Spring 2014 - Back in Lyon!

We returned to our “second home” in Lyon on April 23^rd.  People often ask just where Lyon is and what we do here for three months at a time, so we’ll attempt to give you an idea of what our lives in

France are like.  We won’t bore you with every detail, but here’s a quick rundown of our first few days…

We left on the non-stop from Seattle to Paris on the 22^nd, and then took to TGV (fast ! train) from the airport to Lyon and arrived 2 hours later on the 23^rd.  As always, we were pretty wiped so our plan was to go immediately to the apartment, unpack some essentials, get our stuff out of storage in the basement, catch our breath, and then go across the street to ViteNature  to say hello to Philippe and Angeline, pick up something very light for dinner, and crash.  Well, we did all that, but not in the planned sequence.  Philippe and Angeline were sitting outside and saw us dragging our rollerbags to our apartment building; they rushed across the street and greeted us with bises and hugs.  What a lovely way to begin our stay!

The next day, Thursday the 24^th, we had lunch with the Del Cano Club, an organization primarily for British ex-RAF folks and spouses that has kindly adopted us “colonials.”  Del Cano meets monthly for lunches, often has a speaker, and is always reliable for interesting conversations.  No speaker this time, but we did have some fascinating conversations.

A View of lovely Lyon - our apartment
is near the building that looks like
a pencil, and is called "le Crayon"
 (French for pencil).

Then on Saturday we had lunch at a local café with Dominique and Roger, our landlords and good friends.  We’ve communicated in email, of course, but it’s always good to see them and chat in person.

Then we sort of settled into the pattern of our “French lives.” Word got out that we were back so there soon was a note in our mailbox to set up tea and conversation with Anna.  We checked in with Estelle, our French daughter, and set up a lunch date.  David took some bike rides (with and without Roger).  And, soon we had lunches/dinners with friends, explorations, and events and classes at AVF scheduled.

So there you have our first few days in Lyon.