An evening stroll around le voisinage and we came across les pompiers in action. They were breaking down a second floor window to gain access. I’m guessing someone inside was in difficulty.

It reminds me of a similar incident in the 6eme arrondissement last year near our old address. Actually looking at this post it was almost exactly a year ago.

I suppose with so many people living in flats if someone gets into trouble the best way in is through the windows.

I hope whoever it is is all right.

Judging by the displays in les vitrines of the chocolate shops.

I spotted a new type of bike on the hire bike scheme Vélo’v.

Might have to think of a reason to take one out for a spin.

As well as a greve at Euronews there was also a nationwide strike and protests at President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.

You will have seen the scenes from Paris but there was also trouble at Lyon.

In the previous post I asked the question whether there was a grammatical error in the banner outside Euronews HQ.

But my French teacher – and a comment poster – have explained to me why the words AlPac m’a tuer were written in that way.

It is a reference to the case of Omar Raddad.

In 1991 a woman was found dead at her house and written in blood at the crime scene were the words Omar m’a tuer.

Omar Assad was the gardener and was accused of the crime but always protested his innocence.

He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. President Chirac issued a partial pardon in 1996 and he was released in 1998.

Omar always protested his innocence and eventually DNA evidence revealed the presence at the crime scene of several men but not Omar.

The phrase Omar m’a tuer was always seen as suspicious because the victim was an educated woman.

Learning French eh? So much to understand.

Another day, another union meeting . This one ended with the announcement of a three-day strike which started at 5pm today.

But surely there’s a little faute de frappe here?

Shouldn’t it be: AlPac m’a tué.

This bit made me sad. Le cube qui pleure.

As you cannot have failed to have noticed there are 500 days to go to the Paris Olympics.

Surely it’s no coincidence that the Olympic mascot – les phryges – are popping up in shop windows.

The phryges is a symbol of the French revolution and it is worn by the national symbol of France – Marianne.

However some people have asked questions about them, wondering if rather than phryges they look like something else.

Ça ne mange pas de pain – I’m guessing it means that isn’t expensive.

It’s taken me more than a year to realise but I have finally noticed that you can see La Basilica de Fourviere from the Green Cube.

I have always thought one of the nice things about Lyon is that you can almost always see the upside- down elephant from anywhere.

And so, it turns out, you can from Euronews HQ.

The bits of paper that serve as my temporary driving licence have gone missing. It forced me to think about how to get another one – or more importantly – to find out where my application for a French driving licence has got to.

I logged on to one of the many French bureaucratic websites to try and track some information down but failed.

But when I checked the address on record for me I saw it was my old address – at the Old Folks Home.

So after work, I headed round there to see if they still held on to any post for me. But after seven months my hopes were not high.

I was right – it wasn’t there.

So back to the Agence nationale des titres sécurisés website for some answers.

But when I logged in, there was no outstanding application registered there.

There was no other choice but to ring them. They explained that I needed to log in using the same method as when I first logged in. So I got some password reminders and tried that – still nothing.

So another phone call and it transpired that I might have created two accounts. So after some more password reminders for a different email address – bingo! There was a demand for proof of my visa again.

My old visa wasn’t good enough apparently- so I uploaded my new one and it was accepted.

And then I got an email saying I should have my licence within 14 days. I’ll believe that when I see it.

I even managed to print out a new one of these: