Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
Living in Venelles is very different from Lyon life. There we lived right in the city centre, there were hire bikes, the Metro, trams and hire cars.
In Venelles we are much more out in the sticks and you really need a car to get around.
So we bought one!
This Clio will be ours next Friday. A hybrid automatic it should be easy to drive around.
Just got to pay for it now.
We noticed that our pool was not as clean as our neighbours and as piscine novices we called in an expert.
Enter Davide – from doctopiscine. He knew the pool and began to run some diagnostics.
As he was examining the performance of various bits he kept saying: Pas terrible. And I thought – great it’s not bad.
But of course I had forgotten that pas terrible doesn’t mean not bad but rather not great.
He said we needed a new pump which cost about €500. He taught me a new word too – les debits sont pas terrible – the water flow.
He spoke to our landlord who didn’t seem to believe him. He then popped around and said, in his opinion, the pump was fine.
He then cleaned the pool manually and I told him he had another company coming to have a look the following week.
He said if it needed a new pump he would replace it but Cath had her doubts as to whether this was true.
To be continued.
This morning an excited shout from Cath alerted me to the presence of un écureuil rouge outside our front door.
It was a skinny little thing that moved fast from branch to branch. Hope to see it again.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing some great birds now we have moved south.
The day I came to sign le bail I saw a crested tit by le portail.
The Merlin bird app has heard cirl buntings in the garden so I am hopeful I might see one soon.
And then, as we were driving less than a mile from our house this amazing bird flew past – blue with an orange back.
It was too big for a beater so I wondered if it was an escaped bird.
When I got home I looked it up and it was a roller or un rollier. What an amazing bird!
In an attempt to attract a few more birds to our garden I bought a bird feeder and filled it with sunflower hearts
I hung it from le figuier and now we wait for the birds to find it.
The house also comes with une piscine. Now while I love swimming I have never had to manage a swimming pool before and this one looks like it needs a bit of work doing.
It is a bit dirty so I tried to use the pool cleaner to suck up some of the dirt – but it didn’t seem very powerful.
Also the filters in the pool don’t seem to be very effective.
We seem to have everything we need to clean it – a pool cleaner, a net and a big pole.
But I think we need to get an expert in to have a look at it and see if it needs a service.
Our neighbour’s pool is immaculate – but my hopes were raised when he seems to have the same tools for the job as us.
Let’s hope I can learn how to maintain it quickly – before it gets too hot here.
Apres deux ans et trois mois à Lyon c’était l’heure de quitter la ville et voyager au sud.
Pendant que nous buvions nos dernières cafés dans notre resto preferé, j’ai pensé aux choses que j’ai appris.
Comme je suis journalist, voici les dix meilleurs choses, a mon avis.
Vous êtes d’accord? Dites le moi.
Being back in a house meant there was also a garden that needed looking after.
It hadn’t been tended to for a while with an overgrown lawn and lots of arbustes and arbres that needed attention.
There is un cerisier et un figuier
I had un sécateur and un escabeau so I got to work trimming les arbustes.
But I didn’t have une tondeuse – so I had to take a quick trip to Leroy Merlin to buy one. Fortunately the lawn isn’t a perfect pelouse so I didn’t need a very flash tondeuse just a basic model.
When I got home I needed Cath’s sister’s help again as it is an electric lawnmower so I needed une rallonge très longue to be able to tondre la pelouse.
J’ai coupé tout sauf ce coquelicot.
I was also keen to start growing some vegetables.
Donc j’ai semé des graines de tomates, de potimarrons et j’ai acheté aussi des jeunes plants d’aubergines.
Alors maintenant on a un petit potager.
After cleaning up the apartment we headed along the autoroute de soleil for Aix-en-Provence.
When we got there the removal men had beaten us to it in their big camion. So the emménagement began.
There were a few things to fix, a few minor breakages but by about 20h30 it was all done – apart from le four which needed connecting to the electricity. I need to buy some sucres to wire it in.
After the men had gone Cath’s sister, who lives nearby, came by with a few things to eat so we celebrated with a few glasses of wine.
And before we knew it moving day had arrived.
We had packed up as much as we could and were putting ourselves in the hands of the removal men
There were some anxious moments of waiting and worrying.
It didn’t start well as some cars had ignored le panneau telling them not to park outside our building. Then the men were late.
But once la grue arrived things moved pretty quickly.
The landlord had been clear – everything had to go out of the window – and everything did go out of the window.
Le frigo, l’étagère, le canapé, trois lits – tous.
And within a few hours the flat was empty.
I’ve got to do l’état des lieux next week but have agreed with the landlord that we can do it virtually.
With less than a week to go in Lyon we are making sure to make the most of its culinary highlights.
So we were going to visit another one of the restaurants that celebrated chef Michel Roux Jr recommended to us when we ate at his now defunct restaurant La Gavroche a couple of years ago.
We have been to La Mere Brazier – excellent.
We have been to Chez Paul – not so excellent.
So we were going to go to Miraflores – another on Miche’s list, but in the end decided it was a bit too pricey.
Instead it was back to one of our local favourites Le Brassiere des Brotteaux. I thought I should have the steak tartare – probably my last one in Lyon.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 