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!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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!
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!
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