Christmas and New Year

(As you may notice this post is in slightly the wrong place but we couldnt fit it in anywhere else!)

On the 18th of December, we woke early (7am) jumped on a finicular, then a metro, then another metro, then a TGV to Paris heavily laden with bags and presents. After a 2 hour journey to Paris we arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon at 11am ish. The next connection was the 3pm Eurostar from Gare de Nord to London St Pancras, easy we though, we'll just jump on of the RER connection train between the stations. Easy peasy, just jump on the right train.....

Not so easy. Instead of being a straightforward glance at the departures board we quickly realised that this was no ordinary train. Oh no.

No destintions were on the board but names like ZYGL, ZYPE, XLOP, ZIPE, FLOK, FLAP, ZONX and so on..... We then had to cross refernce these names with another board to estabish the destinations of these strange underground creatures, which itself cross refenced with another board that clarified wether it was a short fast or a long slow train, then a quick return to the original board to see if they were in fact running.... PHEW.

Added to the fact the there were no toilets around and we were each carrying 30kg made us into slighly stressed bunnies.

But the fun wasn't over yet, after scaling the broken escalators we had to find the correct SET of platforms and once on those platforms make sure you were not only on the right side BUT also at the right end of the platform as they quite often had two trains on them!

Somehow we managed to get on the right train and 20 minutes later arrived at Gare de Nord slightly worse for wear, thirsty, hungry, a bit smelly and bursting for the toilet.

Kates only comment at this moment was a growled 'Next time we're taking a taxi.'

We then went for the most expensive toilet trip (€1.50! - I made sure I filled my pockets up with tissues for the journey, filled up the water bottles, quick face wash, good look in the mirror etc... I was getting my moneys worth!)

Gare de Nord is a lovely station and after a coffee the whole experience seemed slighly less traumatic and we took a few pictures of the station and Paris out the window, checked in and setteled down for a sandwich and waited for out Eurostar.

Gare du Nord, Paris

Shortly before the worst cup of coffee, but Kt's happy at her first view of Paris!

J practising his Welsh Rucksack Yoga, this postion is know as the Extended Chicken Saluting the Sun.

Not actually our train but it was remarkably similar to the one we did get on.... funny that.

St Pancreas (clearly St Pancras was just a spelling mistake when they built the sation? hehe)


The journey to London was great, it seemed to go realy fast too and we were soon alighting at London St Pancras and on our way to the final connection to Wellingborough. Back on British turf for the first time in 3 1/2 months didnt start toooo well (apart from the free toilets) when we discovered that out journey from Lyon-London was actually significantly cheaper than a 40 minute journey to Wellingborough. So we did what any good traveller would do and decided to wait for 2 hours when the tickes got cheaper and THEN continue our journey. Tickets bought, platform found (thankfully easier than Paris!) we settled in for 2 hours of people watching! Great!

14 hours after setting off that morning we pulled into Wellingborough station and we met by Paul (Kts dad) and Sue (J's mum), hugs later we were on the way to Blisworth for the unenviable task of unpacking (including the 10 bottles of wine, 3 sausages and cheeses we just couldnt leave behind...)

A loooong day but fantastic to be back home and with family, after a delcious mummy McGregor meal and a few glasses of wine it was clearly all worth it all! On a serious note, next time we're taking a taxi.


LONDON AND XMAS DAY

A few days before xmas we travelled with Sue down to London to stay with Jane and Tony (J's aunt and uncle) and of course their three fantastic children. We had a lovely stay and consumed a fair amount of wine over the three days. One of best moments of our stay was Tony microwaving the chestnuts without piercing them (not a pretty sight!). We walked and hired recumbant bikes in Dulwich park (great fun, photos below) went to the Tate modern and explored London, stopping at the Abosulte Ice bar for a quick vodka in fluffy jackets! It was time to head back to Blisworth far too soon and on the 23rd we hopped ont yet another train from Euston to MK to spend xmas at the McG's.

