Another weekend, another day trip to a beautiful village in the Auvergene-Rhône-Alpes region.
This time it was Cremieu – a lovely setting with a Benedictine priory at its centre.
Cath at the PrioryThe market place- les halles The cloisters
Beautiful though it was, the restaurants were all full. It’s speciality is le gratin dauphinois but we didn’t get to sample any. One restaurant had frogs legs on the menu but we eventually had to go home with empty stomachs.
On the way we stopped off at a lake.
A swan with some ugly ducklings
The noise of frogs in the bullrushes was impressive. If we could have caught some, we could have had lunch after all.
So where better to belatedly celebrate our 25th anniversary. The food was amazing.
Amuse boucheEntrées – prawnsSpider crab with caviarArtichoke with foie grasWhite asparagus TunaCrayfishLambRis de veau (sweetbreads) with macaroniThis rum baba was a pre-desertSoufflé a la Chartreuse Sesame parfait with strawberries
Well worth a visit – book in advance – lunchtime menu reasonably priced.
Not really but, because of my recent medical history, I have to have my teeth regularly checked and cleaned and so one pressing matter has been finding a dentist in Lyon up to the job.
The best periodontist in the business, Dr Simon Stern, told me he would ask around for a recommendation in Lyon. And he came up with the goods – Dr Stephan Duffort.
Unfortunately when I rang I understood that Dr Duffort wasn’t available until July. So I opted to see his colleague Dr DeLaval.
Les dentistes It’s just round the corner
I was worried beforehand about the level of my French when it came to discussing dental implants and necrosis of the jaw. I had prepared some phrases – mon parodontiste en angleterre and j’ai besoin d’un examen dentaire et le nettoyage des dents. J’ai quelque implants dentaires.
La salle d’attente
But fortunately Dr DeLaval spoke English. Phew. And she understood my medical history and did a great job. And, compared to English dentists, the price was cheap too.
Having passed our lung x-rays the next stage in being allowed to stay in France is the medical.
So this morning we went to a nondescript building not far from Euronews to have the medicals. My main worry is will my French be up to it.
Une autre salle d’attente
There is a lot of waiting to be done in this process and our 10am appointments meant little as Cath wasn’t seen til 1035 and I was seen at 1055.
Cath went first and I could hear her rabbiting away in French. Not the words just the babble, you understand.
I had time to Google hay fever – rhumes des foins – in case they ask me whether I am taking any medication.
First I saw a nurse and was weighed measured and asked questions about whether I coughed- de temps en temps, oui. Or sweat in the night. Or spit- cracher – eurrghhh non, c’est degueulasse. Man, the French are obsessed with tuberculosis.
Un entretien avec l’infirmiere
Next, le medecin. She said I was there grâce à Brexit. Too right. A few more questions- a bit of breathing with a stethoscope attached. And then we were done.
It’s another hurdle overcome. Let’s see what’s next.
As Cath was back in England and I had the weekend to myself I decided to go birdwatching.
Firstly on Saturday I went back to Parc de la Tete d’Or where the weekend before I had seen some sort of egrets on an island in the middle of the lake but without mes jumelles (binoculars) I hadn’t been able to make them out.
So this time with mes jumelles I looked for them. I saw a couple of little egrets (aigrettes) and a load of herons.
But then I found that your could get closer to the island by taking a tunnel under the lake. And then I saw that they were cattle egrets – les herons garde boeuf. Now as the name suggests, these birds usually live around cattle where they eat the flies that bother the cows.
The white dot in the middle is a cattle egret – trust me.
But here they were in the centre of Lyon, high up in trees on an island on a lake. Bizarre.
On Sunday I headed to a series of lakes out near Lyon airport in a place called Meyzieu.
I took my scope and tripod and the list of birds that you might see there was promising – red kites, black kites, kingfishers, beeaters to name but a few.
I was set up to get some amazing pictures – but apart from the ever present buses (buzzards) this is the only bird I took a picture of. Le grebe huppé. Oh well. Le prochaine fois.
Tonight was the night of the second round of the French elections – Macron v LePen.
I came to work to make sure everything was ok and to help out where I could.
In the end it wasn’t as close as many people predicted.
Everything work-wise went well – we had a great team on, got the result out quickly and were one of the earliest with the key challenges for the new president on re-election.
One of those must be to work on his standing with the French people. He is just so unpopular in France. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t really strongly-dislike Macron. He’s got five more years to try and win them over.
Le Musée des Confluences looked nice on my way home
Cath’s sister Sally came to visit this weekend so we took the chance to go up to visit La Basilica Notre Dame de Fourviere- the big white cathedral at the top of a hill looking down on Lyon.
Although I tried to visit in my first week here, I failed to get to the top so it was time to put that right.
This time we sensibly took the funicular up to the top and we’re rewarded with some tremendous views.
We took the funicular up the steep climbLa Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere is impressiveReally beautiful detailsInside was impressive too
The cathedral was paid for by the people of Lyon and built in 1872. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who it is said protected the city from the bubonic plague in 1643.
Mary protecting LyonThe views across Lyon were breathtaking The huge Place Bellecour was easy to spot
The basilica is built on the site of a Roman forum built by Trajan – Fourviere being a corruption of Vieux Forum (so the guidebooks say)
Next door is an equally impressive Roman amphitheatre from which you can see the snow-topped Alps.
The Roman amphitheatre next door is equally impressive
The basilica is know locally, affectionately, as l’elephant renversé – the upside down elephant.