Happy New Year! Bonne Annee!

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Hello!

We awoke to a rainy and gray Thursday morning.  Not terribly cold, but certainly wet!  This time, I went to Chez Jules for croissant and pain au chocolat.  Clothilde left oranges and other fresh fruits, and as we were out of O.J. R used the juicer in the apartment, which worked very well.  (Which was good, as the boulangerie had only Orangina (like pop!) And yogurt-based drinks, none of which we wanted.) 

After breakfast, we made up a grocery list of things that we wanted to get today, as tomorrow most everything will be closed.  We’ve decided to do a repeat of the roast chicken tonight that was SO good, and potatoes and green beans.  (We’re not too worried about finding a restaurant for dinner tomorrow, though, if Christmas Day is to be followed.)  Especially as here, in Vieux Lyon, a lot of people seem to be visiting. 

(Oh!  I remember writing earlier that our flat was right above a glacerie which seemed to be doing a fair amount of business.  When we went out to dinner last night, there were people inside eating ice cream.  When we got back, the place was entirely deserted – and stripped of all tables, chairs, light fixtures, etc. – we were amazed!  Today, we saw some life, but when we got back from grocery shopping, the windows were all painted over!!  So – the shop has a sign that says they have been in business since 1929!  Hope it wasn’t something we did!  Very sad!)

First, we headed to the street market on the far side of the Saone. It was almost 9 a.m. (and supposedly they were open since 7 a.m.) but the chickens weren’t done yet. 

On the way to the market!

So, we bought more green beans and dried tomatoes, and then headed to our closest Casino market for a few other things.  Then back to the flat, to put everything away.  As it was raining now, and there was no sense in both of us getting wet, I went back to pick up “our” roast chicken.  Boy, does one chicken make the entire apartment smell SO good! 

Shopping mall at train station

Interesting decorations!

Lights and people everywhere!

Having gathered most of our supplies, we decided to head down to the big mall at Part-Dieu Train station that we had seen from the T1 tram.   Very interesting place!  Not exactly as spacious as many American malls, but full of people and lots of holiday decorations.  Not being big shoppers, we did a fair amount of looking around (Oh! Right now, R is managing the boiled potatoes and green beans for dinner tonight, and he is making the same kind of anti-electric-stove comments that I favored the blog with a few nights ago!) and realized that it was just about lunch time.

R suggested pizza, so we made our way to Pizza Del Arte, which turned out to be a lovely restaurant with working pizza oven that was all fired up and ready to go! 

Pizza Del Arte

R's pizza -- note the egg in center!

My plain pizza -- no egg!

I had a pizza margarita (plain cheese pizza) and R had the pizza Sicilian, which came with artichokes, pepperoni as well as an egg broken in the middle!  [Sorry, but Sicilians don’t put eggs on pizza! – R] Just exactly what we both needed on a very cold and wet kind of day.

There was one more store that I wanted to visit, called Fiducial.  I had seen it from the T1 tram, and it looked like a very interesting paper and supplies store.  So, we got on the tram heading to Perrache train station, and found the store with no problem.  I do have to admit that I did pick up a few “fun” things as well!

Then, back to the flat for a rest, before I realized that stores were closing early, and I wanted something bubbly to celebrate New Year’s Eve!  So, back across the bridge to our local Casino (weren’t we just here?) for a bottle of French champagne.  I have no idea how good it is, but we’ll see fairly soon! 

By this time, it was time for some ironing and reading, as well as a few more hours on the computer for the Desert Museum.  I’m now only 12 hours short of 1,000 hours and my silver kangaroo rat pin!  So, I will wish everyone a Happy New Year’s, and close for the year!

Much love,

m

xxx

PS – Robert was looking up the place where we ended up yesterday, heading down into a gorge, and I thought I’d include the description of the road: “Roads in the area are very poorly maintained and are only wide enough for one vehicle. In order to pass the landform, a dangerous, but exhilarating, road which weaves down into the valley and clings to the sheer cliff face on the way back up must be braved. This journey is one of the draws for tourism in the area.”