The microwave got Tonied

Sue aka 'Hot Wheels'

The Crack at the Tate modern

Spider outside the Tate modern

Absolut Ice Bar

Check out my fur

cool mama


cool dooode


CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas day was lovely, the usual large amounts of chocolate were consumed before breakfast and presents we exchanged. Kate's largely consisted of thermals, slippers and other items of cloting designed for arctic adventures (including a pair of yetti socks) in an attempt to stop her freezing this winter (much appreciated!). J's included a high number of books and a chicken (from http://www.farmfriends.org.uk/), thermals and shoes! Happy bunnies all round!

Mummy McG cooked a lovely xmas dinner and after a quick trudge round the circuit we collapsed with full tummies, pens poised to make a list of items to order first thing boxing day to make the most of the sales!

Boxing day started with the usual manic ordering of sale clothes that would most likely be returned (the poor Next delivery man joked he'd seen more of us than his wife in the week after xmas...). We then went for a walk with a few family friends ending up in The George at Tiffield for some lovely dinner (http://www.information-britain.co.uk/showPlace.cfm?Place_ID=67542).

The next few days passed all too quickly and we were then heading to Wales for New Year in the Railway Inn in Abergynolwyn (another fantastic pub we know well who do great food too http://www.allpubs.co.uk/pub/44843). We spent a few days walking and enjoying the pub before heading back to Blisworth. A flying visit but great to spend some time back in Wales.

We travelled back to France on 7th Jan with even more bags than we left with, the only difference was this time we did take a taxi!

Beaujolais Nouveau!!!!

As if the wine fair wasn't enough for us, every year there is a celebration called the Beaujolais Noveau, created in the 80's to improve the popularity of the wine, the Beaujolais wine quickly became a victim of its own success. Many new vineyards were created as people tried to cash in on the increasing popualrity of the wine, and, as a result the quality suffered as inexperienced wine producers released poor quality wine, resulting in a very negative view of the wine world wide. However, the charlatons' vineyards began to close almost as quickly as the opened, leaving the original and best, passionate and proud vineyards who had a reputaion to uphold, and over the last decade, both the wine and its name is fighting back.

J and I have been lucky enough to taste a fair amount of the nouveau, and can confirm, its scruptious, as I type this I'm supping a 2007 Beujolais from Alain et Danile Germain's vineyard, Domain du Moulin Blanc from the village of Charnay http://www.domaine-du-moulin-blanc.com/.

The university organises a trip every year to a selection of the Beaujolais vineyards and then onto the town of Beaujeu for the opening night of the celebrations, the new wines are not released until midnight and it is marked with a procession through the streets, the burning of the oak wine barrels, a HUGE firework display and the fountains run with wine (sounded like a good old night to me!).

Louise was very kind and lent me her car for the evening so I could drive to Beaujeu and meet J and the others from the Uni. Needless to say when I arrived, some of the students had sampled a fair few of the previous years wine and were rather merry whereas some others (ehem...Sven..) were on the point of collapse-and it was only 7pm! The town itself is beautiful with large squares and a roaring river through the centre, all the bars were packed and people everywhere. By chance I had parked next to a British car and we bumped into its owners in one of the sample tents, they had driven all the way from Lancashire just to sample and stock up on the new wines and join in the clebrations - now that is commitment to the Beaujolais!

On the drive in I had noticed one or two rather swanky cars, Aston Martin DB7s and a DB8, TVRs, Porsches' a Lotus or two, Ferrari as well as a few Bentlys and Rolls - not the usual Renaults of the area! The reason for this became clear as we were chatting to a rather short Porsche owner (he was even shorter than me!!!) - every year at 6am they race back to London with a case each of the new wine to see who can get it back to the UK first to raise money for charity.

It was a (literally!) freezing night and I had driven through snow to get there so we shivered and huddled round the burning barrels before following the procession through the steets to the main square. At midnight the corks are litterly popped on hundreds of bottles and everyone gets a taste of the new wines while the fireworks light up the whole town.

