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.

Every year some of the restaurants in Lyon sell off their old plates, pans, glasses and cutlery – la vaisselle – the crockery.

Cath and I went to have a look. The sale was in l’hotel de ville – our first visit there and it was very impressive.

There were lots of plates and a few pans and glasses for sale – even from the great Paul Bocuse restaurants.

And the surroundings weren’t bad either.

It’s time to welcome an old friend back into our lives – the Christmas tree at the top of our road.

He was a welcome sight last year and now he’s back.

Also the Christmas lights are back along Cours Franklin Roosevelt.

And then Matt is also back in Lyon so we indulged in a Christmas snap.

I saw this poster at the train station in Lille.

I didn’t know that héros was a singular noun (masculine) in French.

Mais maintenant je le sais. I guess the final s is silent.

We went to Le Brasserie des Brotteaux for dinner and Cath had this for dessert – un gateau St Honoré.

It is named after the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs – the bishop of Amiens.

Apparently the dish was invented in 1847, by Auguste Julien at the Chiboust bakery on Rue Saint-Honore in Paris – next to the Tuilleries Gardens.

With its choux pastry and caramelised sugar it is definitely fit for a saint.

So it’s the 15 November which means it has been two years since Cath and I first flew to Lyon to see if we wanted to move to the city and work for Euronews.

The two years have had their ups and downs but we are still here.

We have trabouléd, eaten a lot of patisserie praliné, sailed on the Saône – we’ve even been to a bouchon!

With the upcoming changes to Euronews the future is less clear but two years feels like an achievement worth marking/celebrating

My cycle ride home was affected by the really high levels of the Rhône.

It’s rained a lot recently but this is the first time I’ve seen the river like this.

Look at these vitrines! Christmas is coming!