Bits and Bobs

Well, we are getting there.

With less than 2 weeks to go before we leave France the seemingly never ending checklist of things to do and organise is slowly, slowly getting whittled down.

I wont go in to the number of phone calls we've had to make or the number of trips we've made to La Poste to send official Lettre Recommandées  but suffice to say I think it's easier to sign up for things in France than get out. M has been amazing, handling the lion's share of awkward french phone calls and writing up official letters to send to every single agency and department but it does feel like we're getting close.

We had an extremely productive day yesterday and our apartment is almost completely sorted and packed. I actually finding cleaning and sorting quite cathartic and I've been rather ruthless with throwing things away. I think it also helps that our apartment is fairly tiny so we haven't actually accrued that much junk - if you don't include almost an entire drawer full of random postcards and small prints I've been squirreling away for 3 years - I'm determined to make some cool (and relatively inexpensive!) art out of all these groovy cards.

We're also at that stage where it's all the fiddly little bits that don't really belong anywhere - random pens and stationery, half used hand creams, small torches, about a billion bobby pins, wrapping paper.

I also keep finding small toiletries bags that have virtually identical contents: a half empty pack of tissues, 2 hair ties, a hair clip, a nearly empty lip gloss, about 84 cents in change, a card from a restaurant somewhere, a pen and a few mints/tablets of paracetamol rolling around. I've found 5 so far. hehe.

Packing up our clothes has been less fun.

We will be living out of the one suitcase from now (well ... Wednesday) until our shipping crate arrives in Melbourne hopefully by late February. That's 3 months. I have enough trouble deciding what to pack when I go away for 3 days.

It's also complicated by a few factors:
1. It's  autumn/winter here and thick coats and scarves are necessary
2. It will be summer when we get back to Australia
3. My rapidly expanding baby belly

I spent a fair bit of time yesterday layering and then un-layering my clothes and sticking a throw pillow under my tops to see if they'll make it through to February or not!

M has already packed his suitcase. Almost his entire wardrobe fits. Minus his 300 running T-shirts. Bastard.

I have got all my clothes together but haven't tried to pack yet.
It's going to hurt my feelings.


Baby Raj is going well - very active in the evenings with lots of movements and kicks and I'm feeling good.

Last night M and I were singing together  (a little bit of Lionel Ritchie, then some Mumford & Sons followed up by some Christmas Carols ) and M had his head on my belly and Raj was having a Disco in there - huge movements and kicks.

So either Raj likes it when Mum and Dad have little sing-a-longs (we harmonise and everything, old school Choir geeks that we are) OR the kicks are Raj's way of telling us to shut the F up!!!

We choose to believe the former.



Alright - I'm off to clean the kitchen shelves. Blah.

To help get through the cleaning I keep reminding myself that this time in 2 weeks I will be sitting at a cafe in Melbourne in the sunshine with friends eating bacon and eggs.

Bacon makes everything ok.


B
xxx

Food glorious food

As I mentioned (briefly) in my previous post, M and I have made the rather large decision to leave France's fair shores and head back to Australia.

A number of factors went into making this decision, not the least of which was wanting Raj to be closer to his/her family.

We will have had three (mostly) glorious years in France and although we are excited to be heading back down under and are looking forward to the new adventures that Melbourne will hold for us, it is with a lot of sadness that we will say Au Revoir to Cannes and the lovely life we have here.

Naturally everyone asks us what we are most looking forward to about Australia and also what we will miss the most from France. Outside of friends and family (and the friends part applies for both sides!) and the ease of travel the answer, unsurprisingly, is food.

While M waxes lyrical about all the Australian Meat Pies, Barbeques, Kabana, Cream buns, Thai food and Double Cut Rolls he's going to enjoy, I'm salivating over Dumplings, Allens lollies, Twisties, Scones with Jam and Cream, Indian food, Fish and Chips on the beach and Summer Fruits.

However, there is a lot about French food we will miss too!
Having some of the best baguettes I've ever eaten available 500m down the road will be pretty hard to beat.

And of course .......... the cheese......... the less said about how much I will miss the cheese, the better.

One of my favourite things about France - particularly this region, is the markets. And it's one of the things I will definitely miss about living here.

