Time flies when you're having fun

Christmas has come and gone so quickly , and after spending a week pretty much living with Alice and Mill I've just seen them off on the train to continue their travels before heading home. Needless to say I was feeling a little nostalgic today and realised how long it had been since I've written. So I suppose I'll pick up where I left off and skip over the boring bits i.e. studying.

As soon as I got back from Berlin it was straight to work, interrupted on Wednesday by babysitting for Emile and Antoine, dinner at Alice and Milli's on Thursday, dinner with Chiara, Sara, Marco and Billy on Friday, and wandering around the Fête des Lumières (festival of lights) on Saturday. The festival is linked to Lyon's veneration of the Virgin Mary and began with the inhabitants of Lyon lighting candles in their windows and descending into the streets on the 8th of December. These days it goes from whatever day of the week the 8th falls on until the weekend and involves major light displays all over the city. After another successful dinner party with my Italian housemates (which included some valuable swapping of recipes for mulled wine, onion tart, and chocolate sausage), we planned for a tour of the lights. On Saturday evening we walked first to the Parc de la Tête d'Or where there were various fire-related displays, then on to the Croix Rousse to see the giant illuminated egg and eat Tartiflette and roasted chestnuts at the Christmas markets, past the space-invaders on the hill to the Presque-île to see Place des Terreaux with the fountain in neon lights, a jungle growing around Eglise St Nizier, a display in the mist of the fountain in Bellecour, and a morphing/singing Theatre des Celestins ... hard to explain, but there are some OK photos up on facebook.

Things got very serious for the rest of the week as I studied hard for my exams. I had a few assignments to hand in for Geography and History, then the Geography exam was horrible, mainly because I haven't had to write an essay in exam conditions for almost a year, but by comparison it made my next two look like a walk in the park: 20th century literature and translation, both of which were on Friday. After my last exam I had a long lunch at Café Epicerie with Joel (for the last time), and came home to find Billy packed up and ready to go, he did come out that night but left at 8am the next morning for Portugal. That evening I packed away my study notes, and went straight out. To celebrate the end of exams and Mill's birthday I had dinner with her, Alice and Edouard before a cast of thousands arrived, drinks in hand, for an excellent night which ended at le Voxx.

As fate would have it, I left my scarf at Voxx that night and when I went back to collect it on Sunday afternoon I ran into Mike, Will and Will's visiting friend James. I had a leisurely coffee with them and then tagged along to Rose's for afternoon tea. She's even baked Banana bread! Afternoon tea slowly ran into dinner and the rest of Rose's housemates came home and she whipped up pasta bake for a dozen of us. Having had no plans for my Sunday at all I was thoroughly pleased! Monday was a get-my-life-together day so that I felt I deserved my nice dinner on Tuesday night. The boys, plus Joel, Rose and I met at le Bistrot du Potager and had an apero at the bar while waiting for a table and trying different tactics to get the attention of the flustered waitstaff. We eventually got a table and just told them to keep the bread coming as we tucked into our charcuterie and cheese. We headed to Alice and Milli's for a nightcap, and this is the evening from which all the photos of people on the exercise bike come from. It was a good catch up before Will headed to Paris and Rose to Madrid.

Wednesday and Thursday were relatively quiet. I had flu symptoms and so spent alot of time sleeping and hydrating and planning Christmas day festivities. I only had one adventure and that involved taking the Christmas tree I bought at the weekend markets over to Alice and Milli's. Christmas eve came all too quickly and my receptionist was highly amused by my antics. I was at the markets, put on especially, bright and early, then straight to the supermarket, then to my cave (wine shop) to fill up a couple of bottles with red wine. Upon my third return trip Isabelle had a surprise for me, the courier had come while I was out and thinking it was probably a christmas package she had signed and paid the delivery fee on it! So despite delays with the snow madness in Europe I got an amazing Christmas package from Mum, Dad and Sarah. I immediately got to enjoy Mint Slices, Mince Pies, and Christmas Pudding! Of course I took these to share with Alice and Mill. For Christmas eve I dropped everything (food, decorations etc...) at the girls's and then Mill joined me for mass at Notre Dame de Fourvière. It was even snowing! Then I made onion soup (which was a success thanks to the Emmental from my cheese man) and we snuggled up on the couch and watched Love Actually while I made shortbread using the amazing cutters Sarah sent me. The oven was extremely temperamental, but I got out a few good batches.

