LivingInLyon

Some days just end up being tres bizarre!

Last Wednesday was one of those days.  It started with the much unwanted trip to the Prefecture in Lyon to get renew our temporary carte de sejour.  My son and I were supposed to be getting our very first 10 year cartes de sejour (actually, the very first carte for my son!). As it turns out, the 10 year carte was refused and our 1 year cartes were ready after all!.

At least, this time, the wait was quite short - only 1 1/2 hours - wonderful.

Later that afternoon we went off shopping at our local Carrefour. My husband had slipped in a 4 pack of Guiness beer.  The cans come with a 'bomb' inside them to make the beer really froth when you open the can. Well.......at the checkout, as my husband was picking up the cans of beer, one of them exploded. Everyone stopped - it truly sounded like a gun shot!

There was beer everywhere - all over the floor, the shopping in the trolley and the worst ... my handbag was absolutely soaked and full of smelly beer.  My agenda, mobile phone, cheque book, leather wallet and my son's passport (still in my bag after our visit to the prefecture!). yuk, yuk, yuk!

I was sooooo cross.

The can had a long split all the way down the side - truly a dangerous product. I will be writing to Guiness shortly.

After arriving home I had to wash and clean and try and dry what I could. My daughter was left preparing and cooking dinner as my husband and I were supposed to be going out.

Well, from the ridiculous to the sublime..

The weekend berfore my husband and I had gone to Fleurie in the Beaujolais to visit a wine tasting salon. All visitor's names went into a tombola, and guess what?  Yes, we won the tombola, and I didn't even know that we had been entered.

We won a 200 euro voucher for a restaurant called 'Restaurant Le Cep' in Fleurie!

On this strange Wednesday we were supposed to go and pick up our prize at the restaurant in the evening.

Well, when we arrived there were 3 large tables full of people and 2 seat spare - our apparently!.  I obviously hadn't understood correctly  - we were part of a thankyou dinner to the wine producers and other people who had provided stalls and services for the wine-tasting. During the dinner we were asked to go up and collect our prize and had our photos taken for Le Progress. Finally made it to the social pages!

The meal was fantastic to say the least. Five courses with different wines served with each dish (all this after hurridly scoffing down our dinner at home - ho hum!).

The service was impeccable and our hostess introduced each course and the wine (all Beaujolais, of course).

We sat with the mayor of Julienas and a couple of wine producers and book sellers.

The first course was a savoury choux pastry made with cheese, served with sparkling wine (not allowed to call it Champagne these days!).

The second course was  terrine d'oie (goose terrine) with frilly salad and served with a Pouilly-fusse (my personal favourite white wine).

The third course, the main dish, was le volaille au vin - chicken cooked in a wine sauce - so fruity and rich, served with a red from Moulin au Vent.

The fourth course was a selection of cheese, served with a rich red from Fleurie.

The final course, dessert, was frozen cassis ( collected fresh that morning by ze boyz - (the charming young waiters) and strained and frozen) and home made ice cream with cassis sauce, served with a moelleuse from Chardonnay.

The coffee and small petit-fours - little, tasty mouth-watering sweets dipped in chocolate and mandarine pieces coated in a thin, crisp layer of toffee, mmmm!

Le Cep, by the way, is the trunk or stock of the grape-vine (I had thought that it was a type of mushroom - but that turns out to be le cepe!)

I guess this is applicable to most large cities in France - but my experience is mainly here in Lyon.

Over the years that I have lived here I could do a psychoanalysis of the French just from their driving habits - but this could be a bit dangerous...

Yesterday I was browsing an expat blog from Switzerland. There was an entry about the Swiss habit of tailgating - and, apparantly it is so well known that even the Swiss authorities have a campaign going to try and teach motorists that this habit is definitely not a very good one!

 Well, here in Lyon, it's not so much a tailgating problem. Here, motorists like to just get ahead of you - no matter what, where or how. They don't want to drive any faster than you, just like their Swiss counterparts, but they need to be ahead of you. They will do anything in their power (except use their indicators to warn you of their intentions) to overtake you or squeeze you out or push in. In consequence, motorists drive dangerously close to each other just to stop this from happening. Maybe if everyone realised that letting the traffic flow, albeit slowly,  instead of gridlocking all movement by getting in front, there would be less frustrated,  angry and stressed motorists out there!

Well, it's the grande rentree.....and, within just 3 days we already have a greve - the buses were on strike yesterday - surprise surprise!

One thing about living in France that you have to come to terms with really fast are the strikes.

They are part of your life - they are consistant and constant!

For my son,  it meant finally arriving at school at 11:00am - after I went to rescue him and several employees of his school from a bus stop in Lyon!

At least my daughter didn't have to worry - at her school the kids only go back for half a day  initially during the first week and then start school several days later. So she had a bit of extended vacation time - I didn't hear her complain!

Well, over the last 8 years I have felt that Lyon is a reasonably safe city. I've never felt threatened

or worried although people I know have recounted various stories of theft and of course there

were several aggressions at the beginning of last year near the CSI school in Gerland.

But now I can add my own unsavoury experience - actually my son's, not mine.

On Friday morning, 15th of August - a public holiday of course.... he was attacked by some really nice person near Cordellier. According to the doctor in Emergency he was hit was a metal knuckle duster.

Result.... 3 very broken top teeth, one broken bottom tooth - completely knocked out, and stitches.

Thank goodness there weren't any other fractures or serious injuries. More surprisingly, nothing was stolen... it was just gratuitous violence.

 So, moral of the story - don't feel complacent or too confortable!  there are morons out there who take pleasure in nothing more than to hurt you for no better reason than they can do it!