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.