And then ... CHRISTMAS!!!! I actually started a bit early since I skyped the family at midnight here which was in time for their Christmas lunch in Sydney. As per French tradition I got to open some presents then, and was thrilled to unwrap some jewellery (you may remember I lost all of mine at some point on my travels prior to arriving in Lyon) and thermals! But there's no sleep for the wicked and it was up early to shower and adorn my tacky Christmas jewellery (also provided by mum) and head to Vieux Lyon to begin cooking. I was, of course, in charge of all things vegetable and spent the morning making Billy's onion tart, roasting vegetable, and making Cauliflower and Broccoli gratin (thanks again cheese man). Meanwhile Amel decorated the tree and whipped up coq au vin. Our guests arrived around 1pm, there was Joel, Emily and her friends Bec (on exchange in Paris) and Isobel (in Glasgow) and Ben (Isobel's American beau met in Glasgow). Emily's crew was in charge of dessert and boy did they deliver! Emily made her grandmother's Pavlova, despite oven troubles of her own, and Bec crafted a chocolate cake with cherries on top.

So Christmas lunch in Lyon turned out to be much the same as Christmas lunch in Australia, except it was snowing outside. We ate and ate, then had mulled wine and chatted and had a lucky dip present giving which had a 5 euro limit and turned out mostly edible gifts. Having all descended into a food coma and watched Bridget Jones's Diary until we were recovered enough to start it all again by reheating the left-overs for dinner. I was exhausted and incredibly full, so in no state to travel and slept over.


After a decent sleep in I went home to shower and returned with soup and baguette for lunch. The sun came out, but it was cold enough that the snow hadn't melted, so the girls and I went to the park for a wander, and Alice rode around on one of Lyon's public bikes (they started it). That's when we realised it was absolutely freezing so we headed for our favourite hot chocolate café to while away the winter's afternoon. That night we were joined by Joel to watch Stand By Me. Then it was Monday, and I had an apero at my usual bike class at the gym. Trust the French! We spend an hour doing a massive cardio workout then they break out the champagne, chips and savoury cake! It worked out well because I then went to Alice and Milli's before migrating to the Smoking Dog, St James Pub, and Look Bar to show Emily's visitors some Vieux Lyon highlights. Having missed the last metro I opted to stay with Alice and Amèl on their last night in Lyon.

Today I went shopping for a costume for New Year's, and spent most of the day helping (actually, more like watching) the girls pack up. Luckily Joel came over to help with the (huge) suitcases! And now it's really hit home how little time I have left in Lyon, and how much I have left that I want to do. But tomorrow it's back to study as I still have one last exam on January 12th. This isn't going to be easy.

In Bruges ... and Berlin too

On Saturday morning I met Annabelle (my New Zealand friend studying in Lyon) at the station for our festive trip to Belgium. We arrived in Bruges in the evening and promptly dumped our stuff at Snuffles, our hostel, and headed straight for the Christmas markets where I had my first gluhwein (mulled wine) of the season.Then for dinner we wandered the streets of Bruges until we found a cosy looking place which turned out to have old board games available for its patrons, so our night consisted of onion soup and scrabble. Of course since we were in Belgium we had to have some beer so we stopped at De Garre, a local brewery. We could've opted for the Triple De Garre a dark 11% beer, but instead went with the girly fruity beers.

On day 2 we took a trip to Ghent, and spent the morning at SMAK, the museum of contemporary art. There was an great Ensor exhibition and some installation art which I actually appreciated for once. Next up we had planned to hit the flea markets but the tram line we'd been hoping to take was having work done on it. This was a blessing in disguise because in our (cold) walk across town we happened across a flower/Christmas tree market with a cute coffee cart that did an excellent hot chocolate. We still made it to the markets before they closed and perused until we were too cold. That's when we found Simon Says, a gorgeous café run by a couple who moved to Ghent to work in theatre (Yes, Ghent is quite a happening place). After warming up we decided to tackle the various cathedrals in the centre of town and on the way checked out the design museum and its exhibition on Maarten Van Severe, a famous chair designer, although the highlight for me was a small exhibition about teapots. When we made it to St Baaf's cathedral to see Van Eyck's Adoration of the mystic lamb, we had the world's longest audioguide to explain each panel of the altarpiece. Since it was getting late and most things had started shutting we had coffee and waffles at Mokabon and chatted to a crazy old Belgium man who had learnt English, among other languages, through night classes. At this point St Niklaas was closed but the Belfry tower was still open and we thought it would be a good warm up for the slightly taller one in Bruges. After taking some pictures of the view and learning about the carillion we had an aperitif at Mariman. Annabelle and I both tried the 'Roomer', a local drink made form elderflowers. We had a massive Thai dinner and caught a drink at the bar Charlatan before heading back to Bruges and our 12 bed dorm at Snuffles.

The next morning I had a cold shower, followed by copious amounts of tea to undo its effects. First stop was the Church of our Lady to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, then we wandered around the Begijnhof convent. Heading back to Markt, the square at the centre of Bruges, we tested out a tea house claiming "the best hot chocolate in town", and they weren't lying! We were presented with bowls of warm milk and whisks and our choice of chocolate in the form of chocolate chips in a chocolate bowl so you could add as much or as little as you wanted. Sticking with the chocolate theme we went to Choko story, the chocolate museum, and while the museum itself was pretty boring, the demonstration at the end was delicious. Before lunch we managed to cram in a visit to we the Belfry tower and we climbed its 366 stairs even though it was quite overcast and the carillion was having repairs. The came an evening of glühwein and waffles, ice skating, and more glühwein. On our last day in Bruges we hit up the huge Van Eyck exhibition at the Groening museum. All I can say is the guy really nailed perspective! After more waffles and watching an old man grove to Shania Twain at the outdoor ice skating rink, we picked up our bags and headed for the station. But we had one last thing to see: the ice sculpture festival. Although it cost an arm and a leg it was amazing. The theme was around the world and there were some very cool sculptures ... note the pun. Annabelle was even brave enough to try the 16m ice slide which was located behind the ice bar at the end of your round the world trip. And that was the end of our Bruges adventure and Annabelle and I parted ways in Brussels where I went to get a plane to Berlin. I nealry missed my flight thanks to the longest security queue I have ever seen, but cutting in with the plea "I'm going to miss my plane" while looking pathetic and running the length of the airport to get to gate A72 paid off. I even had to sit on the plane for half an hour before we took off while Easy Jet defrosted their engines (?!?) and waited for other passengers stuck at security. Isn't travel fun?

I soon forgot all about it because I was greeted in Berlin by Zoya and Melissa (Canberra friends!). I was conveniently staying in the same hostel as them: the Circus Hostel, which is one of the best I've seen in my travels. In the morning we went to see the Reichstag but the dome was closed and we quickly realised that Berlin was too cold to spend more than half an hour outside at any one time. Next best thing was a bus tour. We hopped on and saw some of the major monuments/buildings from the warmth of our bus. This brought us to the afternoon when we went on a tour of Berlin's street art organised by the hostel, and given by an Australian woman who has been studying and working as an artist in Berlin for 20 odd years. At first we saw a few small galleries but then we had to do some wandering around Kreuzberg to see the real thing. One of the stand-outs was an old hospital building which, abandoned because of its proximity to the Wall, had been overrun with squatters and eventually turned into an arts school. It was covered in all kinds of art work. Eventually we had to admit that it was too cold and dark to see any more and stopped for a gluhwein. Zoya was soo cold when we got back to the hostel that she couldn't bare the thought of going back outside to get dinner, so Melissa and I got Vietnamese take-out and we snuggled up in their room and planned our next few days. I should note that it was about -15 at this point and that night it snowed, a lot.

I'm not sure why, but we decided to do a New Europe walking tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin. It started off OK with a longish train ride out and a small stint in the information office, but then we were outside, in the snow, for about 4 hours. It made it all the more poignant when Colin, our guide, told us of how the prisoners had been made to stand outside for roll call twice a day in nothing but their heavy cotton uniforms for as long as it took. What's insane is that the Soviets continued to use the camp after World War 2 right up until 1961. Unfortunately, by the end of the tour I could barely feel my hands or feet and we were all jumping around on the spot to try and keep warm. After the regional train failed to arrive and several half hour delays on the S-bahn, we got back to town and spent the rest of the evening in a café around the corner of our hostel filled with beautiful young Germans on their macbook pros abusing the free wifi, and we did not move for a long time. I sampled quite a few varieties of tea including apple and cinnamon, and ginger (which was actually just slices of ginger in hot water to which you can add honey).

Having learnt our lesson Zoya, Melissa and I resolved to spend no more than 15 minutes outside at a time. We also had a competition to see who could fit the most amount of layers no matter how much it restricted our range of movement. First up we walked through the Holocaust memorial on the way to the Gemäldegalerie in the Kulturforum. The free audioguide came in handy when viewing the works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Caravaggio, Raffael, Botticelli etc... Once we'd hit up the gift shop, it was on to Checkpoint Charlie and the Mauermuseum or Wall museum. I got to see all the creative ways people tried to escape East Germany after the wall went up. There were fake passports, human-sized suitcases, submarines, hang gliders, and even a hot-air balloon on display. We finished up our day of museum hopping at the Jewish museum. The upper floors about the history of judaism in Germany seemed to go on forever and seemed to be geared towards a younger audience, but the bottom floor was remarkable, with objects and letters from individuals who had for the most part been deported and murdered during World War 2. We enjoyed super cheap and hearty Italian for dinner before another evening at our favourite café. (Food in Berlin was so cheap, and their was variety, and it was vegetarian friendly! not just cheese and bread and expensive bistros).

