Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
Trying to learn French – some posts in French
As part of my assessment for French lessons my prof rang me today to have a chat to see what my spoken French was like – en francais evidemente .
It was tres difficile avec beaucoup de errrrs and ahhhs on my part. And it lasted vingt-huit minutes.
But in the end I got there and the lessons will start in a week or so.
I told a French colleague that it had been exhausting and they said: That’s what it’s like for me to have to speak English! Right I’d better pull my finger out.
La troisieme semaine est commencé aujourd’hui et j’ai porté quelque choses à Euronews avec moi ce matin.
Une plante, une tasse, du lait and du thé.
Et j’ai fait un essai de mon niveau de Francais. J’ai pris 46 sur 70! Pas mal!
Et puis, sur le voyage au domicile, j’ai vu un nouveau oiseau sur les infos de T1!
In order to improve my French a bit I went to the local cinema ce soir to see a film in French.
I checked out the films at the big multiplex in Westfield, Part Dieu, but in the end opted for a tiny cinema around the corner – Cinema Bellecombe.
It was advertised in the retirement complex where I am currently staying so when I got there, there were a lot of us oldies waiting to get in.
I saw a film called Farewell Monsieur Haffmann. Now I’m not saying I understood every word but I followed it and it made sense. And it was also a great film.
Might do that again.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 