We knew the French really like the Beatles. (Yes, we know they are also crazy about Jerry Lewis, but try to look at the bigger picture. Work with us here!)



The number things we have experienced here that would never have occurred to us is amazing. It has proven the worth always being open to interesting possibilities.


To clarify: Our wonderful landlords invited us to go with them and some of their English friends to the ‘Beatles Performance’ in Limonest, a village just outside Lyon. For 20 Euros per person, we got the event and dinner – a bargain as it turned out. This being France, we were also able to purchase a Champagne apéritif and wine with the three-course dinner.  The event was designed as a benefit performance for the Conservatoire de Limonest, who provided the back-up musicians.

Here's a Picture of the Tickets for the Event

The event was scheduled for 8PM Saturday evening, April 16, in the Salle des Fêtes, a performance hall that most towns of any size seem to have. The event was mostly performed by locals, with an opening act doing some 60s and 70s songs by groups other than the Beatles. The main event was a five-man group [not locals] who performed for almost two solid hours to an enthusiastic audience, including kids dancing in the back of the hall and some songs with audience sing-alongs. The drummer was amazing, unlike Ringo who was barely adequate. The group did not make any attempt to mimic the original Beatles, but performed faithful renditions of dozens of songs, although curiously, none of the early stuff like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, or ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. It was all very faithful to the original, but with a distinctly French twist. It was all quite good, with the 30-piece back-up band from the Conservatoire de Limonest, and excellent sound and lighting. There were two encores before the audience of about 400 could be persuaded to leave.




Because the event did not lend itself to pictures, we are attaching a link to a marketing film for the event that includes the Beatles and the group we saw, ‘Great Britain Revisited’. You should be able to see it by putting your cursor on the link and hitting ‘control’ and clicking your mouse. If that doesn’t work, paste the address below into your browser.

http://perso.numericable.fr/blog.conservatoiredelimonest/ACTUS/SOIREE_BEATLES/BANDE_ANNONCE


This second link is from a performance by the same group in Grenoble earlier this year, and has more footage of the group performing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4KBE5wz7AM


PS – surreal is when a group spends all its time performing Beatles tunes in almost flawless English, but speaks to the audience in French.

Our First Visitors

When we first announced that we were moving to France for a year, we heard from both family and friends about planned visits. Well, there’s a huge difference between plans and reality, and we understand that “life” just got in the way. Over the period of seven months, several planned visits fell through, and no one came. Then we got a note from a friend saying his daughter and her roommate were spending their spring school break travelling around Europe, and we jumped at the chance to be their hosts in Lyon.



We already knew Leighanna through her parents, but we didn’t know her well. And, we had never met Gillian, her roommate. I think it’s safe to say there was a tad bit of nervousness on all sides at the prospect spending several days together and sharing our little apartment (with one WC and one Salle de Bains). We would all either enjoy the visit or count the minutes until it was over – there really wasn’t any middle ground. Fortunately, we all hit it off and had a great time.


Both girls were perfect guests – offering to help at appropriate moments and magically transforming their bedroom (our living room) back into a living room/dining room first thing each morning. The weather was lovely so we spent as much time as possible outside. They were genuinely interested in seeing and experiencing as much as possible in Lyon – and we did our best to squeeze as much as we could into their visit. We spent a good deal of time exploring Roman ruins since this is an area of particular interest to them, but we also shared other favorite spots, including our corner boulangerie, with them. We sampled every kind of public transportation available (bus, underground metro, tram, electric bus, and funicular) and wore out a good bit of shoe leather. Needless to say, we all slept very well at night.


We are sharing some pictures with you, with their permission, to give you an idea of the time we had. Our apartment seemed much too quiet when we returned from putting them on the bus for Italy!


We hope the remainder of their trip was a great success, and wish them luck with their exams.

Checking out Roman workmanship on an aquaduct.

Leighanna, Gillian, and David in a Roman amphitheater.  The girls each tried standing "center stage" and talking normally - and could be heard from where we sat in the upper rows! 

 In front of the Bartholdi fountain in Place des Terreaux with Anna.

Breakfast at our corner Boulangerie.  The fruit smoothies were a big hit, and we now know Gillian has a weakness for Pain au Chocolat!

Évian les Bains

We took a long weekend and drove to Évian les Bains. You know – the place that’s famous for its water. It is a lovely resort city on Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) complete with thermal baths, a casino, lots of hotels (including The Royal Resort where you can stay in the Edward VII suite for only 2700 euros/night), restaurants, shops, and, of course, THE water. We enjoyed people and car watching (Jaguar, Bentley, Maserati, etc.) and just wandering around town. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular, so we thought we’d let some of the pictures we took “do the talking.”



Driving to Evian…

A chateau on a hill.

We had lunch al fresco at this bistro in the village of Amberieu.

In Évian

Looking up to our hotel from Place Charles de Gaulle.  Our room was the last one on the left on the top floor.

Views from our hotel window...

View of the lake with the Notre-dame-de-Grace (part of which dates back to the 12th century) on the right.

Another view of the lake.  That's the casino on the left.  We somehow managed to resist it.

Looking down on the pedestrian street below and Place Charles de Gaulle on the left. 

Another view of the Place with some lovely, old buildings, the church, and the lake in the background.  There was a flea market in the Place that day.

 We ate breakfast in the Place at a corner boulangerie that's run by a husband and wife. (Small umbrella on the left at the far end.)

 The Water


As we mentioned before, Evian is renowned for its water. There are several locations in town where people can fill their bottles with THE water. There is sometimes a queue waiting while people fill their containers, but we managed to get these pictures between queues.

