I get a monthly email from my French teacher’s website alerting me to interesting activities happening each month.

Strangely this one caught my eye – a wine-tasting event in Ampius featuring 300 wines and 66 winemakers.

So off we went to sample some varieties.

We paid for a ticket that allowed dégustation so when we arrived we were handed a little wine glass and then it was off to sample the produce.

There was a lot of choice.

These are wines from the Côte-Rôtie region which is on a hillside above the river. Apparently prices can be as steep as the hills.

In the end we settled for a few bottles of Condrieu from André François and some of Saint Joseph from Jean-Pierre Lezin.

Before Christmas one of our local chocolate shops had a crib made entirely out of chocolate.

But how do you follow that? What can take the place of the baby Jesus.

Un hérisson bien sûr.

Et trois petits ours.

Ce soir j’ai vu deux beaux oiseaux sur le Rhône.

Un martin pêcheur et une aigrette.

Le martin pêcheur était trop difficile à photographier.

Il est là-dedans de quelque part.

Et l’autre jour sur la Saône…

Having finished reading Manon des Sources I have now moved on to La Gloire de Mon Père.

I learned something new.

Que les Anglais nous ont imposé!

🤷🏻‍♂️

People who live near this Metro station must have a nice relaxing life.

Lyon – or I should say Lyons – has made it into the national media.

A young TikTok travel and food blogger came to the gastronomic capital of France and it made her cry.

She was shocked that everything was closed on New Year’s Eve and that the people were not very welcoming or helpful.

“People here seem very indifferent

“I don’t recommend it for a solo traveller or someone who doesn’t speak French.”

I find that surprising as most people in Lyon when they hear my accent start speaking to me in English.

But those who live here do accept that the Lyonnais can be a bit hard to get to know.

Pour revenir sur l’Américaine à Lyon, elle a raison : les Lyonnais sont froids et fermés!

Ma prof de français

In fact to help with loneliness we have a new addition to the family.

Now that I need to find a job I saw this advert in an employment office searching for some workers. Some roles I knew, others I was not familiar with.

Zingueurs – zinc worker/roofer

Chaudronniers – boiler makers/ heating engineers maybe

Electriciens– electricians

Serruriers -locksmiths

Not sure I am suitable for any of them.

Comme l’année dernière c’est le 6 Janvier – l’Épiphanie et alors il y a des galettes des rois.

Cette année on a acheté une galette et une brioche des rois.

C’est bien de essayer les nouvelles choses, n’est ce pas?

On n’a pas encore trouvé les feves.

As regular readers will know I have not applied for my job in Brussels – so, as of next April I will be being made redundant encore une fois. So I am entering the last three months of my employment at Euronews.

In France there are a myriad of ways to leave a company – and it’s all quite complicated.

So here’s my guide – it might not all be correct but it’s my best understanding to date. And be warned, there are plenty of acronyms.

So the first thing is the French trade unions – Comité Social et Economique – CSE. They spent more than six months with the Euronews managers to agree un Plan de Sauvegarde de l’Emploi or PSE.

There’s the first confusing thing because the plan to safeguard jobs saw Euronews close 199 jobs. It seemed to be more about negotiating the best terms for those people whose jobs were affected by the reorganisation.

After lengthy negotiations the two sides agreed so the details of the plan were sent to DREETS (Directions régionales de l’économie, de l’emploi, du travail et des solidarités) – a regional administrative department dealing with all things employment.

It took them a few weeks but they also agreed the plan for job closures at Euronews.

Plenty of jobs have closed and people have been leaving Euronews every day. Our Spanish team are now in Madrid, our Italian team in Rome, our German team in Berlin and our Portuguese team in Lisbon.

There is a pot de depart every week if not day.

Because the jobs in France are closing, employees are entitled to something called CSP – Contrat de Sécurisation Professionelle.

As mentioned in a previous post, it has just been renewed for another year.

It means those of us looking for a new job get a generous support package while we search.

So I can just leave Euronews at the end of March and all will be well?

Not exactly – I have to leave using some called Depart volontaire (not so volontaire really) creation d’entreprise.

My plan is to start a digital consultancy business and stay in France for a while if possible.

Euronews even gives me some money to help start the business.

I am working with a consultant from Lee Hecht Harrison on my business plan.

Cath had a great idea for a name based on our trip to Guadeloupe – Colibri Media.