Les ornithologies a Lyon

Should have got here a few weeks earlier

Look what I just missed by a matter of weeks. Lyon’s answer to the RSPB’s big garden birdwatch. At least I know there are other birders nearby.

Un nouveau mot

When I came back to my apartment with a colleague who is also staying here, he opened the door with a fob. I have to punch in the code every time. So today I asked at the accueil for: “le chose qui ouvrit la porte” When I asked the name for the fob, I was told it is called le badge noir.

La croix-rousse

A colleague recommended I go and explore la croix-rousse area of Lyon so on Saturday I set out to have a look. There are plenty of traboules there so I wanted to trabouler un peu.

Behind the Hotel de Ville is Place de Terreaux

La croix-rousse was home to the canuts – Lyon silk weavers. I need a better guide book but it appears the canuts protested by coming down the Montée de la Grand Cote on more than one occasion.

There are plenty of hidden passageways here – traboules – but they are so well hidden, I couldn’t find them.

And of course there were chocolate shops

I did find this loving-looking chocolate shop. So I bought a big brioche aux pralines and asked if it was a Lyonnais speciality.

Mais bien sur, monsieur.

But why did I buy one this size when I am tout seul?

Surviving week two – lost in translation

And just like that week two is over.

I had a meeting with the French unions which sounded scary but was fine. I told them I wanted them to believe I was a great digital brain – but as someone from the technical support team was there who had to help me make the camera on my laptop work by flicking a switch – I needed her to forget that.

One of the real joys of the Euronews newsroom is its multilingual nature. But because my French isn’t good enough it means everyone around me speaks to me in English.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a stickler for people using less than/fewer than correctly. But I find myself having to bite my tongue and not jump in and correct colleagues when they get it wrong. Their English is sooo much better than my French.

The worst moment of the week was when I asked someone where another colleague worked. She said Ajar and I thought – there’s another part of this organisation I’ve never heard of. When I asked what they do she looked perplexed and said Ajar? It took me a while to realise she meant HR. We were both a bit embarrassed -but me more than her.

The good news is I’m seeing someone about starting French lessons next week.

I finished the week by going to some leaving drinks with colleagues from distribution and the press department.

The drinks were in the bar of the Mob Hotel where we stayed when we first came to Lyon. It was a fun evening – meeting new colleagues and getting a bit drunk.

Sometimes the signs help, sometimes not so much

Why is one river masculine and one feminine?

La greve et la reunion en francais

Today I experienced my first greve – not bad considering I have been here for eight days already.

The Tram line T1 – was on strike. Fortunately the other lines were working but they were bourre de monde. Me – a born-and-bred Londoner – was unable to squeeze on to the tram I needed to get to get to work on time. So I was late. Twice in eight days! Might fail my probationary period.

I need to explore using a hire bike in the not-too-distant future.

My reward was going to a meeting about the French presidential election which was held… in French! I had to concentrate really hard but more-or-less understood what was going on.

And I learnt a new word too – pastille – which I think means a video package as well as a lozenge.

I can see how I need to improve and quickly.

At least I got a laugh at the end of the meeting – always a key objective for me – when I said:

Merci pour le lecon de francais.

Week two commence

I got an earlier tram to work today, strode into the morning conference meeting ready for action, sat down and a colleague I hadn’t yet met turned to me and said:

Not a good weekend for Fulham then?

He made me laugh – I’ll give him that. Fulham were thumped by Man City 4-1 in the FA Cup on Saturday.

It turns out this colleague is Portuguese and a big Marco Silva fan. He predicted a good season for Fulham and Marco in the Premier League next season.

So we ended up as friends.

J’ai traboulé

Today I decided to walk into Vieux Lyon as it seems that is where it’s all happening on a Sunday.

I love the way you often get glimpses of La Basilica de Notre-Dame de Fourviere as you walk around Lyon.

Once again, the whole of the rest of the city seemed to be in Vieux Lyon with me. I was gawping at chocolate shops and wine shops and hot chocolate shops where you could pay €16 for a hot chocolate when I stumbled across this:

Now, long-time readers (who am I kidding – it’s just me) will remember an entry about les traboules in Lyon that I learnt about in a DuoLingo podcast.

Well today j’ai traboulé!

You are asked to be quiet as you pass by people’s apartments

And it felt wonderful. Here I am a couple of months later trabouling for all I am worth.

Everywhere I looked in Vieux Lyon were great places to eat, great places to drink and gorgeous food on show. These pink brioches a praline were so tempting.

So I bought one – along with a couple of very strong bottles of local beer and another thing to brighten up the flat – a lovely redshank.

Good job I joined that gym.

Le week-end et les oiseaux

So after a week at work it was now time to explore. First I needed to join a salle de sports. With all these pastries I’ve been treating myself to it was time to do some excercise.

There is a branch of Neoness fitness right opposite the flat so I ventured in to try and join. It was a challenge for my French but after a free trial session I managed to enrol – although there was some confusion over the RIB – a bank account number in France which turned out to be the same as an IBAN in the UK so we got there.

Then it was off to Parc de la Tete d’Or. Recommended by my colleague Ali – who knows I like birdwathching – so I took my jumelles and headed there.

I wandered around – along with most of the rest of Lyon – as it was a lovely sunny day. People were playing boules, I saw plenty of birds – herons and cormorants and some greylag geese. And there was a woman cracking a whip repeatedly. I wasn’t the only one who found that strange judging by her admirers.

My first notable Lyon bird – a very accomodating greylag goose

And as there is a zoo in the park I saw a family of giraffes as well.

On the way back home I passed a florists shop so popped in and bought a plant to make the flat a bit more homely. At least now I am not alone.

I survived week one

So that’s it. I made it to the end of my first week – four days to be precise. I met loads of interesting and friendly people, lots of things about working in a Newsroom were familiar, lots of things were very different.

Everyone was very helpful and made me feel very welcome. But at times my head hurt as I tried to get to grips with different language services, sponsored content, branded content, magazines and all types of differen editorial shows and products.

I’m not sure I would have got through the week without the help of Ali Ihsan Aydin – my digital colleague. Showing me how the canteen works, the coffee machines work, my computer works and putting up with all my stupid questions. He has been a godsend.

I finished my working week with a session learning how to use the content managment system. It is quite straightforward but I’m sure I’ve forgotten it all already.

And I made my first bit of real impact.