It was a great show and really friendly with people passing round the bottles and filling up strangers glasses while brass bands played through the streets. Unfortunately as I was driving I only sampled a sip I left shortly after midnight with a tipsy J as my map reader to head back to the Innnes house. I wasn't too sad at missing out on trying the new wines as I had had a sneeky sample of three the night before - te he, one of the perks of living in a house surronded by vineyards!

THE WINE FAIR!

On the 25th - 29th of October, a beautiful event occured in Lyon at the Halle Tony Garnier, where many a man (and woman) found themselves ruined (especially financially)..... this magnificent event is called....

Vingeron Independants - Le Savoir-Etre du Vin

In plain ol' english...

740 Independant wine producers, under one roof, with the sole aim to show off their wines by offering you free tastings! WHOOP WHOOP!

Louise and Robbie kindly gave J and I tickets to the festival (one ticket = 2 people entry for a day) so we went on Saturday 27th. As you walk in the door its slightly overwhelming as you exchange your tickets for two glasses which allow you to go in and out all day. You are then faced with one of the most beautiful sights in the world.... stands representing 740 independant vineyards from across france, colour coded so you don't loose your way!

For the inexperienced it is a fairly intimidating to begin with as theres shulurming, spitting, swilling, gargling and an awful lot of talking focused around each of the booths. We decided to begin with the local area and had a degustation of the most local Lyonnais wine http://www.clos-st-marc.com/ . As we ventured around we grew with confidence (directly correlated to the amount of wine we were consuming - the student in us took over, spit wine out?! I dont think so!!!!!) So we gargled our way around Beaujolais, a few Pouille Fissse and a couple of Pouille Fumee... We qoiffed a Cremant du Jura and an Etoile or two, followed swiftly by gulping some Montbazillac, then another, and another, then the wallets came out and we purchased a 2003 & 2005, then a 'cheeky' 1997 from Vingnobles de Poulvere et Barse http://www.poulvere.com/.

Our next purchase of the day was a chariot that can carry 30kg of wine. We felt that we were taken more seriously when pulling our wine behind us. In the few minutes taken to purchase our chariot, we felt we were embraced by the French. Nods and grunts of approval came from left and right and we moved up a rank, no longer were we mere tourists - we were wine pullers. It was a moving moment for us both. Absoultuely nothing to do with the fact is was now 1pm and we had been sipping since 10 without stopping for sustenance....

Lunch time was fairly necessary at this point and we muched our baguettes with gusto before returned to Kts favourite of the day. The delightful ladies of the Chateau de l'Etoile (http://www.chateau-etoile.com/) not only had the most delicious wine we had tasted, they were the nicest people we met that day and spent time explaining the differences between the grapes and the soils, the processes that each wine goes through and they also refilled our glasses at an impressive rate.

We decided that this should be our second purchase, especailly when we found out there are only three Etoile producing vineyards as its such a teensy weensy place and they were by far the nicest. Our purchases included a Vin Jaune and their award winning La Cuvee des ceps d'or, both were truly scrumptious and, if finances had allowed I think we would also have taken a Macvin du Jura and Vin de Paille de l'Etoile.

As we completed the purchase the lovely friendly lady did the usual "Merci, bon journee...." but then followed with words that were to bring joy to our little tipsy hearts....

"Would you like tickets for tomorrow?"

Yes. Yes we would. That would be super. Please can we have two? Thank you. See you tomorrow nice lady!

Off we staggered with our little chariot and smiles on our faces, Kt fumbling with her phone to call Sarah and Lani to spread the joy and the tickets.

We were coming back tomorrow.

With our chariot.


Sunday dawned with sightly sore heads (we HAD to sample at least one of our new purchases the previous night). We collected Sarah, pootled off to the bakery to stock up on carbs and headed to the Metro where we would meet Lani.

We were now pro's at this and walked the aisles with an air of confidance that we didnt have the previous day. Little phrases 'c'est trop fort pour moi', 'c'est tres tannic, non?' 'avez vous un autre an?', 'je preferais un vin moins sec', 'je preferais le mille nuef cent quatre-vingt dix sept', 'c'est tres bon!' flowed like the wine and we systematically drank whites first, bubbles second, quick stop for lunch and onto the reds.