My sneaky week off had to come to an end though, and on Saturday Melissa and I got up early and had fun at the very interactive DDR museum which is all about life in East Berlin. We strolled through some Christmas markets and met Zoya for some shopping and lunch, yet more soup. With a some time left up my sleeve I took the girls to the Deutsch Guggenheim on the recommendation of a friend in Lyon. It is a one-room gallery which hosts a couple of exhibitions each year from the Guggenheim collection. 'Colour Fields' explored a movement in American art in the 50s adn 60s which evolved from expressionism. Because the gallery is so small the works seem much more accessible, or that might have just been all the children's activities going on at the time we visited! I grabbed a take-away veggie burger and said goodbye to the girls and went to catch my City Night Line all the way back to Lyon. I had an unconfortable evening in a cabin with three-tiered bunks not unlike the ones used at Sachsenhausen before transfering to a 5 hour TGV to get me home.

This week in Lyon I will be studying for my exams, most of which are next week. Also, the festival of lights is on, so the streets will be filled with people from Wednesday until the weekend, all checking out the massive lighting installations around the city. You too can help in my efforts to procrastinate by sending emails and letters filled with news from home and holiday cheer! My email is: alice@netspeed.com.au and my address is: 3bis rue de la victoire, Lyon 69003, France.

Birthdays, Beaujolais, and Bruschetta

Firstly, I've had a few comments pertaining to the amount I write about food. 1. Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France so I thought it only fitting to include some of my culinary adventures in these posts 2. I joined a gym so yes, all my clothes still fit (if a little snug).

Now, from where I left off ... I got stuck into uni work and had some more tutoring sessions with Emile, whose attention span seems to get shorter every time we have a lesson. Thursday 11th November was, of course, Armistice (aka Remembrance Day) which is a public holiday in France so I spent the afternoon at Alexia's residence (an ANU girl) with Kylie to work on a group project before heading to the movies with Alice and Milli in the evening. Unfortunately, because the cinemas one of the (very) few things open on a public holiday, the Social Network was sold out by the time the girls arrived. The next best thing was The American, with George Clooney. Not a bad way to pass a rainy evening! I've noticed that here it's much more common to go to the movies by yourself, and bring a book. That's right, there's almost always 3 or 4 people in a movie theatre who have brought a book to read while waiting for the film to start, some even keep reading through the trailers! We decided to grab a nightcap with Joel, another melbournian, and ended up a at a little bar/live music venue called le Baryton.

Once the weekend rolled around the weather improved ten-fold. On Saturday the sun was shining and it got to about 18 degrees. I went for a run in the Park in just a long-sleeve shirt and shorts! There's a running path around the outside, but sometimes I like to run past the lions, and running on the weekends is good because all the middle-aged women come out in packs to jog and catch up at the same time so I feel young and sprightly as I overtake them. The situation changes if you go around lunch time on a weekday when the pros are out. Balding men, usually in pairs come zooming past me every few minutes in their skins and special winter running apparel. But seeing as it's forecast to snow this weekend I don't think I'll be doing too much running in the park anymore! So on that particular Saturday afternoon I bumped into Joel, whose birthday it was, at Best Bagels before heading to Tasse-livre, a cafe which I discovered thanks to Milli, Alice and Joel. It's a bookshop come cafe which specialises in fancy hot chocolates and which has wifi. There I met up with Annabelle (from New Zealand) to book our trip to Bruges (after which I will continue onto Berlin to see Zoya and Melissa)!!! Needless to say I stayed in the cafe til late, then it was time for Joel's birthday dinner. Unfortunately Joel had invited quite a few people and hadn't booked anything, so when 14 people rocked up to the designated fountain at 8 o'clock I had my doubts as to whether we'd get in anywhere. Luckily Hippopotamus in Vieux Lyon (a chain of French bistrots) had some tables ready for us in 45mins ... just the right amount of time for an apéritif! The night ended at the péniches, or boat bars on the Rhone, with an even bigger crowd of friends form uni, and a lot of my Sunday was therefore spent sleeping in.

The highlight of the week that followed was the Beaujolais Nouveau. The wine region just outside Lyon is one of the few that has been allowed to release a new wine, just 3 months after harvest. I got to celebrate this festival at the Bar ECAM, which is the student bar at the école (kind of like a uni) that Emily's housemates go to. This bar is lucky enough to have a manager with a vineyard, Quentin, who can supply his very own Beaujolais Nouveau. So I even got to start drinking before midnight and the official release. It reminded me alot of John's and the college bars in Syndey. The night was themed 'soirée du terroir' so they had covered the floor in hay and all the bar tenders were dressed in their farmer's best (gumboots, jeans, scarves and berets, someone had even broken out the overalls!). Just before midnight we headed down to Place Bellecour for the official opening of the barrels and the 450 L of free wine offered to the fine citizens of Lyon. It's too bad the Beaujolais Nouveau is not actually very nice, simply because it's such a young wine. The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with me going to classes, running out of food and getting takeout with Chiara and Sara on a particularly cold Friday night.

Another Birthday Saturday came around, this time it was Rosie's turn (a syndeysider who is currently at ANU). After an afternoon exchange of confusing text messages I ended up sharing some wine and cheese with Will in his little studio apartment in Vieux Lyon before heading down the road to Rose's for her party. It's a four bedroom and apartment, and probably the most spacious one I've seen in Lyon! There was punch and nibbles and cake! and all of Rose's house mates are French so it wasn't even an Anglophone event. The night ended with a few drinks at look bar and a cold walk home. Then came Monday and Angus & Julia Stone! After uni I went straight to Milli and Alice's where we made a rather large batch of bruschetta for the 11 aussies/new zealanders/english/french who were attending the concert. We caught the tram out to the Transbordeur, which is a great venue in the north of Lyon. There's a bar which serves baguettes, beer and wine all night and a large hall with standing room and bench seating. It was pretty packed, and mostly with French people, although we did manage to find some other aussies in the crowd. It was an amazing performance, and after exhausting their 'bonjour' and 'merci's, the band resorted to introducing a few songs in English. My favourite song of the night was an acoustic cover of 'You're the one that I want' from the movie Grease.

On the agenda for this week is: dinner and going to Harry Potter (which has finally come out in France)!!! le Marché des Soies (the silk market), and Les 3 Vallées ski resort sets up a mini ski resort at Place Bellecour. Then on Saturday it's off to Bruges! See you on the flip side!

A few weekends in Lyon

I haven't left Lyon in a few weeks, but I've had plenty of adventures, mainly involving food. To start with, the Thursday after I got back from Paris I went to a girls's night (+ Geoff) at Kathy's apartment in the Croix Rousse with Alice, Milli and Emily. I had to come straight from my lecture which finishes at 8pm and Kathy had moussaka waiting in the oven for me! I even got my own special vego moussaka, which everyone had their eye on! There was also ridiculous amounts of bread and greek salad. The rest of us were in charge of dessert so I had brought a selection of macaroons from the patissier we all walk past and drool over on the way to uni in the mornings. Alice and Milli went all out and got a selection of cakes and a giant meringue, and we sampled a little of each. Anything with chocolate in it got my vote. We also got to try some strange green spirit that Geoff had procured from his grandmother who lives in the mountains near Annecy. I forget the name of the plant, but it can only be picked once a year at a specific time (and not totally legally, although the whole town seems to be in on it) to then make the spirit. Needless to say, on a very full stomach and with a night cap under my belt I had a good night's rest for translation Friday. I have French Culture on Friday mornings followed by 1 hour translation, 1 hour break, 1 hour translation, 2 hour break, 1 hour translation. The first two classes are French to English, and the first teacher's English and the second Australian. Miss Wilson, the aussie teacher, is just out of her undergraduate degree at Monash so I'm never sure whether to ask her about homework or invite her out >.< The last class is my favourite: it's English to French translation which is ridiculously hard but we have the most meticulous French teacher. She explains all the nuances of a text, and tells you when you're wrong and why, and she's always prepared for class, unlike the other two who don't really seem to care what you put.

Having gotten through that, and gone to my Friday night spin class (where I'm one of the regulars now and everyone talks to me about Australia), I had a fantastic weekend. Saturday I met Alice, Milli and Joel at the Musée de Résistance et de Déportation. For our culture class we have to write an essay on our reactions to the museum ... unfortunately the museum's pretty terrible. We didn't even realize it is housed in the building that served as the Gestapo's headquarters in Lyon in World War II! This is because most of the museum is made up of information panels with tiny writing on them, around which everyone crowds around to squint at. There's also a bunch of little films being played which you can tune into on an audioguide as long as you're prepared to stand awkwardly for a while. Needless to say I haven't started the essay yet. But the day got better when we picked up ingredients from mine and the girls's and headed to Joel's apartment to teach him how to cook. Joel's place is in the Croix Rousse, just about at the top of a massive hill. We worked up an appetite when we decided to walk instead of catching the metro, and stopped in a bottle shop and an op shop in our wanderings. Alice found a new fur and I got a tweed jacket, so it was a very successful detour. On the menu for dinner: curry with all the extras: rice, cucumber and yoghurt, chapatis (best I could find was actually burritos, but same difference right?), and mango chutney. There was a lot of food but we managed to polish it all off, and Joel was very inspired and even learned to cook rice! We polished everything off just in time for Rosie, Will and girlfriend to arrive and chat until the wee small hours.

Sunday required a sleep in, visit to the market for the third time that week (I have such a rapport with some of the vendors ... yay me). Then after doing some work/refining my procrastination skills I went to Yann and Charles's for drinks. At first it was weird being in EMily's apartment without Emily, who was in Paris for the weekend. But was very glad I went because I got to catch up with the boys I went to the Beaujolais with and meet Yann's lovely photographer sister. What made it even better was knowing that Monday was a public holiday: Toussaint i.e. All Saints (not quite Halloween).

