Monday
I worked and after work I went to Villefranche-sur-Saône. Years ago I worked for a transport company and one of my colleagues there became an international truck driver. He was on the road and would spend the night at a parking in Villefranche. Great opportunity to meet! I went to the Centre Routier and we both arrived at the same moment. Because in France dinner is pretty late, we had to enjoy the apéro at the bar for a few hours. We haven’t seen each other in a year, so we had a lot to catch up on.
After 8 we were allowed in the diner. I told the staff that I might be a difficult eater, because I don’t eat meat. No problem, they said. They made me a cheese omelette.
For starter there was a buffet. I think I accidentally took a bit of a dish with fish, so I didn’t finish my whole plate. The omelette was okay and got served with ‘pommes boulangères’. Potatoes baked in the oven with white wine. When they served it, they remembered it contained lardons, but I still took it. I just gave the lardons to Vincent.
We got a whole bottle of wine and a bottle of sparkling water, included in the price of 13 euros!
After the main course, we got a cheese platter. A big plate of cheese, lots of cheeses. Yum! I was pretty satisfied after this. They were serving a big variety of desserts, but I didn’t have any more space left. It was great to see him again and so weird to just have dinner for a few hours with someone from ‘home’.
Tuesday
Another day at work from 9 to 5. Afterwards I did my groceries.
Wednesday
It was so early today! I had to start work at 7 am. Those shifts are always really hard on me, so after work I took a small beauty nap. We had plans after, so I couldn’t really get to sleep. I met with two colleagues for a drink in the pub, which was the gathering point for the night. A bunch of other colleagues – and my housemate – also came. There is this new place in Vieux Lyon – Bintje&Zoet – which just had opened up. Two Flemish guys who opened a snackbar with authentic Belgium fries and snacks. Why we were so happy about it? Because they also serve a Dutch snack! A lot of my colleagues are excited to be able to eat a ‘frikandel’ in the city. Because the snack is made of meat, I prepared myself on a dinner of fries and a waffle. Surprise: they also have cheese croquettes! Another vegetarian girl and me were over the moon and we both ordered these. It was delicious.
It was raining and there weren’t any places to sit in the snackbar, but we sat down on the street outside. In the rain. We didn’t care, because we were enjoying our food so much!
Completely satisfied me, two colleagues and my housemate went for one last drink and then I had to go home. I was so tired after the early wake up.
Thursday
I woke up at 7, on a day off. Damn! Couldn’t get to sleep again, unfortunately. I had to take my housemate Marloes into the Beaujolais. Not for wine tasting sessions this time, but for the garage. Her car is broken, so our technical colleague wanted to help her to look for a new engine. It was a success, we found one so her car can be fixed again!
The colleague left, but Marloes and I were hungry and craving pizza. There is a pizzeria in town and someone told us their pizza is ‘supèr’ (French accent). We were excited and went looking for the restaurant. The entrance was a bit weird, local workmen hanging at the bar, having their apéro. We sat down and asked for the pizza menu. Nope. At lunch they only serve the menu of the day. Damn! We didn’t want to leave, but weren’t too happy on having their menu of the day neither. I had to to it with a salad with tomato and green beans, a main course of green beans, endives and a bit of pasta and dessert was a lemon pie. The last one was the best of all.
We went back home to have another beauty nap, afterwards we went to the pub in Lyon and again we ate cheese croquettes and frikandel, yeah.
Friday
I slept late, did groceries, made a light lunch. Just two eggs. My colleague Ronald came to my house and together we went to Lyon. He had to arrange some stuff, afterwards we went to Place des Terreaux. The weather was beautiful again and the sun was shining; so we enjoyed the sunshine!
Then we had a nice walk to Guillotière, to have food at Ninkasi. Not the best restaurant there is, but at 5 pm there aren’t many possibilities to have food in Lyon. I took a vegetarian burger and he took a normal burger. They were good, but the service sucked so we went on. Suddenly the temperature had dropped like a 5 degrees and the wind was blowing hard. We walked to Vieux Lyon and went to the pub where we took a few drinks. We met two German boys who are cycling all the way from Freiburg to the French coast, they shared some interesting stories.
Saturday
I did groceries for lunch, I wanted to have a sandwich at work. But I forgot to buy the bread, which makes it pretty hard to eat a sandwich. A new colleague arrived in Lyon and he couldn’t enter the building he was staying in, so I went there to help him out. But miracle; they were sending a technician. I bought bread and got back to work. After work I watched a movie.
Sunday
Switch to summer time! I woke up early, so I didn’t feel much of the pain of the change of one hour. I had to start work at 13:30, which probably also helped. I baked a yummy quiche in the morning, which spinach and ricotta and went to work.
