Mondays are lovely as J has no lectures so we usually go climbing at M'Roc, the best climbing in Lyon http://www.salle-escalade.com/, we usually have breakfast, make a packed lunch and arrive about 12ish as it takes an hour to get there. We climb until about 3 then stop for lunch, ducking under the daggers shot from the eyes of The French who are horrified at this blatant disregard for 3 hour lunch rule. They usually arrive at 12, sit down for lunch, eat salad, a baguette, a roast chicken, a tarte aux pomme, washed down with a leffe (climbers dont do wine in the day time), have a cigarette and THEN climb. You can spot us a mile off with our sandwiches and lunch boxes, politely declining the offers of beer. Kt + Beer + Climbing = sapeur pompiers and a trip to l'hopital. We try and leave around 7ish and head home, aching in a good way, for a quick dinner before collapsing with un verre de vin rouge and some Desperate Housewives.
Katie 'Nifty move' McG
Stretch-J-Strong
Fancy-Footwork-McG
The friendly dog at the climbing centre
Jon Grrrrrrrrr-igson
McLimpet
Man in Shorts in March = British
Tuesdays J has lectures from 10 so is out the flat from 9ish. After the usual breakfast, shower and internet based blurb its time to get creative. Weather permitting I head out armed with a fancy I-know-what-I'm-doing camera case and J's camera, a few pennies for a petit cafe and a big city to photograph. I like to head down the into the old town via the HILL.
The Hill is beautiful. An old cobbled street that drops down with one of the external walls fortification on the left hand side and panoramic views over the city on the right. On a sunny day its my favourite place in Lyon. It meanders its way from St Just where we live and into the streets of Vieux Lyon. You can guarantee there will be a citroen BX or a Renault 5 parked somewhere along it and a man on a bike with a string of onions round his neck, just to make it perfect.
However, its a Jekyll and Hyde hill.
In rain its near lethal, even equipped with mighty stomping boots its a giant water slide.
In ice you have to be loony even contemplate setting foot on one of the 'Cobbles of Death'. It hurts.
Its also a magical hill as at 4am after you've missed the night bus, had a quick visit to the all night bakery whilst dressed as 80's Jane Fonda and fuelled by a few drinky its great. You can even run up it!
The Hill, looking up from Vieux Lyon to the halfway church
Vieux Lyon
The view at the base of The Hill
During my hours of wandering through Lyon as a 'photographer' with the aim of taking 'The most French photo', I have learned some important lessons.
1) Pigeons are NOT good subjects (although I am inexplicably drawn to them....)
2) Americans have an inbuilt sensor that allows them to detect an arty farty photographer want-to-be and will ALWAYS stand in the middle of that beautiful shot.
3) The old men sitting outside cafes with a thirty year old cigarette glued to their lips and a never ending coffee being very french are a lie. They don't exisit. And if they do - they hide from me.
4) Men playing boule at 4pm on a Tuesday are not just enjoying the 3 hour lunch too much, they are most likey unemployed, middle aged and not the sort that you want to take a quick piccy of.
5) Japanese people will take a picture of you taking a picture, then sit on your lap to take the same picture as you are taking.
Having learnt these lessons I have moved away from pigeons and have sucsessfully taken what I hope to be the 'Most French photo' yet, will let you know when I have it developed and post it here if its a good 'un.
J finishes lectures at 6 so I usually have popped by the favourite bakery in vieux lyon for a pain aux grain and head home to make some dinner. I now feel truly Lyonnais as I have a blipper, the magical card that you wave as you get on the bus and the happy machine blipbleeps and the light goes green and you get on. Only tourists have tickets dont you know. Anyone whos anyone has a blipper. They are even more magical on the metro, you wave your bag like a Jedi waves his Light Saber and the doors part like Moses and the sea to let you through. I can't help smile when I blip, for now I have jonined them, the People of Blipper.
We have made another great discovery - not ALL french TV is rubbish, at 8.50pm our favourite programme is aired 'Pekin Express - La Route des Incas' http://www.m6.fr/html/emissions/pekinexpress/, a really exciting show where teams of two race across South America without any money and have the occasionaly task to complete. This week was the race to get in the semi-finals, luckily the team we dont like were sent home as they came last leaving out three favourites Auerelie and Pauline sisters from Lille, Cedric et Gerard the Nicois pere et fils and Jean-Pierre (61 ans) et Joel (30 ans) two guys that met the day before they started the race as Joels original partner quit! How exciting! I want Aurelie and Pauline to win but J's supporting Cedric and Gerard... cant wait till next week!
Wednesday is another arty day, today for instance whilst crouching on a suspension bridge over the swollen Saone, I learnt yet another lesson. Suspension briges wobble. Making them pretty unsuitable for taking slow exposure pictures from. I like to think that those that walked passed me thought 'Golly, that girl must be good to take that picture' as opposed to 'What a muppet'. I live in hope.