After the usual uni on Tuesday I had my first tutoring session with Emile on Wednesday. He's 5 and his family lived in the UK for a year so his English is really impressive. We played games and read a book and even practised some writing. His brother, Antoine, even joined in for a bit, and by that I mean he sat at the table and amused himself while laughing at the funny English words. That evening I taught my favourite dahl recipe to Billy. My mistake was that I got him to chop up the chilli, because I don't like doing it being the clutz that I am. Billy diligently chopped up everything, then touched his eyes and spent the next half hour in the shower. Chiara form next door suggested going straight to bed with chamomile tea bags on his eyes. Worried I'd permanently injured my next-door neighbour I was very thankful when he recovered enough to enjoy dinner and call it an early night to leave me with the washing up.

Next thing it was the weekend again and Yann, Charles and Emily (pictured) had their housewarming. It was graffiti themed, meaning everyone wore white and they covered the walls in butchers paper, and we spent the evening painting each other and the walls. I have an awesome T-shirt and a blue patch on my stomach that won't seem to come off to prove it! It was a great mixture of French and Australians, and few English thrown in for good measure. And it went off without a hitch, and so far no complaints from the neighbours. To top off another excellent weekend in Lyon Billy and I cooked for Sara, Chiara and Marco, our Italian house-mates. It took some thinking to figure out what we could make them that was Australian and vegetarian. In the end we, very successfully, made vegie burgers (which none of the Italians had ever had). Marco had just been home so he brought some sparkling wine and some Italian cheese, and Chiara made an Italian chocolate sponge cake. mmmm.... Next it's Marco's turn to cook!

Paris with the parents

So in the midst of all the riot madness I decided to risk it and book a trip to Paris to see my parents one last time before they headed back to Oz. I left bright and early on Saturday morning for my 7am TGV to Paris. I even went first class, since it was only 2 euro extra and I wanted to see what it's like. I sat down with my book and some work I had been meaning to get round to and was wondering why no one else seemed to have brought anything to occupy themselves. As soon as we pulled away from the platform I realised why, the majority of my carriage feel quickly asleep. Just to fit in I thought I should do the same and in no time at all I was in Paris and navigating the metro system like a pro. I made my way to Mum and Dad's apartment near Trocadero in the 16th. When I arrived Martine (Canberra Alpine Club friend who moved back to France a couple of years ago) was there, and raring to go, and Mum and Dad were feasting on cereal, pastries, bread and jam. I joined them and we made plans for the day.

We split up for the morning so I could do some shopping while Martine gave the parents a tour similar to the one she gave me when I was last in Paris. I went to Le Marais and took refuge from the rain in a few shops, some of my favourites: American Vintage, Zadig & Voltaire, The Kooples, Les Petites, A.P.C.; and I found some new favourites: Royal cheese; and picked up a few good things from American Apparel. I attempted to have lunch at L'As de la Falafel but it's closed on Saturday, luckily there are a whole strip of falafel places along rue des rosiers to make up for the fact. As I was looking through the Burberrys at an op-shop by Centre Pompidou I got a call from Dad asking if I wanted to meet them at a chocolate shop. I hopped on the next metro to Odéon to go to Patrick Roger, where we got a (large) sample of the best chocolates to keep us going for the rest of the day. Next up on Martine's whirlwind tour was the musée Cluny aka musée national du Moyen Age. The mseum is housed in a Gallo-Roman bath house and a 15th century abbey, the Cluny Abbey. Recently renovated, the most impressive display is the rotunda of the Lady and the Unicorn, which houses the series of tapestries, with a lady and a unicorn, depicting the 6 senses ... Yes, I meant 6 aparently the sixth one is love or understanding (noone's too sure). The final stop of the day was Bon Marché, an upmarket French department store. Martine toured us around the food hall and I toured everyone around the fashion and accessories. But by this point (it was about 8pm) Dad was tired, and I was hungry so we went on the hunt for somewhere to have dinner. Once we decided that the Montparnasse area was too touristy Martine took us to Café d'Enfer, where she has quite a rapport with the staff who were all happy to have us. With our 3 course set menu (where there was even a vegetarian MAIN!!!) the head owner didn't let us pick desert because he had prepared the house speciality for us, which was an excellent chocolate fondant thing with icecream called le P'tit d'Enfer. We could not have been more satisfied with our day!

We weren't about to slow down (well not if Martine had anything to do with it) and met at the Porte de Vanves flea markets at 9 Sunday morning. It was a good flea market with all kinds of weird and wonderful and dingy things. Dad found enough instruments to form a band, and I found a fur and haggled for it. It's just a little vest, very tasteful I assure you. Next it was back to Martine's suggested itinerary so we went to the Parc Albert Kahn to have a look around before going for a balloon ride. The Eutelsat Balloon in Parc André Citroën is a tethered gas balloon which ascends to 150 metres for a great view of Paris.