 Don't get me wrong, Australia rocks a market too - and I intend on spending a lot of time (and money) at the South Melbourne and Queen Vic markets. However, there is something about a Marché Provençal that's uniquely French and kind of wonderful. The produce is exceptional and the lively atmosphere, local colour, fragrant (and not so fragrant - fish stalls - ew) aromas that all combine together in a formula that has probably stayed much the same for decades.

I will miss our local market and I will relish the memory (and tastes!) of all the various markets we have either stumbled across in our travels or made a point of visiting.

When we were in Lyon we chanced upon a Sunday market along the banks of the Rhône river.
We snapped a few photos, already nostalgic about our time in France.

 M was having heart palpitations over this bad boy

 Whereas I was stuck over with the apples. 

I LOVE apples but am so fussy. 

It doesn't have to be sweet but it DOES have to be crunchy. 

These apples were the bomb-diggity

 Hello lovers ...... 

 Is there such a thing as too much cheese?

Survey says No. 

Meaty goodness for M

To continue our French culinary education (beyond just watching Masterchef!) we have purchased/been given by our gorgeous French teacher three Le Larousse Cookbooks - one that is like THE bible on French food and cooking (similar to Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion I find) and then two smaller cookbooks - one that is chock-a-block full of all our favourites such as Pot-au-feu, Daube de joue de boeuf, Tomates farcies and M's bestie Choucroute. The other is all Pâtisserie. There are like 25 pages of chocolate recipes, it's awesome. And it's all in French which should keep us on our toes!

In fact, at this very moment, M is putting the finishing touches on a Tarte Tatin which is tonight's dessert. 

I tells you - this boy is worth his weight in Gold. 

Bon Appétit (and Raj says hi!)

B

xxx

Lovely Lyon

Last weekend we enjoyed a wonderful 3-day break in Lyon.

It will probably be our last trip before we head back to Australia in December so we wanted to go somewhere we haven't been and I'm so glad we picked Lyon.

We caught the train and arrived on a slightly overcast but dry Saturday afternoon and after walking to our hotel it was off to explore all that Lyon has to offer.

First stop - FOOD
Lyon is well known as a gastronomic paradise and there were so many lovely chocolate shops, patisseries, restaurants, bouchons, markets etc to explore. One of our first pit stops was Pignol for a warming and reviving hot chocolate and a truly excellent lemon tart.

We had some great meals during our time in Lyon but I was sadly incapacitated when it came to tasting much of the Lyonaisse fare as cured meats, quenelles, soft cheeses, tripes, blood sausages and rare meats are no good for pregnant ladies. (I wasn't too devastated that I couldn't eat the blood sausage!) You'll be pleased to know that M gamely took on the challenge for both of us and put away a whole lot of meaty goodness every meal. To be fair I think he did have a salad for lunch one day ........

There are lots of lovely and interesting things to see and do in Lyon, photos below are just a snapshot of some of the things we did:

The Fourvière basilica 

The view from the Fourvière hill looking over the city

The Roman theatre in Fourvière, the most important remain of the Roman city of Lugdunum.

Check out the beautiful autumnal colours (you know how I get about autumnal colours!!)

SQUIRREL!!! 

(Probably only funny if you have seen the film Up!)

Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon)

The Musée des Beaux Arts

and the view from one of the windows out on to the square

Lots of walks along the Rhône (to the East) and the Saône (to the West)

A visit to the dining "institution" Brasserie Georges, which is the oldest in Lyon (established in 1836) and one of the biggest in Europe! It seats about 800 people - and it was absolutely packed when we were there on a Monday night. The service was still pretty good though and the people watching was excellent. 

M very much enjoyed his enormous plate of Choucroute - the boy seriously goes gaga for pork knuckle! The plate was so large it came with it's own warmer and took up half the table! It was also originally a brewery and they continue to brew their own beer - which M assured me was very good.

Picturesque scenes at night time:

Finally - I have earned a new nickname from M:

Happy Feet


He kept calling me Happy Feet and I couldn't work out why, and then it hit me:

My darling husband thinks I have started to waddle like a penguin.
Charming.


Raj is definitely starting to pop out more, which is cool and I certainly found I had to have a few more sit down breaks when stomping our way around the city. M also felt Raj moving/kicking from the outside for the first time the other day which was pretty special.

If you get a chance to visit Lyon, I would highly recommend it!

B
xxx