Lyon’s famous fête des lumières takes place from Thursday. We are very excited about experiencing our first one.

As you can see the preparations are under way.

Now, you might remember this – a beautiful illustration of a kingfisher at l’Ile Barbe that I bought in February last year from a lovely shop in Rue Saint-Polycarpe.

Cath and I went back today with Christmas shopping on our minds and I saw this new design.

It features cattle egrets – the bird I have seen regularly in Parc de la Tête d’Or.

And this time the green cube makes the cut. What a perfect representation of my year in Lyon.

I cannot recommend Diable Petite Manufacture highly enough.

Le cube vert, la maison de Euronews depuis 2015, est à vendre.

Je ne sais pas si l’espace va vendre tres vite ou pas mais j’espere que non – parce que j’aime bien travailler au cube.

Watching the World Cup on French television means I am learning some new words in French like le corner.

But seriously, here are some new words – some of which my French teacher put my way.

• Le hors jeu – offside

• Le but – goal

• L’entraîneur – the manager

• Le coup franc – free kick

• La lucarne – top bins

I remember from my Formation Civique training that there are 101 departments in France. But how to remember them all.

Well how about this? A nice little magnetic map of all of them. With helpful pictures.

Lyon is represented by the puppet Guignol – the symbol of Lyon’s traditional Bouchon restaurants – such as Chez Paul.

Today was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Cath came across this moving tribute by the town hall in the centre of Lyon. 121 pairs of shoes marking the 121 victims in 2022.

I spotted this bumper sticker in the car park today. I guess there must be someone from the Savoyard region at work who loves their potato-based dishes.

My son Matthew insisted we go to a pub to watch the start of the Qatar World Cup and so here we are at Bros watching Qatar get a bit of a pasting by Ecuador.

France play on Tuesday but today we awoke to the news that local lad Benzema is out with a thigh injury.

Maybe call up Claudius?