By then it was getting on to lunch time so we made our case to Martine and she alowed us to stop and eat, at the Salon Bio. It just so happened that we were in Paris the weekend of thefair for all things Organic. I probably would've preferred going to the chocolate fair that's on in Pris this weekend, but I still got my fair share of free samples, and we had excellent Indian for lunch. Our afternoon museum visit was to the musée Nissim de Camondo. It's part of the musée des arts décoratifs, and was the private home of a rich Parisien banker and collector of furniture and art objects (he was good mates with the curator at the Louvre and quite a few local auctioneers). Moïse de Camondo had planned to leave the house to his son, but he died fighting in World War I, so he bequeathed it to the Arts Décoratifs. The family died out when his daughter and her children died in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. So a very tragic story goes along with this incredible property - you couldn't call it a house because it's modelled on the Petit Trianon at Versailles. On Emily's recommendation I requested we spend the rest of the afternoon at Angelina's, famous for its hot chocolate, but it being school holidays and cold, there was a huge queue and we ended up at Mariage Frères instead for tea and cakes. Not a bad way to end the day. We went back to the apartment and I picked up my stuff and caught the TGV home to Lyon. Luckily I wasn't one of the people in the crowd at Paris Gare de Lyon who had had their train cancelled due to strikes, so I got home with no fuss. All in all an excellent weekend, and my last weekend trip for a least a couple of weeks while I actually do some uni work, you know, unless anything comes up.

Riots!!!

Once the parents had left it was back to business as usual. Or so I thought.

(sorry for the drama, but last week was pretty intense)
On Tuesday morning I headed to uni to find that half my first class was missing so the teacher rescheduled the lesson. Most people were participating in the nation-wide strike against raising the retirement age. In Lyon demonstrations usually go from down near my uni and process all the way to Place Bellecour which is a massive square in the centre of Lyon. When I walked to school I saw all the protesters getting ready to march behind their respective union/school banners. There were thousands of people. What I found out later, when I finished uni at 8pm, was that while the legitimate protest was working its way up Cours Gambetta a large contingent of youths had met at Place Bellecour to reek havoc on the presqu'île. What started with yelling and throwing rocks, ended in looting shops and turning over or burning cars. By the afternoon when the real protesters made it to place Bellecour and added to the confusion, 500 police and gendarmes had been mobilised. They used batons and tear gas to subdue the crowd as a helicopter circled low overhead.

By the time Wednesday rolled around an extra 250 police were called upon to block off most of the town centre. I went to the big shopping mall on my side of the Rhône thinking that most of the disturbances were around Place Bellecour. But I noticed the tram wasn't running and turned a corner to discover why: there were dozens of police trucks lined up along the tram tracks surrounding a large group of youths who were heading towards the presqu'île. I had to walk back from doing my shopping because the police were still blocking the roads later in the evening. Billy and Sara (one of our Italian next door neighbours) went out to take photos, some of which I will steal later to post. Then we went to Sara and Kiara's apartment, along with Marco (another Italian from the sixth floor) to have our Italian dinner! We started off talking about the riots over wine and tapenade, and then Sara served up delicious risotto. By then Billy, Marco and Sara had discovered they had all been scouts when they were younger, which had them comparing notes until dessert. Marco had provided a tart, and Billy and I taught the Italian's to do the Tim Tam Slam with Billy's Milo and the Tim Tams I found at the local supermarket.

On Thursday morning I had my medical and visa check at the Office Francais de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration. There is now a lung x-ray decorating my wall! But more importantly I had to walk all the way there (about an hour away) because the metro and trams were still out of service on the presqu'île. When I went at 9 in the morning things were pretty quiet and I was in a hurry, but on the way back I walked up rue Victor Hugo to see the damage done by the "casseurs" as they call them, i.e. the "breakers". There was glass still covering the streets and most of the shops were open but had their security doors down in case of more trouble. Then I got to Place Bellecour, because I forgot to cross over the Rhone earlier. There were a group of heavily armed police guarding the square, luckily I don't look very suspicious and I just got waved through, whereas the teenage boys walking ext to me, and a young girl texting madly on her phone all got told to turn around. Talking to Emily later, she has had trouble getting in and out of her apartment which is on Place Bellecour, she also had tear as leak into her building.

There were minor scuffles on Thursday and Friday, and I've had to go in and out the back entrance of my uni everyday, and sometimes have to show my student ID. Otherwise things have calmed down over the weekend. This week it's predicted the bill raising the retirement age will be confrmed on Wednesday so there's another legitimate protest planned for Thursday. I'm just glad my trip to Paris on the weekend wasn't cancelled (A lot of trains just haven't been running because of the petrol cut-offs and personnel strikes). Here's hoping Charles de Gaule airport has enough fuel to fly Mum and Dad home this week without too much fuss!

The next update is on this past weekend, when I caught up with the parents and Martine (Family friend) in Paris. And don't forget to email me with updates from Australia. As a bonus, those who email me always get a personal response!

