Category: Lyon

Life in Lyon

A night out

A colleague invited me out for a few drinks tonight so an evening stroll into town gave me the chance to admire some night-time views.

Lyon by night
Elle est belle comme ca

On my way to the venue, I walked past a shop selling some Lyon artwork. This one caught my eye.

Hard to make out but hopefully all will be revealed shortly

Velo non, inspecteurs oui

Another morning, another attempt to cycle to work. But I encountered a new issue.

Will I ever cycle to work?

I tried to restart the app but no joy. So yet another mad dash for the T1. I didn’t have a ticket and thought about risking travelling without but decided getting arrested wouldn’t be a good look with my new employees.

So I quickly bought a carnet of tickets and they printed out just in time to jump on the tram. I stamped my ticket and then was confronted by a phalanx of ticket inspectors. The first ones I had ever seen. But the buying a ticket decision turned out to be a great one.

Les lecons de Francais

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.

J’ai fait du velo

Lyon says it was the first city in France to have hire bikes

I decided to make my first journey to work by bike. Lyon has a lot of Boris-bike-style bikes and an app that makes it very easy to use.

Or so I thought until I tried to ride one this morning. I couldn’t get it to work and ended up in my usual dash for the tram.

While on the tram I worked out what was I doing wrong. So was ready to try again at the end of the day.

During the day, I looked out of my office window and saw a cormorant dive under the surface of the Saone and come back up with a big fish in its beak. In my old job I was based in the basement with no view at all, now I have real life wildlife to gawp at.

At the end of the day it was time to try again with the hire bikes. The app worked, I unhooked a bike – you get to choose which one you want by looking at their ratings!

My route home took me along the banks of the river Rhone with some pretty decent views. I had to keep remembering to cycle on the right but other than that it was fine.

Quite a pleasant commute. Might try it again.

Une nouvelle semaine – et j’ai bien preparé

La troisieme semaine est commencé aujourd’hui et j’ai porté quelque choses à Euronews avec moi ce matin.

Un nouveau colocataire dans mon bureau

Une plante, une tasse, du lait and du thé.

Mon premiere tasse de thé à Euronews

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!

Un nouveau oiseaux sur le T1

Je suis allé au cinema

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.

A tiny, one-screen cinema

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.

There was quite a queue

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.

Not bad for six euros

Might do that again.