AubrysInFrance: Back “home” in Lyon

Ah, time for our annual return to Lyon! We left Seattle Sunday, March 31^st and arrived in lovely Lyon Monday, April 1^st. We had heard that France had experienced some rain, but we were surprised at the number of flooded fields we saw while on the train from Paris to Lyon. We also saw some rather spectacular rainbows!

We arrived in Lyon to “our” apartment which our landlady, Nathalie, had totally ready for us to move in and make ourselves at home. And, our friends (and former landlords) Dominique and Roger also helped us settle in by bringing over the boxes of clothing they had stored for us and picking up some basic food items for us. We are so very fortunate to have these friends watching out for us!

That's "our" apartment - 4th set of windows
on the left, above the ground floor

The following day we went for a walk to keep our energy up and avoid succumbing to jet-lag. And, guess who we saw walking down the street in our direction?! Estelle, our French Daughter! After lots of hugs and fond greetings, we made a date for lunch on the next day to celebrate Estelle’s birthday (a big one with a 0 on the end) and just because we like to have lunch with Estelle. Sometimes a little exercise can bring surprise benefits!

On Thursday Anna went to the Thursday Morning Coffee at AVF, the organization we belong to that was created to help returning French and various expats like us get acclimated with current French culture. Anna was delighted to see several friends including Michelle, her first French teacher in Lyon. She was even more pleased to be invited to join Michelle’s Intermediate French class the following Thursday. Then, after the Thursday Morning Coffee at AVF, David arrived and joined Anna, Dominique, and several others for lunch at a café in Vieux Lyon. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting Lyon, Vieux Lyon is the medieval area of Lyon, and is packed with history as well as quite a few restaurants.