We purchased a Gewutzstraminer from Andre Hopfner http://www.vinhopfner.fr/, another from Jean Claude Geuth http://www.vin-alsace-gueth.com/. A Fitou (but we drank it and can't find the recipt so I cant tell you where it was from. I can tell you it was delicious and Lani bought some for her mum). A Fleurie from a lovely lady Martine Thevenet http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=703 and her daughter who practiced her english with us (poor child, by this point even we couldnt speak english that well....).

After we had sampled all the wines we specifically wanted to (based mainly on what we could remember the parents liked!) we decided on a new plan of attack, the people that looked the nicest or had the smallest crowd. Now I can hear you all crying out - if they have no que its propbably because they're rubbish! But no, we didnt think of that. We tried a few Cote du Rhone that were so dry it felt like your mouth was peeling off.

But then, just by chance Sarah spied a little decrepid old man, sitting alone at the end of an aisle, with a big smile and only two wines.
We sauntered over but quickly realsied he was not a man that took wines lightly. They were his life. He rinsed our glasses whilst scowling, they had white in them (after a quick stop at the Montbazillac on they way over). White wine, he said, was NOT wine. He then took it upon hinself to re-educate the four lost souls that stood before him. To cut a fairly short story even shorter, he did a good job, his wine was lovely, so was he and we bought a bottle of his 2000 Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol. A good choice he said somewhat unsurprisingly - it cost €32. http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=8776

By now we felt truly re-educated and full so we decided to call it a day.

Climbing over the bodies of the few that didn't make it (there were quite a few!) we wheeled our laden chariot back to the bus stop and off home where we spend more than a few minutes sitting on the floor surrounded by our new friends. It was an amazing experience and a fantastic weekend where we both learnt a lot, but perhaps the most interesting thing was we found what we like and dont like which is going to make the supermarket trips an awful lot easier!

Can't wait for next year!!!

The purchases (well, some of them)

The three 'BIG ONES' L-R Chateau Etoile Vin Jaune, Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol, Montbazillc 2002 'Elegance'

The guide book listing evey producer there, and the tasting glasses.

ASVEL

I think that it is probably about time that I made another blog entry, as so far my input has been fairly minimal to say the least. So I shall start with November 13, when I went to my first ever 'real' basketball match. I have been to see the Chester Jets play in England before now, but the Northgate Arena is more like Colwyn Bay leisure centre than a place for spectator sports!

Anyway, on the day in question, I went to see ASVEL (Lyon-Villeurbanne) against BC Kalev (who are from Estonia), I know that seems a bit wierd, but it was a european cup match, so there! ASVEL play at the Astroballe arena, which is a purpose built basketball stadium way out in the east of Lyon, but well served by the metro. Obviously this is where I was on the night, not in Tallinn, a little far for a weekday evening.

When I arrived, the stadium appeared quite small, but when I got inside and took my seat, it looked huge! I was a little early and the crowd was yet to arrive, but this gave me a moment to reflect and take a photo. I watched the two teams warm up for 5 minutes or so as my fellow spectators filled the arena. 20h30 arrived and the game began!

I was genuinely excited, the crowd was fantastic and the atmosphere was incredible. ASVEL quickly took an early lead and by the end of the 1st quarter they commanded a 10 point advantage. The second quarter followed a similar suite and by half time ASVEL had dominated the game. Unfortunately, the 3rd quarter was one which Kalev were able to show their true colours and completely out scored ASVEL with an agressive display of skills. By the end of the quarter they had stretched out a 12 point lead and the crowd was stunned into silence. The final quarter continued in a similar fashion, with Kalev seeming to ge all the luck, this was turning into a real game of two halves! The ASVEL defense finally sorted it self out, the crowd refound its voice and Kalev's scoring ability was reduced. The scores became closer as the seconds passed by and I was on the edge of my seat, completely enthralled and willing ASVEL on. Right on the stroke of full time, they were able to redeem themselves with a 3 point shot from Robert Conley to tie the game at 82 - 82, we were going to over time and the crowd could breathe once again! The over time last for 10 minutes and was a fast, action packed period, with drama and heart break. Eventually ASVEL lost the game 95 - 91, they were just unable to take advantage of vital scoring opportunities.

