Happy Easter everybody! My website have been offline for a while, due to spam/hackers. I’m doing by best to make sure everything works again! Unfortunately a few of the pictures are lost right now, but I’ll try to get everything back to the way it was.
Monday
I prepared wholewheat pasta with a artichoke sauce for lunch, then I worked from 15:30 until 23 o’clock. I worked on an information brochure for the new seasonal workers, so that they know how to prepare for their couple of months in Lyon. After work I felt like watching an uncomplicated movie, so I saw Step Up Miami Heat.
Tuesday
I met with a colleague in the supermarket close to work, to have lunch together. I went for a sandwich with mozzarella and rucola. Then I worked, it was a good day. We got gift vouchers from the company, because of the good work we did last year. Yay! I was planning on buying another pair of shoes, so I was very happy with the vouchers.
Wednesday
Just work. I came home very tired, I don’t know exactly why, so I went to bed immediately after work.
Thursday
I knew that I wanted a new pair of sneakers, but I wasn’t a 100% sure. Before work I went to the shopping center Part Dieu to check a couple of stores. I didn’t bring my vouchers, so I was just looking for shoes. I bought a vegetable Subway sandwich and tried to find an easy meal for dinner in the supermarket, which apparently wasn’t easy. I ended up with a microwavable potatoe, with goat cheese and tomato sauce. After the shopping session I went straight to work. I ended the evening with Pretty Little Liars. I found out that the last episode of season 5 was on Netflix, so I had to watch it. So exciting! Do you watch PLL? I love it, it stays interesting.
Friday
After 6 evening shifts I switched to one day shift. With a reason! The first group of seasonal workers arrived on Monday. In order to get to know them better, my colleague and I organized a friday afternoon drink. Of course, I had to be present too. At 5 we got released to start celebrating the weekend. Until we got stuck in the traffic jam. Argh, those French and their cars! Traffic is horribly terrible at peak hours. Yay for the park and ride though. I decided to drop my car in one of the parkings at the border of the city and we continued by metro. A lot better!
A few colleagues were already waiting for us at ‘The Beers’ in Vieux Lyon and they reserved enough places for the whole group. To go for the real apéro experience we ordered a planche with Chimay cheese, sundried tomato tapenade, bread, pickles, olives and sausage. We had to give the sausage to other people, because most of our group don’t eat (pork) meat, but the rest was delicious! It went down pretty well with my favourite beer, a Kasteel Rouge.
After a while the others also got hungry and decided to go for another visit at Bintje & Zoet. Again, we Dutchies are VERY happy that we can get ‘frikandellen’ and ‘kroketten’ around the corner now. I couldn’t resist neither, so I took a sandwich with cheese croquettes ;-). After 7 days of week and no dinner before drinking, the Kasteel got me pretty hard, so I had to satisfy my tummy with nice food.
For our last drink(s) we went to the pub, which became our regular hang out.
My colleague came by for lunch, I had English muffins with avocado and salad. Delicious!
Then I went to the city to finally buy the shoes. James, my Irish friend was joining me in my shopping spree. He actually ended up buying his own pair of Nike Roshe Run’s and he loved them! For me it was harder to find the pair I wanted in the right size, my size 37.5 is probably a very popular size. Getting a bit desperate, I almost bought myself a pair of 36.5 which also fitted, but I didn’t feel the great comfort I should feel. Good thing we took a break. Anne, someone I’ve known online was in Lyon and we met for a coffee at Starbucks. Lovely to meet her!
After Starbucks we gave it the last chance. We went to Part Dieu and ran into the first store. When the shop assistant came back with a box of shoes I looked at him with my eyes wide open. I didn’t believe they had the right size, but they had it! They also accepted the gift vouchers, so when we left the store we were both a happy camper. To celebrate we bought a muffin and a brownie – okay, more because I was hungry and felt faintly. With the satisfied shoe – and chocolate craving we went to the pub. Right on time, it started to rain pretty hard; which made it even more cosy inside.
We went for a very late dinner at 22h30 in a pizzeria – they weren’t very delighted that we came that late, but they still baked us a nice pizza. They didn’t want to ask us if we wanted a dessert, but we already had the pastries in the afternoon, so it was perfectly fine.
Sunday
I woke up to a phone call of my aunt to wish me a happy Easter. Then I decided to call my mother and when I told her to say ‘hi’ to my grandmother, I realized that I could also do it myself. So I spent the morning calling my family.
At 11:30 James picked me up to go to Pérouges, a beautiful medieval town. The weather was good, blue sky and sunny, but still windy and a little cold. We started with a lunch at ‘Auberge du Coq’. James stalked the restaurant with e-mails to make sure that they could get me a proper vegetarian meal, instead of an omelette. It worked; I could even take a menu from the card. The starter was a salad with St. Marcellin cheese and walnuts, served with bread and a vinaigre. We took a Cédron with it, a local bubbly rosé wine, which tasted very good.
As a main course we both took a Quenelle. It’s a typical dish from Lyon, a ‘sausage’ made of eggs and flour. Mine got made with a creamy mushroom sauce, James’ got his with chicken. It was very good! They served it with rice and a gratin Dauphinois – I didn’t take too much of that, because it’s so heavy on the stomach. The menu gave multiple options for the dessert, we both went for the cheese platter. All of it went down very well with a carafe of Côtes du Rhône.
The atmosphere in the restaurant was very good, it felt cozy as if we were at home and the food was really good. Good choice!
After the food we walked through the town. It is amazingly beautiful. All the streets and houses are made of medieval stones, which makes it a special experience. The few cars we saw, seemed completely ill-placed. Of course there was a wine cellar – there just had to be – where we made a short stop. James bought a few bottles of the delicious Cédron and he decided to get local red wine.
Another specialty of Pérouges is the ‘Galette de Pérouges’. It’s a pie topped with either sugar or praline. The pie is round, very big and has a thin crust. It looks like a pizza and it is as delicious as pizza!
During our conversations we decided to visit my aunt in Grenoble after Pérouges, so we bought a whole galette to bring to them.
It was an impulsive surprise visit, but Grenoble was at an hour drive and it’s good to spend time with family on a holiday! We had a good night and we stayed with them until after dinner. They also invited old friends of the family. Unfortunately I had to work the day after, so we couldn’t stay too long. But the apéro, dinner and the galette were very good!
