A Handmaid’s Tale comes to Lyon?

Cycling home I saw what I thought were three Handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel.

At first glance I thought it was a fancy dress thing

As I got closer I realised they were Segway riders ready for the rain. Blessed be the fruit.

Des ragondins

You may remember I recently saw an animal in the Rhône which I thought was a beaver but which colleagues told me was un ragondin.

Well today there was no doubt as I saw quite a few of them – out of the water.

Des ragondins partout

Coypus are an invasive species and there are signs up asking people not to feed them. But people were feeding them bits of their baguette sandwiches!

Ne pas ignorer ce panneau
He was happy to eat grass

En bateau sur la Saône

It was a nice sunny day so Cath and I decided to try a bit of sailing/steering/driving a boat along the Saône. We had spotted a company that let you take a boat out without a licence at Confluence so after a very brief chat about the rules of the waters and how to drive the thing, we took to the waters.

Notre bateau
The rules of the waves

It was quite straightforward to be fair, stay on the right, go under the yellow triangles on bridges and steer the whole time.

You have to concentrate

We only took the boat for an hour so we had time to travel up the Saône to Vieux Lyon and then we had to turn back. We saw some lovely sights on the way.

Fourvière
St Nizier
Some beautiful peniches
There’s the yellow triangle – on passe par ici

It did get a bit choppy when another boat went past – our little craft got tossed about a bit. But it was great fun and a nice way to see the city. We even saw my place of work on the way back.

Le cube vert
Messing about on the river

I also learnt a new word – le point mort – neutral gear. I learnt it just in time.