C’est ouf!

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‘Salut, ça va? Oui, et toi?’

This is how my day starts here in France. If you pass by people in the little village or in nature, then it’s best you say ‘bonjour’ or ‘bonsoir’. Some other things that are used a lot are to wish somebody a good day or evening: ‘bonne journée’ or ‘bonne soirée’. Okay I could go on about the French language but that’s not the subject of this blog. I wanted to talk about what I did in the weekends because we already did so much!

France est ouf! C’est tellement ouf!

A sentence I hear daily is ‘c’est ouf’. They say it not once or twice a day, they say it so much that I lost count. It means: ‘it’s amazing, it’s crazy’ and they use it for a lot of things. We already had the best time here, let me take you on our adventures.

Recap: We arrived the 24^th of February and already did a lot before the 1^st of March, read about that in my blog ‘Arrivée en France’. I started my internship the 1^st of March and I wrote a blog about my first week at my internship called ‘La vie est belle chez Kosmoss’.

Exploring Lyon & cascades

Gosh, we love Lyon! It’s such an amazing city. So, on Saturday (6^th of March) we went to Lyon. Through the week people from work were eating at a burger chain called Ninkasi. We decided to order Ninkasi (with French beer). Food, sitting next to the river and a view over Lyon. What else do you need?

Okay, now we are fueled to discover some beautiful places in Lyon.

First Le passage de l’Argue, a covered little shopping arcade, right in the city center and is built on the place of the old metal wireworks. It was built between 1825 and 1856, so that’s pretty old.

After walking around the shopping streets, the cosy ‘closed’ bars (that aren’t really closed, you can order outside) and the beautiful old buildings, we decided to go up the hill, to the old city.

‘Basilique Notre Dame De Fourvière’ is up the hill with a stunning view over the city. Besides that, the basilic is breathtaking and you really should go inside. Another thing that’s in the old city is the old theater of Lugdunum.

Today we also bought some French food like: Pralines rose de Lyon, Chouquettes sucrees, bugnes, canelé and of course some baguette.

Some other things we passed: Statue The Weight of Oneself, court of Appeal of Lyon, Cathedral of Lyon and a lot of boulangeries (bakeries).

On Sunday we drove to National Nature Reserve of the Hauts de Chartreuse. We would normally do a big hike to ‘Pré Orcel’ but after hiking for a little while we saw that it’s not possible because we don’t have the equipment. There was too much snow to do with just hike shoes (the hike would take too long).

So, we drove to another hike.

It was a beautiful hike of three hours with a lot of waterfalls. The waterfalls started small but became bigger and bigger and in the end we went behind one.

IT WAS INCREDIBLE!

Snow fun with the French

Okay the second weekend was really over the top! I can not explain how crazy that weekend was!

C’est tellement ouf!

So, my husband is also doing his internship in Lyon. For his internship he went to Tignes for a few days, from Wednesday until Friday. His boss told him that the chalet was rented until Sunday so if people wanted to invite friends or family for the weekend they could.

All the other colleagues went home, and my husband stayed so, Friday evening I drove to Tignes. From Lyon it’s a 2.5 hours drive, I went up in the mountain to the snow. The CEO also stayed until Sunday with some friends and family.

First of all, the chalet was gigantic, there were 14 rooms, a jacuzzi, sauna, etc. need I say more? It was enormous. Anyway, when I arrived the CEO told us we could sit with her and her friends and that we could drink and eat whatever we wanted.

They were so sweet and there was so much food and drinks. I have never seen so much Champagne in my whole life!The French people were so friendly, and everybody spoke some English, it was amazing. We drank Champagne and another French drink called ‘Get 27’, we sung, danced, laughed and ate some baguette.

We already learned so much about France, like the food they were eating Tartiflette, platter with cheese and charcuterie, pastries, chocolate bread, etc. They were singing French songs that are known in France like ‘Si, j’étais président’, ‘Casanova’, etc.

The next day, Saturday, I couldn’t believe it, but we could go doing Snooc with them.

Our life motto: Say yes to new adventures!

Snooc is awesome. You walk with skis on, to the top of the mountain (it’s really intense and it takes some time). When you get to the top, you transform your skis into one ski with a seat. Then, off the mountain you go… We fell a lot and it’s really intense, so if you ever do it, be prepared.

Tips I can give you if you want to do it:

• Wear ski gear in layers (going up is hot but going down is cold)
• Decent shoes (hike or snow but waterproof)
• Sunglasses and sunscreen
• Water and snacks

After this we relaxed, drank some Champagne and French beer called 1664. We also played Time’s Up in French, believe me it’s not that easy when you don’t understand what they are saying. I had to explain ‘Buzz l’éclair’ which I thought was something like the pastry éclair, but it definitely isn’t. ‘Buzz l’éclair’ is ‘Buzz Lightyear’, come on that’s obvious right?

We also played some other games but then something ouf happened. Snow started falling fast so almost everybody went outside and we did a snowball fight and took the sled to sled down the street.

WOW, what a weekend! The Sunday we walked around near Tignes in the snow and then back to Lyon!      

France with the French

It’s weekend again, that means another experience here in France.

A colleague of mine told me that I could come over on Saturday with my husband. So, we went to her apartment in Lyon. We had a lovely time with her and her boyfriend and some friends of her. We ate some delicious Péruvian Take-Away. The place is called ‘Krioya’ and if you’re in Lyon you should definitely try it! Anyway, it was a fun day and such wonderful people, we hope we can meet with them again.

Another colleague invited us for lunch on Sunday in Saint-Étienne (it’s the city where I do my internship). She cooked vegan for us, and it was so delicious. It was kind that she cooked without meat or fish for us! We had an amazing time with her and her boyfriend. We talked a lot about all kinds of stuff and suddenly we came to the subject of hiking, exploring. They told us about a beautiful place near Saint-Étienne so, we went for a walk.

To be honest I didn’t know there was so much beauty near this city. So, to summarize our day, we loved it and can’t wait to see them again.

Okay this was it for this blog. Now you’re up to date with ‘my life in France’. Bye, see you at my next blog.