Lyon day 2

It was another sleepy morning since we had stayed up so late at night and I got up and showered after Nick and Magali went to work. I had decided as a thank you present I would bake them a banana loaf since I still had left over baking ingredients and our bananas were on their way out anyway. We spent till 2pm getting some washing done and also doing some computer work. Nick and Magali are so lucky they have a place that gets the beautiful afternoon sun. We struggled to drag ourselves off the couch and out of the sun so we could go out and enjoy the day. By 2pm we had looked at screens for long enough and rugged up since despite the sun it was still around 5 degrees outside. Last night when we were fishing for things to today Magali mentioned that they have a large park very close to them with a zoo in it as well. We though this was a good plan and walk down their road, turning left and coming across the entrance to the park. It must be fantastic having a slice of nature so close by especially since majority of apartments have no outdoor area. We were very impressed by the zoo and walked past enclosures for deer, lions, bears, lemurs, giraffes, zebra and quite a few other animals. We couldn’t believe it was free just to walk around in here and it goes against everything in Europe when you have to pay just to walk a hiking track. Some of the enclosures were pretty small and we hoped that they were all rescue animals but we couldn’t read the signs to find out. Once we had seen the animals we walked around the park with the autumn leaves falling off in the wind. When in the sun it was pleasant but as soon as we went into the shade of the trees it was rather unpleasantly cold. By 4pm we decided we should get some stuff sorted for dinner since we still also had to organise all our stuff to head back to the UK tomorrow. We were initially doing tacoes since they are pretty easy and we had majority of the ingredients anyways but both Lew and Nick wanted to order burgers last night at the French restaurant (but didn’t!) so we though perhaps burgers would be better instead.

Lew googles a street that had a butchery and a bakery next to each other and we hoped Tom pick up some patties and burger buns easily. The butchery didn’t have Home made burger patties sitting there and we had to mime what we needed. The young guy didn’t speak much English at all and picked up a big chunk of meat in which we were a bit confused by.  We were about to leave trying to explain it was ok we could try else where but he already put the hunk of meat into a machine and I was sure we would have to pay for whatever came out. Sure enough the machine had minced it up and produced a fresh pattie which was was excellent and just what we needed! We got 7 since we didn’t know how hungry anyone would be and then went next door to the bakery. They didn’t have any burger buns so I kid you not we tried at least another 5 shops in the area. A small vegetable place sold some beautiful looking ones but there was only 5 and we were convinced we could still find them somewhere else. We then tried the supermarket but they had no fresh buns either and the pre-packaged ones looked ok but not as good as fresh ones! I mean France has redicilously good bread no? Surely someone does a bread roll. Lew started to do some google searching since we were wasting a lot of time and he found the bakery name of the 5 buns we found in that small veggie shop. Unfortunately it was on the other side of the river and would take us 30 minutes to walk there and up the hill. We decided we could probably do it in less time and we had hardly done anything all day anyways so set off in that directions. After complaining we were cold most of the day we couldn’t say that after we made it to the bakery and had worked up a sweat. The bakery was called Le Moulin de lea and we saw a heap of burger buns on the corner of the shop and walked in asking the shop girl for 7 of them. She shook her head at us saying “non” and we felt the overwhelming disappointment of our walk being a waste of time. We tried to ask if there was anything else we could use but didn’t get much helpntheir either and began to walk out. I snuck a sample of bread on the way out since we hadn’t had lunch and our few hours of exercise were reminding me of this. Finding the next one on the list that had the word “petit pain” meaning breadroll Lew pointed is in that direction. We decided to try a couple more in the area before trying to go back to the small veggie place or just the supermarket. We walked down the hill in the 1st arrondissement and through some more very cute lanes but didn’t have time to stop at any shops. As we got lower down we recognised a few shops we had been into yesterday and we were pleased that we had done part of the area Nick had recommended we go to. We tried another two bakeries on the way down that had long lines of people trying to get their usual baguette post work but still no bread rolls insight. We got down to one more place next to the river called Boulangerie Saint Vincient that was a small corner shop filled enough baked goods to make your stomach explode. We assessed it from the outside and Lew spotted some sesame buns over the back which would work perfectly. Grabbing 7 of these we begun our 30 minute walk back to the apartment as the sun was setting. We had to stop ourselves a couple of times to remind us to look at where we were as the red hue of the setting sun coloured the buildings and bounced off the rivers. We decided we really really liked Lyon and would have difficulty deciding whether we lived here or our other favourite city Montpellier of we chose to live in France. It has the Paris vibes being a larger city but is a lot more relaxed, friendly and clean. Plus the accessibility to the mountains is such a bonus and pretty high on our priority list.