J has lunchtime off so we grap a baguette from the organic bakery on the presquile (grilled courgette, olive tapenade and goats cheese for less tham a M&S Corination chicken sandwich and a damn sight nicer!), if its nice we sit by the river or in Bellecour. We tend to have an explore of the city too, this week we discovered the most expensive patisserie, run by the daughter and son in law of a 3 Michelin Star chef, and home of the most scrumptious gateaux I have ever looked upon. So lovely in fact, I sunk into tourist behaviour and took a picture. Look at these! They're pieces of art! http://www.bernachon.com/
Yuuuuuuummmmmyyyyyy
Mmmmmwwwwwahhhhhhhh
At 2pm its time for J to head off to his 2-4 lectures so I jump on a metro and up to the Croix Rousse for a meander round the second of Lyon's Roman ampitheatres (the first is 5 mins from the flat) and the hippie district, full of wonderful little shops and the most fantastic view over Lyon, Mt Blanc and the Alps to the left and Fouvriere basilica to the right with the rivers meeting in the distance and the metropolis of Lyon spreading between them and beyond. It really is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited, every day it seems to change in front of your eyes. The city has become home for both of us, it feels comfortable and friendly and we seem to have found our place here, I suspect we'll be back here in the not too distant future.
Thursday is pretty similar to Monday as J now has the day off since finishing his FLE class so we mosey on up to the climbing centre for some serious grimper. Thurday usually means night out too, up until last week we'd meet Vikki and head out to the Smokin Dog (British pub), Flemmings (French Irish bar with cheap whiskys and cocktails on a thursday) then over the bridge to La Pecherie for some glow stick cocktails and live music. One night we collected two nice irish men and a hat in the Smoking Dog. After much merriment we then hop on the night bus (using our magical blippers) and flop into bed!
An Irish man named Ollie
Glow sticks in the cocktails
Glow sticks after cocktails
The Irish hat, modelled by Vikki
Fridays tend to start a little later than the rest of the week and tend to involve coffee, eh-hem, not sure why..... if we're feeling active it can also be Supermarket Day. Involving at least one bus ride depending if we're Carrefouring or Auchan-ing it, if its Auchan its ever so tempting to head to Port des Alpes on the tram and play in Ikea on the way, making sure we pick up a bag or two of Sweedish Fish to help us survive the horror that is the Auchan. Its approximately twice the size of the millenium stadium, sells small cars and scooters, has two aisles dedicated purely to chocolate, 3 to bread and an area the size of a tennis court soley for ham. I love France.
Swedish Fish
J like Swedish Fish
Saturdays and Sundays always involve at least one market and some meandering round the city, Saturday is Bio (organic) market day at the Croix Rousse and Sunday is the Quai de Saone market where you can buy almost anything you could ever want for a few euros. We tend to choose out vendors by judging who is selling the most local and seasonal veg(and therefore most environmentally friendly), the second round of selection involves price but they are usually all pretty evenly matched, we then resort to who looks most friendly. This process suits us very well and when we first arrived we were loyal to the nice lady with the home made wine and every tomato variety possible. One sunday, a mature gentleman, obviously a regular was being served before us in the que, he handed over a 1.5 litre container, nice lady asked if he would like it re-filled, 'no' he replied to her (and everyone else in the que's) horror (sharp intakes of breath all round), he quickly continues, bowing his head and looking at the ground, I'd like two 75cl's, my wife won't let me, says I drink it too quickly.... We took this to be a good sign and bought a bottle of her unlabelled juice - as we suspected, it was yummy. Unfortunately she hasnt been there recently due to the season, shes a summer lady.
We now purchase from 'nice old man near the bridge next to the sausage brioche lady'. He has a small selection of truly homegrown veg, reassuringly covered in mud and he'll always add a leek or two to the bag after you've paid. He also has the most delicious winter apples and a variety of potatos which he'll talk you through so you make the right descision for what you want to cook that week. French markets are truly an experience, Tescos dont teach you that you need a different potato for every dish the way our market man does!
So thats a week in the life of me at the moment and its great!
The modest purchasing of Day 1
Wheelie the Chariot
Our wine cellar (wine wardrobe didn't sound as good) 
The path above then opened out onto some fields and continued on up to the summit of Mont Thou. The summit was not what I expected at all, I'm used to a cairn or trig point, not a millitary golf ball surrounded by razor wire and loads of scurity cameras! There were of few big signs declaring that this was a french military area and photography was strictly forbidden. What worse, is the clouds had come over and I wouldn't have wanted to take any pictures even if I could have. I descended down by a small road and on to a nice little footpath which wound its way down and round to Couzon au Monts d'Or where I was getting the train back from. It wouldn't have been that far to walk home really, but once you drop from hills, you have to go through some rough areas and industrial estates. I did manage to take a picture of Mont Thou, from just above Couzon.
It was a big explosion and you could see the cloud of smoke from miles away, I could see it quite clearly from bedroom window. On the news they reported that 17 people had been involved, but couldn't confirm who was dead or injured. It was all over this morning's papers and has been confirmed that a fireman was killed in the blast and 40 people injured. Cours Lafayette is also one of the most used traffic routes in, out and through Lyon, so the upset to city's traffic is going to be immense. Le Progres (the regional newspaper for Lyon) had these two pictures for its front cover this morning.