I left the arena slightly down beat with defeat, but still had a skip in my step after having watched an amazing game of basketball and confident that it wouldn't be too long before I returned to that magical place!

Je suis une jeune fille au pair!

After the slight hiccup in my original plans to wwoof around for a few months it became quite clear that I needed to do something, preferably that earnt me some money! After trawling through the usual job channels and finding nothing I signed up to an au-pair agency. I recieved lots of replies from families in Genva, Lausanne, Grenoble etc. which were a little bit to far away from J (ahhhhhh...), I then recieved a phone call from a British family living half an hour NW of Lyon in the Beaujolais region... and... to cut a short story even shorter, they liked me and I liked them so now I'm le jeune fille au pair pour la famille 'Innes'!

Robbie (amazing artist - take a look at www.robertinnes.co.uk) and Lousie (fantastic opera singer) and their three children live in a beautiful house on a hill near to Lozane, I work for them Mon-Fri and then return to Lyon to see J. I have a lovely room in there gite (available to rent in the future if any of you fancy a hol!), opposite the family house which is surrounded by vineyards and small wine makers. It has to be one of the most enjoyable jobs I have ever had, the children are lovely, the house is beautiful and Robbie and Lousie are great. Oh and they also have a lovely dog called Dylan (after Bob).

My french is also improving, although they are scottish and have only lived here for the past three years, they speak french fluently and the village is full of friendly french speakers so I am getting the practice I desperately needed!

I really feel like I have landed on my feet, after a shaky start in France, I am really enjoying my job (and the weather!) and its great to be near enough to J so we get to see each other regularly.

Here are some piccys of the Innes family house!

The view to the village from the vines, there are two churches in the village, the largest (you can see the spire) was build by the same family that built Louise and Robbbies house, unfortunately, they gave it some big bells. That chime. Four times an hour. All day. And night. LOUDLY.

Gamay grapes on the vine, due to the weather this year (lots of rain) there were more grapes than could be harvested, even after the vendange the vines were heavily laden with fruit. You can pick great bunches of the vines and munch the day away - also great for distracting screaming 2 year olds!

Le Bourg - The Innes family house.

Yes, these people are really my bosses, not at all strange.....

Chamonix

Before Kt started her job and J got really into lectures we decided to escape Lyon for a few days, naturally we we're drawn to the Alps that we can see almost every day on the walk into town.

Sooooo we packed our booties, gloves and scarfes, bought maps, a compass and a swanky guide book so we could make the most of our few mountain days, hopped on a double decker train and tootled to St Gervais-Les-Bains where we could take the mountain train to Chamonix.

After arriving we found a nice (empty) little hostel, we quickly discovered we were in 'off season', the only 6 weeks of the year the Chamonix telepherique, mountain huts and mountain railways were closed! This quicky eliminated some of the higher walks we were planning and we scoured the map over a takeaway pizza for routes the next morning. As this was the first big outing we had since Kts ankle business we we're keen to make sure we were doing realistic routes.

We left the hostel around 8am to make sure we had enough time to buy some lunch and other provisions (Carambars all the way) and we were on the way up to the Petit Balcon Nord by 10am, we followed along the contours with amazing views over the Aiguilles and Mt Blanc massif. When we set out the weather was cold (6 degrees) but we warmed up pretty quickly and we were tres chaud by lunchtime. The haze over the mountains cleared quickly and this is the view (below) where we stopped for lunch, Aiguille du Dru, described as the most dramatically impressive of all the Chamonix peaks. It certainly had us captivated for most of the day as we seem to have come back with at least half of our pictures featuring the imposing needle summit. We continued alond the Petit Balcon Nord until around 3pm before crossing the valley floor and returning to Chamonix with the sun highlighting the summit if Mt Blanc. Although not physically demanding it was a good first outing to test our ability and fitness levels.

