Le Printemps

It's Spring! And its here in full swing. Cherry blossoms, Magnolias, plum blossoms, green leaves, sunshine and rain. It is for sure my favourite season. This past Winter in Europe has been the coldest one I've had yet so this Spring really has made me feel particularly happy. The sun has been shining in Lyon for the last two weeks, my freckles are quickly showing their faces and my legs are now happily stocking-less. It's a glorious place to be.

A field of dandelions in our local park

Les Puces

It is now the second weekend in a row that we've trekked out to the Flea Markets (in French 'Les Puces', which literally means 'the fleas'!). This particular one is Lyon is just fantastic! There are the expensive antique indoor stalls, the mid-range deco container shops, and the car-boot-sale style outdoor floor stalls! I love trawling through junk to find bargains, and here the cheapest blanket-floor stalls are super good! It's very hard deciding on what to buy - knowing we can't really take a lot back to New Zealand. There was a ridiculously beautiful wooden detailed car for sale...

The food stalls offer delicacies such as frogs legs and creamy French cheeses. St Felicien cheese is now my absolute favourite and I have a new thimble and broken fifties clock.

So, thank you fleas.

 

Apartment Pets

It's honestly raining cats and dogs here in France, literally. Everyone owns at least one cat and lives next door to a dog. I couldn't believe when I first arrived, how commonplace it was to own a pet. Apartments are small spaces and the thought of a wee fluffy friend having nowhere to stretch out it's legs seemed extremely unfair. And then we found our apartment; a sublet situation. And then along came little Estimée. Well, along came 'us' actually - and moved into her space.

So, apartment cats don't have the space that animals in New Zealand and Australia have, nor do they have the liberty to roam the streets. They wouldn't be able to find their way back, push the code to the building and open the apartment door... Luckily, for Estimée she has a small balcony to gulp the fresh air and watch the birdies from afar. I do find it quite cruel on the large dogs living in these small spaces. It is also very common in France, for owners to leave their dog's deposits all over the footpath. My 'pet' hate!

Mon travail en France

One negative thing about living in France is that it's extremely hard to find work! My French isn't good enough to apply for a French speaking job, so naturally I found work teaching English. As well as teaching at a small private children's school, I teach four private adult students. Their reasons for learning English vary drastically! One lovely student is Japanese and she's living in Lyon to perfect her French (for work) and is also brushing up on her English skills with me. Another student moved to Lyon 30 years ago from Columbia. His English is near perfect but he doesn't get much of a chance to speak it so I give him conversation lessons. It's a little strange though because all of these students have become my friends and now I feel completely bad about charging them money!

Les couleurs de Lyon

I am a flâneur; always looking around me - at the passerbys, the buildings and anything else that catches my eye. Typically, a flâneur was a French man who gazed at life passing by as he strolled around. He was often depicted in Impressionist paintings and written about by philosophers such as Walter Benjamin.

Wandering through the streets of Lyon, I am always stopping to peer at the small details but also standing back and just looking. And everywhere I look, candy and pastel colours paint the walls around me. There seems to be an actual colour code - pinks, oranges, and hues of purple and blue! Each time graffiti is painted over, it's covered with a slightly different colour to the base coat, creating a different patchwork on each wall. Whoever chooses these slabs of colour is doing a fantastic job!

It feels at times, like I'm living in an icing coated cake city.

The Yogurt Aisles

Each trip to the supermarket brings me so much joy, much more so than in New Zealand. The aisles are stacked with french delights and even the frozen section is quite exciting. But as I wander through the cheese and meat aisles I know that I'm getting closer to the true reason that has brought me here... The yoghurt aisle! A whole aisle dedicated to yoghurt, and sometimes there are even two! My heart leaps and wobbles indecisively as I decide on what to take this time round! They are often packaged in glass jars which make the perfect vessel for flowers or paintbrushes. The best kinds are thick, creamy and taste like the fruit has just been picked from the tree. So, I am eating a lot more yoghurt than before. I wish I could take them all back to New Zealand with me when I return. With such a huge dairy industry back home, I wonder why there aren't options of incredible yoghurts like there is in France! What a pity.