We got back to the apartment around 5.45pm and instantly got the homemade fried cooking since they usually take the longest to get crispy. We then cut up all the salad ingredients and set the table before beginning to fry the onions. Nick and Magali has said they would be home around 6.30pm so we were aiming to serve dinner shortly after this. We had to leave the apartment at around 7.30-7.45pm to take the metro and a tram to get to the skating rink called Patinoire Charlemagne in the 1st arrondissement. Charlemagne or Charles the Great as he was also known was King of the Franks between 768-814 as well as the emperor of the West between 800-814. He is well known for his encouragement of education. Nick got home a little later than expected but that was good for us since we were able to get in a bit if packing and sorted out what extra stuff we would leave at Erlitas House (my Aunty Janet’s Mum), what we will leave behind with Nick and Magali and also what we will drag around Oxford, Manchester and Northampton with us. At about 7.15pm we sat down for dinner and it was certainly looking tasty, Lew had cooked the patties to perfection but unfortunately there wasn’t an extractor fan so there was a haze of smoke around the room as the patties had acquired a slight charcoaled outside. It all worked out fantastically, the buns were fresh and soft and the patties with a bit of added seasoning were very tender. We left the house at 7.45pm and walked the short distance to the metro. Once again it was pretty nice just being able to follow them around like sheep and not navigate ourselves! We purchased 4 tickets so we could get there and back for €7.20 ($12.40 NZD). The train was rather busy still with people coming home from work but we managed to squeeze on accepting the lack of personal space we would have. Getting off the train at the last stop we had to wait for the trams to leave before we could run across the tracks to the other platform with everyone else. It certainly was a little strange and seemed rather dangerous!  The tram then took us a couple of stops which we could have walked but it was counted on the same metro ticket so there wasn’t much point - plus we had done out fair share of walking today. A further 5 minutes walking post getting off the tram we reached the the rink and had to seperate ourselves into the male and female lines for them to bag and body search us. Seemed a little crazy for just a hockey game but Magali said they started doing this when there was an increased number of tourist attacks. I guess it’s for our own safety really since it’s not like I am going to be carrying anything dangerous in. We rejoined the same line to get in thankfully since Lew was the one with the tickets. When we booked these he has analysed it so much and looked up what side the home team was, where the benches were, were the penalty box is, you name it! So I think we should have some good seats for the best value we could. We walked around the seats and were surprised at how small the rink was  compared to usual European sized rinks. We found our seats and immediately realised why they were so cheap as there was a high metal bar partially blocking the view. Certainly not ideal but it wouldn’t be so bad. We were arriving just in time as they were announcing the line ups...not that we could understand it anyways! It is the top French league called the Ligue Magnus so the quality should be pretty good! Shortly afterwards the away team from Angers close to the Loire Valley took the ice in their red white and blue uniform. Next the home team the Lyon Lions came on with a loud applause from the crowd and red and blue flashing lights- that’s also the colours of their team. During their quick wee skate around to warm up we could already see the level of hockey was far more advanced than anything we have at home. The puck dropped at 8.30pm and knowing nothing of the teams and their current standings it was hard to tel who had the upper hand. We immediately spotted a player in the Lyon Lions who stood out to us called Julian Corriea #77 who was a very quick winger with good hands. They all were amazing skaters and would leave everyone in the national league at home in the dust. It was interesting to look at the countries that made up the teams and we were pretty sure that the coach of the away team sounded American and was speaking English on the bench. There were players from Russia, Canada, America, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Belarus and that was just out of the Lyon Lions. I was impressed that it’s a pro league and was interested in how much they make and whether they also have other jobs on the side. I was slightly disappointed that the rink wasn't like the usual American ones that are heated because we had spent the day being super cold (except when we fast walked for some burger buns!). Thankfully I was head to toe in merinos and Lew was all snuggled in as well. I was just missing the usual bright pink blanket and hot water bottle and it would be just like watching a game at home.

We were impressed by how well the refs had a handle on the game as he handed our multiple misconducts for what looked as though it may have been just a smirk when one guy got a penatly! There certainly wasn’t any loud swearing or stick throwing temper tantrums which I have seen before at home in which it is rather obvious to throw the player out of the game. The game was also very clean with no fighting or any silly business. It was a relatively close match that ended on the Lions being up by one point and the other team pulling their goalie to try and get the point back. It really back fired though as the Lions just scored on an open net and throughly stole the game away from the Ducs d’Angers. I guess we should be pleased that Lyon won after all it was the home team!  After the game the band came out onto the ice and played a wee jig before they announced the players of the game. We had begun to leave at this point but turned around as the familiar sound of the haka echoed around the rink, the marching band was facing the Lyon team and doing the haka for them. All three of us Kiwis were rather stunned and it took us a bit too long to get our phones out to video this! Nick said it was probably because the French love the All Blacks so much and seeing as the test match was this week they probably thought it would be cool. We didn’t really like it and the marching band attire and French pronunciation of Maori wasn’t really doing it justice. Leaving the rink it was already 11pm and Nick and Magalis initial plans of heading it for a drink were squashed by our early train in the morning. We lined up again at the tram station with everyone else and begun the journey back to the apartment. From there we managed to stay up talking, drinking tea and borrowing the shower in their ensuite until 1am. We realised we would have to set the alarm for 7am and that we would leave the house to get to the train station at 8am for our 9am train. We all said our good nights and they both promised us they would wake up just for a hug in the morning.