Here are a few others of day 1 of our little adventure:

The moment Kt decided to yodle sound-of-music-style.

J waiting for Kt to stop yodling and get a move on...

The walk into Chamonix at the end of day one, Mt Blanc summit is highlighted centre of picture.



That evening we were joined by Sarah and Frankie (Sarah is also from Bangor Uni and studies with J in Lyon, Frankie is Sarahs friend from 'back home')



We met up the eveining previously and found a buy-one-get-0ne free bar, you must know what its like, the first pint after a walk.... except we had cocktails....needless to say the next morning we were not quite as sprightly as we planned...



Day 2: We met Sarah and Frankie in the town centre at 8am, grapped some lunch provisions and set off asap as we had a long climb up to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace, it was a fantastic walk up with stunning views and we reached the viewpoint at around midday, after taking a few pictures and having a quick bite to eat we set off again to reach Montenvers station via a scrambly route that led into the forest following the route of an old glacier. We reached the station to find it a building site and deserted! Fantastic for us as we found spectacular views of the Dru, Grande Jorasses and the Mer de Glace and had avoided all the tourists ferried up on the train!

The Mer de Glace from Montenvers, looking towards Grande Jorasses and Italy

Ahhh look at that!

L-R: Sarah, Frankie and J, looking towards the Dru on the way up to Montenvers station with Chamonix-Montenvers mountain railway behind.

We made our way back down to Chamonix, arriving back around 5pm, once again the post walk pint merged into cocktails and we were soon quite giggly!

We were leaving on the morning train so we called it a night pretty early and trundled back to the hostel. After sleeping REALLY well we packed up, grabbed some breakfast and tootled back to Lyon.

We had a brilliant time and are planning to return asap!

Home Sweet Home

After arriving back in Lyon, feeling a little glum and lost I made it my priority to change the studio into a nice little pad for us both, thats when (joy of joys's!) we found an IKEA that you could get to on a tram!

So off we pottered and bought lots of wonderful things like bright green toilet brushes, pillow covers and shower mats, a rainbow of clippits and more plastic tubs than we know what to do with!

After a few more trips and a bargin mini-oven purchase from one of the large supermarkes (30 euros!!!!) the studio now feels much more homely, despite the clinical white walls, floor .......

The oven's first test was its ability to make crumble - and it passed with flying colours, we've since made pizzas, courgette cookies, potato wegdes, garlic bread...... yummy!

I also spent a lot of time exploring the city while J was in lectures, its truly beautiful, I went to the Croix Rousse area, it was originally a town in its own right that has been swallowed into Lyon although it has kept a majority of its charm, daily markets and a square that is occupied with old men in berets all morning and afternoon (although never between the lunch hours 12-3!). The area has amazing views over Lyon and a huge park with a runined castle within it on the banks of the Soane. The shops in Lyon are incredibly diverse, allowing me hours of fun exploration - for those of you that know me via INEBG - I have so far found 7, yes 7, organic supermarkets that are absolutely choc-a-bloc with goodies that are much cheaper than in the UK. We recently found a new one only a short walk from the studio that is also the cheapest!

The 'Palais des Thes' (www.palaisdesthes.com) also scored pretty highly on the 'favorite shop' list for me, there are walls and walls of the most amazing tea (we're currently sampling 'The des Concubines'). Another great discovery for us was the sunday morning market on the banks on the Soane, we have now got into the routine of waking up early, buying huge amounts of local fresh fruit, veg, cheese, meat and wine, stopping off at our favourite bakery (resisting the beautiful pastries but quite often failing....) for a pain complet or pain aux grains, trundling back up the hill and stuffing ourself silly on our pruchases! We slightly underestimated out love for courgettes at one point and purchased 2kg for 2 euros (bargin!!), the first few nights was fine, then we realised we were going away for the weekend and still had 12 left, on the morning of our departure out came the recipe books... In the style of Gordon Ramsey:

courgette. pan. fry. add ham. creme fraiche. cool. freeze. pasta sauce.
courgete. pan. fry. spices. tomatos. cook. cool. freeze. curry sauce.
courgette. mushrooms. tomatos. cook. cool. freeze. pasta sauce 2.
courgette. remaining fridge items. cook. cool. freeze. pasta sauce 3.
courgette. flour. eggs. butter. sugar. choc chips. mix. bake. courgette cookies.
courgette. onion. cook. cold pasta. peppers. cheese. Lunch for the journey.

