During my lunch break I came across this – firefighters in the river. It looked like a training exercise. Formation riviére.

Karim Benzema?

Paul Bocuse?

Les freres Lumieres?

Parlons de l’empereur Claudius.

I only learnt recently that the Roman Emperor Claudius – of I Claudius fame – was born in Lyon – or Lugdunum as it was known then.

Hence la Rue des Tables Claudiennes in La Croix Rousse in Lyon.

And what’s this lurking just below that street?

A second Roman amphitheatre – this one is the Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls.

It used to be next to the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls – a monumental structure where the representatives of the 60 Gallic peoples met each year.

That was founded by Claudius’ dad in 12BC and it became the first national parliament.

So:

• the fourth Roman emperor

• the first to be born outside Italy

• tutored by Livy

• began the invasion of Britain in 43 which eventually established a new Roman province, Britannia, which was part of the empire until the early 5th century AD.

• Inspiration for books by Robert Graves that became an award-winning BBC series.

Yes, that should do it – le Lyonnais le plus célèbre.

The World Cup is just around the corner and the signs are growing on the streets and in the shops of Lyon.

Be rude not to join in….

As today was 11 November- and a bank holiday in France – Cath and I took a trip to Nécropole nationale de la Doua, the war grave cemetery in Lyon.

It’s a very beautiful place and very moving. None more so than the wall where the Nazi firing squad killed members of the resistance.

They included Jacques Mautret and Henri Thomas – both 16-and-a-half years old when they were killed.

Jacques was caught after an overheard conversation in a café and was accused of blowing up a direction-finding car. He was killed on 4 February at 5pm.

In his last letter to his sister he wrote that he regretted that his niece would never know her uncle. So sad.

We also found some Commonwealth graves – including Flight Lieutenant JS Jack Towsey. His Mosquito was shot down over Hameaux les Gaboureaux, when he was 29.

The first weekend after I arrived in Lyon I was exploring Vieux Lyon and stumbled across a cafe that sold hot chocolate – some of them were quite pricey. But I thought it would be worth returning one day to try one.

Today – exactly nine months to the day – was that day.

The café is really nice and the hot chocolate wasn’t bad either – and not that expensive.

We will be back.

A few sights from an afternoon stroll around Lyon.

Now that Halloween is over, I wondered what the chocolate shops would have on display in their vitrines. Too early for Christmas?

Of course – la coupe du monde. The chocolate World Cup.

Elsewhere it was Christmas all the way.

Comme toujours, j’ai apris quelques nouveaux mots pendant mon sejour a Marseille.

La pipelette – chatterbox

Le char – a tank.

Bazlama – Turkish flat bread as made by Hanna’s neighbour. And they made a lot of them.

Et constipé