Various views to give you an idea of the lovely scenery…

Evian is also known for its flowers and has received many awards.  Flower beds are all over town and add to every veiw.

Looking over rooftops at the lake, Switzerland in the distance, and boat arriving from Lausanne.

We enjoyed walking along the lake.  Here we are looking back at the central city.

Pump house for the Cachat spring (the Saint Catherine Fountain).  Built in 1903.

View from park on the side of a hill.  Boat from Lausanne can be seen arriving.

The Royal Resort



We were puzzled about a barracade on the walkway along the lake until we got closer and saw the reason people needed to keep their distance.  (The nesting swan's mate was swimming nearby in the lake.)

As always, we take our responsibility to supporting the local economy very seriously.

We took a ride on a boat and went across the lake to Lausanne, Switzerland.

There are CGN boats going back and forth across the lake at regular intervals. Here's the one we took. 

On our way across!

Arriving in Lausanne.

13th century Gothic cathedral - the biggest in Switzerland.

There is much, much more we could show you and tell you about the area, Évian's rich history and lovely sites, but we'll leave you with this introduction.  Maybe it will entice you to visit and explore on your own?














Boat ride across the Lake to Lausanne

Annual AVF Dîner Gala

The invitation itself was quite impressive, and everyone at AVF was saying this was THE event of the year – not to be missed. After attending this year’s event, we certainly agree!



On the evening on April 4th, we joined around 170-180 other AVF folks at the Institute Lumière for a lovely evening. The event began with flutes of Taittinger champagne and various appetizers.

Lots of folks enjoying flutes of champagne and chatting in a variety of languages.

From there we moved into the theater for a short screening of what amounts to home movies and street scenes produced by the Lumière brothers as well as some commentary to explain what was going on. We saw footage they recorded on March 19, 1895, showing workers leaving the Lumière factory. The quality was amazing! None of the jerky appearing movements we are used to in early US movie clips.

In the theater.

(Side notes on the Lumières: We have them to thank for the movie camera and projector, and film perforations as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector, among other inventions. By the way, the brothers had “day jobs,” too; one was a doctor and the other was a biologist.)

Tables set for dinner.

After the screening it was time for dinner – and what a dinner! We started with Fraîcheur de Saint-Jacques et crème de petit pois (a molded dish of small scallops and creamed peas) and ended with Café gourmand (coffee served with a variety of small desserts). All with the appropriate wines, of course. And, we also got the opportunity to meet more interesting folks in AVF.

That's us on the far side of the table in middle.

We had each been given a numbered ticket on arrival, and the evening ended with a raffle for a number of lovely prizes. The grand prize was two round-trip tickets on Air France from Lyon to Orlando, Florida. David won this gorgeous AC Canova scarf for Anna.

What an evening! Just before midnight we caught one of the last metro trains back home and collapsed.

An Adventure in Beaujolais

A couple of weeks ago David picked up a flyer here in Lyon advertising a ‘Foire aux Vins’ in Belleville, a small town in Beaujolais. Since we had an enjoyable time at the Foire aux Vins in Ampuis in January, and we are always looking for an excuse to visit another charming town, David thought it would be great to check it out. Anna was not so sure, as we have no storage here for cases of wine, and we can’t really take more than a couple of bottles back to the US, plus she figured one wine market was going to be pretty much like the others. David said that if so, we wouldn’t spend much time there, and would use our time to explore the countryside.



So Saturday, off we went to Belleville, arriving in town about 11:20. Mapquest’s information on the location of the Foire, described as at the Lycee Bel-Air, was erroneous, so we checked in at the local tourist office. The woman there gave us directions, about 2-3miles to the west of town. Arriving at the site, we found an imposing chateau and walked to the entrance from the parking area.

Chateau de Bel-Air

Entrance to Cellar

Paying our 3-Euro fee [very reasonable, we thought], we went downstairs to a cellar area. There we found the standard tasting tables set up, but surprisingly they were all manned by very young men and women, and represented most of the major wine regions of France. As we sampled our first wines, one of the people at the booth hurried away, bringing back a distinguished-looking gentleman who asked in very good English, if we were English. We replied that we were Americans; that produced a surprised reaction, as it seemed that the affair was the annual tasting put on by the students at the various wine-making schools around France where the next generation of French winemakers are being trained. It also seemed that we were now the objects of a good deal of interest on the part of students and faculty as they generally do not get foreigners to these events. The gentleman, who turned out to be a professor at the school, explained how the school worked, that students receive classroom instruction plus hands-on work in all phases of the wine business, from vineyards to marketing the product.


As we circulated around the cellar, sampling first whites, then reds, we were amazed at how good some of the wines were. It was apparent even to our somewhat inexperienced palettes that some serious work was being done by the students. [More about French wines in general in a future discussion.] We were also engaged in a lengthy discussion about the school and the wines from similar schools around France by a woman professor. Throughout our conversations with students and faculty members, we were struck by the level of engagement and courtesy shown to a couple of strangers by all concerned.

After making our purchases, [very reasonably priced wines for the quality], we headed back to Belleville for a late lunch and some sight-seeing. We stopped at a small bistro, the Café de la Tour, where we had a very good lunch of boeuf bourguignon with a carafe of Morgon, one of the 10 Beaujolais crus.

Cafe de la Tour

Eglise Notre-Dame

After lunch, we walked over to see the 12th century church, l’Eglise Notre-Dame. Construction began in 1168 and was completed in only 11 years. Modest in comparison to some of the great cathedrals of Europe, it is still an impressive structure.

Notre-Dame Interior