Having returned to the UK and discussed the offer from Euronews – along with a free flat to live in while we work out what do we our house and where to live in Lyon – today I accepted the offer. I told the headhunter when she rang me to check in with how the trip to Lyon had gone.

The next day I spoke to the HR director and told him the decision had been quite easy in the end – they made me feel very wanted.

I was then sent my contract to sign. It has to be in French, because of French law – but fortunately they included an English translation.

The deal is done and I have a start date – 1 February 2022.

On Monday 15 November, my wife Cath and I flew out to Lyon to see what we thought of the city – and whether we would be happy to relocate there.

I had been through a remote interview process and this was the final stage of the recruitment process – meet Euronews’ management team and experience Lyon for real. Could it become our new home?

The trip started with a lovely meal at L’Institution and then a day of meetings while Cath toured Lyon.

We met up for lunch and Cath’s first impressions of Lyon were positive. We walked around the beautiful old town before I had to head back for more meetings.

At the end of a long day, the CEO treated us to dinner at another restaurant – Selsius. It was delicious and I think our minds were made up about the move.

The one sour note were my attempts to speak French. I found it difficult but when the taxi driver asked me if I had heard a noise I was able to dig into my recent Duolingo lessons to say: Je n’ai rien entendu. I was happy with that.