Parents visit

To begin with, I finally finalised my classes, and in only week 4 of lectures. I'm studying the history of the Ottoman Empire, French literature and civilisation in the 20th century, European integration, political philosophy, and French-English translation. And of course my compulsory sujects: French culture and French as a second language which are particularly demanding (my first piece of assessment was an oral on French wine and next I have to write a one page essay on my reactions to the Museum of the History of the Resistance and Deportation). Although I shouldn't be so sarcastic. I'm very glad that Lyon 3 is so internationally inclined because it means quite a few of my exams will be over in December -fingers crossed- and that a lot of allowances are made for exchange students, such as oral instead of written exams, and special ERASMUS stickers to warn markers to go easy on grammar mistakes. This has given me the opportunity to avoid work almost entirely and go travelling instead, and over the last few weeks Mum an Dad were travelling around France so I got to catch up with, i.e. mooch off, them for a while.

Having already spent 3 weeks driving around France, Mum and Dad arrived in Lyon Wednesday 13th and had a look at my little studio before checking into their apartment in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) which is a short walk away on the other side of the Presqu'île. It was hilariously small, but quaint, right next to the Cathédral Saint Jean with a fantastic view of Fourvière and Notre-Dame out the kitchen window. On their first night in town I reserved a table at the Brasserie Nord, one of 4 Paul Bocuse Brasseries in Lyon -Paul Bocuse is one of Lyon's claims to gastronomic fame with a michelin star restaurant just outside town. Even the vegetarian found stuff to eat! I sampled onion soup for the first time and was not disappointed. Then on Thursday morning I showed Mum some of my favourite shopping spots in Lyon before a pad thai lunch and shopping at my markets for dinner ingredients (some vegies, a lot of cheese, and some cake, you know, the usual). I went to my Thursday night 5-8pm lecture only to wait around for a while and discover that the lecturer couldn't make it from Paris due to the strikes disrupting the trains. Instead I practised my oral on wine for Friday and then went and had dinner in the Vieux Lyon apartment. Mum managed to whip up stuffed capsicums in the tiny but functional kitchen and we tucked into the cheese and some of Dad's excellent wine.

On Friday I had classes between 10 and 6 so I left the parents to their own devices. My oral went down a treat especially since my teacher was on antibiotics and had a taste of the Beaujolais I'd brought in anyway. After school I then had to meet the Fressons, a family I'll be babysitting for! The parents lived in the UK for a year when their eldest had just started school and they don't want him to loose his english. Now there's 3 kids, all under the age of 5: Emile, Antoine, and Alice! I'll be giving English lessons to Emile every week and babysitting on occasion. Afterwards Billy came with me to have an apero with Mum and Dad at Étoile, a swanky bar just near our residence. Then the family headed to rue Mercière to find somewhere to eat, given it's a very touristy area, dinner was pretty average, but it gave us the opportunity to make plans for our day trip to Annecy on Saturday.

My chauffeur picked me up in the morning and Mum had a good long snooze in the backseat as we drove the hour and a half to Annecy. The town is just by a lake which backs onto a mountain and is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I say supposedly, because by this point the weather had closed in and when we arrived it was freezing cold, trying to rain, and a fog had descended over the whole town obscuring the view of the lake and mountain. But the town itself is gorgeous, and after having a stroll around the park and lake, we thawed out at a Savoyard restaurant full of French people taking shelter from the weather. Mum and I had cheese fondue which was incredible and we emerged a few hours later to go to the Annecy Chateau Museum, which has a very eclectic collection displayed in an old chateau as well as a section all about Annecy's lake, which used to be polluted and is now the cleanest lake in Europe. On the way back to the car we hit up a Traiteur and a Boulanger to get things for dinner. When we got back to Lyon I was still full of cheese but forced myself to polish off some dinner before Dad walked me home.

On Sunday we headed to the Croix-Rousse markets, which are some of the biggest food markets in Lyon on the top of a hill at one end of the presqu'île. We took the funicular up and things started off well, perusing the food and listening to the brass band busking. Then when we'd gotten to one end of the markets a freezing wind picked up and I wondered if we were going to be able to buy anything since even the stall holders didn't want to take their hands out of their pockets. We moved quickly to get ingredients and then warmed up in the metro on the way to find somewhere to have lunch. This roved a little tricky because we're in france and everyhting closes on Sunday but we eventually found a Brasserie recommended by Lonely Planet which turned out to be the best meal of the week! The Brasserie Léon de Lyon was packed and we only just managed to get a table wedged between all the French families out for Sunday lunch. Personally, I think we make 3 course lunches this common in Australia. I had soup and terrine and sampled the chocolate cake and plum tart for dessert ... mmmmm. It was still cold when we left so we wiled away the afternoon in the apartment and had our last meal, composed of leftovers and market purchases. Next morning Mum and Dad met me for one last coffee and so Dad could use my computer, before they headed on to the Beaujolais and I had to go back to classes.