translated into French.
Ahh no. Centre de Réparation du septieme arrondisement. Siiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuu.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 