I NEVER WANT TO SEE A COURGETTE AGAIN.

With a weeks supply of courgette based meals in the freezer we headed off on our weekend away!

J starts at Uni

So, Kate went off on her adventures, pulling away from Part-Dieu train station to a lovely rendition of the Scotish national anthem, which we both found comforting :) Then, I emerged myself in the world of one of the largest university towns in France, only 150,000 or so, only 10 times the size of Bangor, so I wasn't nervous in the slightest :)

It was at Lyon 3 that I quickly discovered the delights of French beurocracy. There was always a form need to enable you to colect another form, which would then enable you to get a proof of student status certificate whilst you waited a few weeks to recieve and fill out more forms before getting your student card ........ I'm now a pro at french application forms.

The university itself is of course really big and at first scary, but I've got used to it now and quite enjoy being surrounded by so many different languages (Lyon 3 has a few thousand fellow Erasmus students this year, so there's lots of people wondering around lost)!
I've been studying a lot of french grammar and doing a few translations pieces a week, but I have mostly been having fun doing beginners Croatian!

I'd say on the whole I'm very happy here. Even though I'm living in a big city for the first time in my life, there are still options to escape to the countryside and the city is really beautiful with 2 rivers flowing through it.

Kts Mini Adventure

Soooo, after we arrived I started my own adventure WWOOFing near Valance in an award winning eco-home. Im not going to say much except that I stayed 1 week as opposed to the original month I was planning, they were really interesting people - I just didn't share some of there lifestyle choices and vice versa, after leaving on good terms I started JOB HUNTING - like a good graduate should :-)

Except........ Im quite enjoying my 3rd gap year and a job would mean leaving France (and J!) and being all grown up and stuff and getting a c-word (c-a-r-e-e-r).... so..... I got a job here - impresssive as my ability to speak french is limited to fromage, pain and vin rouge with the occasional biere. I start my job on monday 15th (eak) looking after 3 children for a scottish/english family in a village to the NW of Lyon so fingers crossed! Both the people and the house are amazing AND its in the middle of the beaujolais region - winner!

Will be keeping the blog updated with how its going!

Lyon

We arrived in Lyon on the 1st September after spending two nights in St Omer with the McG parents - got wined and dined and stored food like hamsters to last us through the uncertain weeks to come before the joy of student loans and car sales would allow us to sample the delights of the Lyon markets.

After catching the TGV from Lille - Lyon we arrived with our homes on our backs and checked into the Formula 1 hotel in Oullins, just south of the city.



The next two days were a bit of a blur as we tried to make ourselves familiar with the city - one of the first things we realised was ITS HUGE! Although its very much a city, there is amazing architecture, history, beautiful parks and open spaces that make it feel airy and happy!



The 3rd of September was pretty exciting as we got the keys to the studio that would be home for the next year. The halls are in 'Fort St Irenee' (constructed in 1840), on the top of the hill overlooking the city and the Soane, within the fort there is the remains of a Roman aquaduct (you don't get that in Bangor!!!). From the window of our little studio you can see the mountain ranges to the west of the city and on a clear day, Mt Blanc and the Alps to the east - not a bad view!

The following few weeks merged into a cahotic jumble of getting used to the city and the french systems which usually involve at least two interviews in different offices, paperwork that must be stamped and re-stamped before submitting and waiting for a letter that also needs to be signed with proof of identity and address.......... you get the idea....

J's lectures started and the city seemed smaller and less scary with every day - especially when you work out the trams and metro systems, we even managed to find IKEA, which was nice! Its amazing how a mulitpack of clippits and a bright green bath mat make somewhere feel more 'homely'!

Thats the tale until the 17th September when Kt's adventures began........