So after two visits to the tax office it was finally time to fill in my first tax return in France.

You have to wait til May after the first year you’ve been here but getting appointments at the tax office is hard. So I took a phone appointment and a helpful woman gave emailed me the forms I needed to fill in and with some directions.

But there are a lot of forms.

There are also lots of hard words to understand. Foncier, hébergement, viagères.

But with help from my French teacher and my colleague Javi – who warned me that if I didn’t tell them about my British bank accounts I would be fined €1500 per account.

But that meant another form to fill in – actually another three forms.

Javier also showed me where I needed to write:

Le journalisme ayant été en 2022 mon activité principale, régulière et rétribuée, j’ai déduit 7.650 euros des salaires imposables, tirés de ma profession, au titre de l’allocation pour frais d’emploi des journalistes

Which has hopefully saved me a few quid.

Then it was off to the tax office to drop it off.

Let’s hope I haven’t made any mistakes. Or if I have that they are gentle with me.

It was my second birthday in France and for the second time, I was late leaving work because of a big staff meeting. But when I dashed home Cath had prepared a kir royale.

And then it was off for a meal at Le Zeste Gourmand. A five minute walk from our flat and the food was amazing.

Au secours. Mon cerf-volant! Il est attrapé dans un arbre dans le Parc de la Tête d’Or!

When the sun comes out in Lyon the people come out in their droves along the river Rhône to sunbathe, drink and exercise.

This outdoor gym is always heaving with people – doing pull ups, press ups and handstands.

A lot of the men exercise with their shirts off so tout le monde can admire their physiques if they so wish.

This pic is a bit more safe for work.

On my way to work I was stopped by a policeman and some nice people from a cycling safety organisation.

They explained some of the most important rules of the road to me.

Even when there is a flèche jaune at the traffic lights allowing me to cycle through – pedestrians have priority.

Two other important things – you cannot use headphones while cycling – the fine is €90! I said I didn’t know that (but the truth is I have been stopped and warned about it once before).

Also you must have a sonnette – a bell.

I didn’t have one so I had to go to the bike shop at lunchtime and buy one. As mentioned before the people in the bike shop next to work are super helpful. They don’t sell sonettes so they gave me a bag of the things they fit to new bikes which includes a bell.

Unfortunately it is too small for my handlebars. But I will use it until I get the chance to buy a proper one.

The name of Prince Harry’s book in Serbian. Also note the author’s name.

Remember here it is in French for comparison.

A work trip to Belgrade – my first time in Serbia – and there were surprisingly a lot of reminders of Lyon.

Belgrade is at the confluence of the river Sava and the Danube – just like Lyon with the Rhône and Saône.

The old docks area has moved and is now a trendy-ish place to eat. Sound familiar? There is even an old piece of docks equipment left on show.

There are a lot of moored boats that have become bars. Just like les peniches au bord du Rhône.

Belgrade’s Roman name is Singidunum, Lyon’s Lugdunum

There are even murals in Belgrade too.

Ça suffit? Non? OK – there’s even a Paul!