Je suis en France depuis un an. Je suis arrivé le 30 janvier l’année derniere.

Ma premiere journée s’est passée comme ça.

Je suis arrivé

Le temps passe vite

To celebrate Cath’s birthday we went to the Alps – to Aiguilles to be exact – for a weekend.

There was plenty of snow and the views were amazing.

Cath’s sister, nieces and great niece all arrived along with our sons from London. It was lovely seeing them all.

When we explored the village we saw some people with ice picks climbing an icy cliff face.

I, of course, brought my binoculars with me so I also looked in the numerous pine trees and the first bird I saw was a crested tit. Une mésange hupée. I knew they were in the area but couldn’t believe how easy it was to see one.

The other bird that was everywhere were les grives littornes – fieldfares. There were 15-odd in the tree next to the flat.

We also took advantage of the snow to go to an espace ludique. There was a competition of skiers being pulled along by dogs – these dogs:

There was a ski run and a luge run there. I have never really done any winter sports but agreed to have a go with the luge.

It was a fantastic weekend organised by Cath. Great fun was had by everyone.

I got my first puncture – une crevaison – on my journey to work.

It meant I had to learn some new words:

• Une crevaison – puncture

• Une chambre à air – an innertube
• Les leviers pneus – tyre levers

Fortunately there is a bike shop right next to work – Probikeshop so I was able to buy a new chambre à air and can say goodbye to the Velo’vs for now.

Cath booked tickets to go to see Swan Lake performed by the ballet company of Odessa.

They were in town for one night only.

It was on at La Bourse du Travail and it was clearly very popular with large queues to get in.

It was my first ever ballet so I read the story beforehand to know what was going on.

At the end there was a standing ovation and then they played the Ukrainian national anthem. It was all very moving.

Qu’est-ce que c’est ça? Un bateau plein de bois? Trop de troncs, une abondance d’arbres? Une peniche avec une profusion de planches?

Ça suffit? Oui.

Notre voisin en dessous a trois chiens. Quelque fois quand je descends un m’accompagne.

Aujourd’hui j’ai rencontré tous les trois.

It was Cath’s birthday so we left the mice and went to Brasserie Nord for a meal.

Lyon’s most famous chef is Paul Bocuse. He has four restaurants at the four compass points in the city. This was our first visit to one of them.

Each restaurant has a different theme. This one specialises in traditional Lyonnais food. L’Est has food from around the world, L’Ouest has an exotic/islands feel and Le Sud has a Mediterranean bent.

The food was lovely – although we steered clear of the tête de veau.

DO NOT READ ON IF YOU ARE SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAMISH – or if you are coming to stay with us.

Cath rang me at work this afternoon to say she had heard some noises in the cupboard in our living-room. Then she had seen a tail hanging out of the door – and with that she was off.

She doesn’t like mice.

In our apartment block there is a boulangerie on the ground floor which is why the building is regularly checked for mice by la société pour dératiser.

They came just before Christmas but the theory is as the weather gets colder the mice climb higher up the building.

I rushed home from work and Cath was still out. I looked in the cupboard and saw I would have to move some boxes so I thought I should have a cup of tea first.

While waiting for the kettle to boil I suddenly saw a little mouse sitting on our canapé!

I chased him from cushion to cushion but he ran under the settee and vanished.

Cath came back armed with two traps so we set them and went to bed.

The following morning when I woke up both traps had snared a mouse.

WARNING: GRUESOME CONTENT

The man from la société pour dératiser is coming on Wednesday. At least we can show him some proof.

Aujourd’hui il y a une grève nationale en France et aussi il y a de la neige.

Alors, j’ai fait du velo pour arriver au boulot.

À cause de la grève et de la neige il n’y avait pas beaucoup de monde au travail. Mais est-ce que c’est les Francais qui font la grève le plus en Europe? Voir si c’est vrai ici.

Spare en Francais c’est le Suppléant et non, je ne l’ai pas acheté.