Hangin' with AJ. Thursday 2nd April 2009.

Alex spent a good part of his day yesterday at school gazing out the window at the Citroen dealership down below, watching the unloading of stock. He's bored he tells me. He has been at French school for a while now and it seems the shine has worn off. School breaks up tomorrow for holidays which is when Alex would finish anyway so to finish a few days early won't hurt.

We walked slowly into the city where rue de la Republique bustled with the throng of weekday shoppers. I finally had success with Dallas's birthday present hunting, thank goodness. There was an exhibition highlighting the lovely region of Bretagne. Regional exhibitions go hand-in-hand with regional specialties and produce, of which Alex and I were delighted to partake in. We had a lovely time sampling the Kouign Amann (butter cake) sporting lucious layers of butter and sugar, butter and sugar, and more butter and sugar - the star ingredients. Further ahead were the cloak wearing brotherhood of La Coquille Saint-Jacques who were offering bite-size open pies of sliced scallop with an orange-citrus dressing which was delicate and delightful to me and just ok for AJ. We ate little rounds of baguette spread with cream cheese. I think Alex's favourite samples were the muffin-like cakes in caramel and chocolate as well as the pots of rich caramel which are sold to use on crepes at home. What a deliciously delightful exhibition to find. Later we were offered a complimentary cup of tea while browsing the lovely Le Palais des Thes, it was a nice way to end our morning tea of Bretagne specialties.

I took AJ into Saint Bonaventure's church, my favourite, where we sat in the cool quiet for a while. After, we found a few more of Lyon's famous and beautiful painted walls. Spring has sprung and the squares are in full pink and white bloom, the leaves are unfurling with tiny leaves adding a splash of colour to the city streets.

Discovery of a Brissy girl living in Lyon made our day. We chatted for ages and she gave me her phone number and email so we can catch up again before we leave lyon. It was, as usual, so nice to talk to someone from home.

Lovely Lucie. Wednesday 2nd April 2009.

Lucie had phoned yesterday. She would arrive to pick Alex and I up at 1pm. I love Lucie (great name for a TV show!), she is gentle and soft with a heart of gold. She walked us to her place to meet her tribe of three. Lucie, her daughter and I made a chocolat chip cake together while the three boys played.


Elodie laughed as she stuck poisson d'Avril (April fish) on our backs. This tradition begins on 1st April when young kids make paper fish and decorate them to play tricks on unsuspecting adults, it's fun.

Isabelle for dinner. Tuesday 1st April 2009.

I cycled into the city (not in lycra!) and spent most of the day wandering the small side streets filled with interesting little shops. I stopped for lunch at Cafe des Jacobins. I sat on a table looking over Place des Jacobins, in the sun. I sat and sat and sat, watching the world fo by. The plat du jour was steak and frites, I smothered the steak in hot mustard. They do a fabo cafe creme too!

Isabelle arrived late for dinner which is in keeping with her hecticness. A boquet of pale pink tulips came through the door first, she is so lovely.

We had a great night together. She is so much fun and is a real bright spark. So nice for me to have some girlie energy around for a change. Alex, Isabelle and I finished dinner with an oozy Normandy camembert, it was so rich and a little stinky.

Not looking forward to the 6am alarm in the morning!

Just the two of us. Sunday 29th March 2009.

The apartment is quiet with only the two of us here now. I didn't realise John made so much noise :-) After a quiet morning Alex and I headed towards town for a long bike ride. Instead of using the Velo'v hire bikes, we got the bikes out of our garage and off we pedaled. One thing is for sure, the velo'v bikes have much softer seats!

We pedaled along the river for ages and back again. The sky was powder blue and full of whispy clouds. I managed to convince Alex to lie on the grass and make pictures in the sky. He humoured me for two minutes and then took off on the bike.

We had the best game of cricket ever on the terrace at home. I bowled Alex twice! Not bad for a Mum hey.

Missing John like crazy. All of a sudden I am overcome with sadness. I'm not looking forward to Alex going to school on Monday and being on my own, he is a wonderful companion and is so funny and supportive.

It's raining in my heart. Saturday 28th March 2009.

We said our final goodbyes and John boarded the train to Paris. We waved through the window until it left the station and Alex ran beside until he couldn't keep up and the train rattled into the distance. I cried. The cry turned into a sob and then it happened... the ugly cry. There I was in broad daylight with my bottom lip curled, my nostrils flared and my eyebrows in a deep furrow. Alex was wonderful, he comforted me and kept his arm around me as we walked.

