As I was walking down Avenue du Maréchal-de-Saxe you’ll never guess who I bumped into.

Father Christmas was there with a couple of rennes and a couple of petites filles.

The road had a real Christmassy feel. Not much further along the road was a stall selling la barbe à papa.

Even Cath’s nails were getting in on the act.

My regular lunchtime walk was a victim of the rising river levels – this time La Saône.

Me and my colleague had to head back to work without reaching la confluence.

I learned a new word in French last week – les bas ports. My landlady asked me if I cycled along the bas ports to get to work. And indeed I do.

But yesterday and today I could not use les bas ports because they were so bas that the Rhône had subsumed them.

It took a bit longer to get to work but at least my feet were dry.

As mentioned, it is the weekend of la fête des lumières when the world descends on Lyon for its annual light festival.

Because it’s packed and raining we decided not to brave the crowds at the biggest venues.

But we still managed to see a couple of installations.

This one is called Sign. Un brasier sur l’eau. it is supposed to be a fire of joy.

It is called Asklipion – after the Greek god of medicine. It is meant to evoke the healing power of plants.

Look at this Christmas display in a local chocolate shop!

The smell inside the shop was amazing.

The 8th December is the night when the people of Lyon put candles on their windowsills to thank Mary for saving the city.

It looks lovely and also marks the start of La Fête des Lumieres.

I’m sure it is related to the feast of the Immaculate Conception which is interesting in a country that prides itself on its laicité – secularism.

Then I read that President Macron has gotten into a lot of trouble for allowing the lighting of Hanukkah candles in the Elysée Palace.

Meanwhile a whole city lights candles on a Christian feast.

On my bike ride to work this morning as I passed the small reed bed in front of the Piscine du Rhône I saw a kingfisher – not five feet from all the bicycles whizzing past.

At first I thought it must be a model so calmly was it sitting there.

Then it dived into the river and I stopped to take a photo.

Of course birds don’t mind bikes flying past but as soon as you stop to photograph them they get the jitters.

So these are my best photos of le martin pêcheur taken with my phone.

The French government has announced that employees being sacked in France next year (🙋‍♂️) will continue to be entitled to something called CSP – Contrat de Sécurisation Professionelle.

It means that people being fired will get 75% of their gross salary paid for 12 months.

Like most things in France, it is slightly more complicated than that but still good news for people like me who will be out of work and looking for a new job.

I will publish another post on some of the complexities of being fired in France – but be warned – c’est tres compliqué.

I learnt a new word in French – la camelote. It means tat and I had to learn it because my old BBC colleague sent me some in the post.

I should explain that my former colleague Nicky Schiller is known for his branded tat that he sends to people at the BBC at Christmas – and even to those who have left, like me.

It is branded #NickySchillertat and this year’s haul is made up of a calendar, a notepad and a pen. Or la camelote de Nicky Schiller.