Moving to France and adapting to life in Lyon
Oh la la. À Lyon il fait tellement chaud.
Quand on dort pendant la nuit avec la fenetre ouvert les moustiques arrivent.
Cath a beaucoup de piqures de moustique alors on doit essayer quelque choses d’autre.
Je suis allé au Carrefour et j’ai acheté une ventilateur.
Maintenant peut être on dormira un peu mieux.
We need to talk about the OFII – the French office for immigration and integration. It is through this department that we had our recent lung x-rays and medicals.
Because we were not granted our passeports talentes we have various stages to go through to validate our year-long visas.
For me that means doing something called La Formation Civique.
Now I have been invited to a half-day to sign my contract of integration, do a French test, watch a presentation about integration and an interview to evaluate my needs.
At least it’s not far from the OFFI-ce.
The other day I mentioned the swifts were back. I’ve tried to digiscope them from our sixth floor window but they are…swift.
I had to have a medical for my visa last week and today I had to have my work medical.
It was in the same building as local Lyon newspaper Le Progrès which I am yet to read.
Eye test – which I did in English because I wasn’t confident enough about the letters in French – quick weight and height and blood pressure check and then we were done.
The medical lasts five years for any job in France- so if I’ve move to Le Progrès I don’t need to have another one.
Another weekend, another day trip to a beautiful village in the Auvergene-Rhône-Alpes region.
This time it was Cremieu – a lovely setting with a Benedictine priory at its centre.
Beautiful though it was, the restaurants were all full. It’s speciality is le gratin dauphinois but we didn’t get to sample any. One restaurant had frogs legs on the menu but we eventually had to go home with empty stomachs.
On the way we stopped off at a lake.
The noise of frogs in the bullrushes was impressive. If we could have caught some, we could have had lunch after all.
La Mere Brazier is a Lyon institution. Established in 1921 by Eugenie Brazier. It was bought by Mathieu Viannay in 2008 and has two Michelin stars.
If you’ve been paying attention it was one of the restaurants recommended to us by none other than Michel Roux Jr before we left for Lyon.
So where better to belatedly celebrate our 25th anniversary. The food was amazing.
Well worth a visit – book in advance – lunchtime menu reasonably priced.
Not really but, because of my recent medical history, I have to have my teeth regularly checked and cleaned and so one pressing matter has been finding a dentist in Lyon up to the job.
The best periodontist in the business, Dr Simon Stern, told me he would ask around for a recommendation in Lyon. And he came up with the goods – Dr Stephan Duffort.
Unfortunately when I rang I understood that Dr Duffort wasn’t available until July. So I opted to see his colleague Dr DeLaval.
I was worried beforehand about the level of my French when it came to discussing dental implants and necrosis of the jaw. I had prepared some phrases – mon parodontiste en angleterre and j’ai besoin d’un examen dentaire et le nettoyage des dents. J’ai quelque implants dentaires.
But fortunately Dr DeLaval spoke English. Phew. And she understood my medical history and did a great job. And, compared to English dentists, the price was cheap too.
Having passed our lung x-rays the next stage in being allowed to stay in France is the medical.
So this morning we went to a nondescript building not far from Euronews to have the medicals. My main worry is will my French be up to it.
There is a lot of waiting to be done in this process and our 10am appointments meant little as Cath wasn’t seen til 1035 and I was seen at 1055.
Cath went first and I could hear her rabbiting away in French. Not the words just the babble, you understand.
I had time to Google hay fever – rhumes des foins – in case they ask me whether I am taking any medication.
First I saw a nurse and was weighed measured and asked questions about whether I coughed- de temps en temps, oui. Or sweat in the night. Or spit- cracher – eurrghhh non, c’est degueulasse. Man, the French are obsessed with tuberculosis.
Next, le medecin. She said I was there grâce à Brexit. Too right. A few more questions- a bit of breathing with a stethoscope attached. And then we were done.
It’s another hurdle overcome. Let’s see what’s next.
As Cath was back in England and I had the weekend to myself I decided to go birdwatching.
Firstly on Saturday I went back to Parc de la Tete d’Or where the weekend before I had seen some sort of egrets on an island in the middle of the lake but without mes jumelles (binoculars) I hadn’t been able to make them out.
So this time with mes jumelles I looked for them. I saw a couple of little egrets (aigrettes) and a load of herons.
But then I found that your could get closer to the island by taking a tunnel under the lake. And then I saw that they were cattle egrets – les herons garde boeuf. Now as the name suggests, these birds usually live around cattle where they eat the flies that bother the cows.
But here they were in the centre of Lyon, high up in trees on an island on a lake. Bizarre.
On Sunday I headed to a series of lakes out near Lyon airport in a place called Meyzieu.
I took my scope and tripod and the list of birds that you might see there was promising – red kites, black kites, kingfishers, beeaters to name but a few.
I was set up to get some amazing pictures – but apart from the ever present buses (buzzards) this is the only bird I took a picture of. Le grebe huppé. Oh well. Le prochaine fois.
Quand j’ai marché dans la rue j’ai entendu un bruit qui est mon bruit préferé. Le siffle des martinets.
Les martinets sont arrives a Lyon un peu plus tot qu’en Anglettere.
Nous habitons sur le sixieme etage et alors les vues de ces oiseaux sont magnifiques de la fenêtre.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 