Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
Working in newsrooms in London and Lyon.
When someone famous is ill or dies a newsroom will usually have an obituary to hand.
The same is true at Euronews and with Pele dying and Pope Benedict XVI seriously ill we have been talking a lot about these obituaries.
In English these are known as Obits. In France the word they use is Necros.
I’m not the only who finds this term a bit unsettling. Necromancer, necrosis, necrophilia – let’s leave it there.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II is something I spent the best part of 20 years preparing for at the BBC.
But when it happened I found myself as head of digital at Euronews.
It is still a massive story of course – a moment in history – and I was really proud of how the language teams responded to the news when it happened. All the sites looked really good and we had some great content.
I, of course, had gone home and had a G&T when the news broke. But a quick cycle back to work meant we could see the coverage home together.
Today at lunchtime this gorgeous little chien came to work.
He had a job to do. And that job was sniffing out bugs. There had been a report of an infestation so this chien – qui peut renifle la présence des punaises – was brought in.
When I got an email about le chien – I had to Google chien because I couldn’t believe a dog was coming in to try to detect an infestation of bugs. But a chien it was.
Et il n’a rien trouvé.
I had to have a medical for my visa last week and today I had to have my work medical.
It was in the same building as local Lyon newspaper Le Progrès which I am yet to read.
Eye test – which I did in English because I wasn’t confident enough about the letters in French – quick weight and height and blood pressure check and then we were done.
The medical lasts five years for any job in France- so if I’ve move to Le Progrès I don’t need to have another one.
Euronews is such that this week I find myself flying to Bucharest to visit the digital team working for the franchise operation Euronews Romania.
Our head of news is from Romania so I asked him for some advice about where to eat after I landed in the evening.
He recommended a restaurant where it’s traditional to start with a plum brandy so we did, followed by polenta and mince wrapped in cabbage leaf and some more….. cabbage and polenta.
Might try something else tomorrow night.
While in Bucharest we got the chance to tour the Peoples Palace – built by Ceaucescu and one of the biggest buildings in the world and billed as the heaviest!
Redacteur en chef contenus numeriques.
No sooner does Euronews announce my arrival – along with that of colleague and friend Stuart Duncan – than it is time for me to head back to the UK for a second attempt at getting a visa.
I got loads of lovely messages but no sooner had I replied to them that it was in a taxi and off to the airport.
Next stop TLS visa services – wish me luck.
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.
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.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 