The roads outside glistened with rain, umbrellas shrouded pedestrians as they hurried along. Alex and I decided to walk too. We walked towards the river and found a shop that sells colectors model cars. Alex bought a small Ferrari with his own money, I'll let him tell you the details as they are lost on me.

We sat in the little retro bar, Bistrot a Tartine, where we all had dinner last night, Alex played with his new model, I pondered. Every time I thought of John heading home to Australia my eyes welled with tears. When I cried in the bar, Alex rubbed my arm and said 'Oh Mum, how am I going to calm you down here?' That made me laugh at how funny he is and how funny we must have looked.

We arrived home just before dark, shared a movie and we just knew that we were there if the other one needed us.

Hopefully six weeks will fly and by the time we meet up with John again in Belfast, it will seem like only yesterday he left.

For all the gourmets out there!

Has anyone else ever seen a pizza vending machine before???

Dinner is yours in three minutes!

I'm back! Friday 27th March 2009

Ok, ok, I know... it has been a while since my last post. Sorry. Being John's last week, the last think I wanted to do was to sit blogging all week just to keep you lot happy. Also, as we have been here a while, life has settled down and we have seen so much, some days we enjoy not having to rush out and about.

Today John chose to spend his last full day here in the Beaujolais region . It has been one of our favourite places to venture to. Alex went off to school and John and I headed to Beaujolais. We drove through tiny villages like St-Julien, and Blace. They were so quiet - John always says it is like a nuclear bomb has gone off in some villages the streets are so void of life. We drove into the heart of Beaujolais and it was so pretty. Some of the roads we took were more like cow tracks, but they all seemed to connect us back to something bigger which kept us feeling like we weren't too much in the wilderness.

We headed through the villages of Denise and Liergues which were lovely . We didn't stop, we were on a mission. We had decided to head back to Charnay and have lunch at the little Auberge we had visited weeks ago - The last hurrah!

Well, we possibly should have left the memory as it was. Not that there was anything drastically wrong, but today's experience wasn't in keeping with the lovely memories of before. We sat in the upstairs dining room where windows on one side overlook the village square and on the other side, hills and vineyards, It wasn't as cosy as downstairs where we had sat on our last visit. Sophie-Anne was rushed off her feet with full dining rooms to contend with, she just wasn't warm and welcoming. So much of a dining experience is about the feeling, it had changed. There was fish on the menu - John doesn't eat fish. Maya happily made him an omellette which was lovely, but at the end of the day, an omelete is an omelete. On our last visit (remember they brought us one of each dessert on the menu), I had tasted the best praline tarte I had ever had. I ordered it today and it was a shaddow of its former self. The deep pink filling was chrystalised and grainy rather than smooth and silky, it was a dissapointment. I sent it back and they were just lovely about it. No problems, 'what would I like for a replacement'? I ordered an apple crumble but in the interim, the electricity went out and it could not be heated, no electricity meant no coffee as well. Gggrrrrrrr!!!

Back in Lyon, the sun slipped away and the streets came alive with the energy of Friday night. The three of us wandered into the city, sandwiched between the two wide rivers whose bridges were lit with golden lights, their reflections twinkling on the water. We wandered up rue Republic, Alex's favourite, and stopped at Voisin, the chocolatier famous for the coussin de Lyon. We found 'Bistrot a tartines' and settled in for dinner. We all had the same, a tartiflette tartine and praline tarte for dessert. This place is simple, cheap as chips and is packed to the rafters at any time of the day. It bustles with life inside its walls decorated with grandmothery wallpaper of delicate stripes and soft pink rosebuds, and 50's and 60's memorabilia. The produce is bought at the riverside marche every morning, 'we use only the best breads, cheeses and produce because what we do is simple so it has to be of the best quality', Florian, the manager says. The menu consists of various tartines with glorious toppings like brie, walnut and cheese, or the potato, onion, lardon and roublechon concoction called tartiflette. There's a simple green salad sprinkled with walnuts with a choice of three dressings, we choose the mustard one, gosh its good. They have a range of sweet, old-fashioned tartes for dessert. The prices are great, the food is great, the atmospere is buzzy and energising, what's not to like?

We walked the half an hour home via the discovery of the beautiful Theatre des Celestins. Around the square where it sits were trees in precocious pink and white bloom, it was a picture.


John's impending departure stimulated deep and heartfelt conversation. I walked behind and watched as my boys walked homeward, arm in arm and happy.