नमस्ते साथी
 

To my Nepalese friends, Pasang Ong Chu, Pasang Dorjee, Gunes, Shiva, Prahlad... and to all our companions who reminded me that life is sharing, giving, helping without any restraint...

 

Today, a wednesday in november

The morning was so clear over Lyon, the city where I live. The air was just still, warm despite the low temperature, and I felt this soft and quiet atmosphere was perfect to start to share my world with you...
It was close to 8 in the morning and, on my way to work, I was going to take the underground train -le métro- when I decided to walk instead. La Croix-Rousse where I live is built on the flat top of a hill -and old glacier moraine- so I had to go downtown by La Grande Côte, a succession of stairs, pedestrian passages and small street crossings...
On my way, I stopped for quite a time to bathe into the beauty of the skyline... This is Lyon, on an early autumnal dress...


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Today, a thursday in november

The day was long and I came back quite late... People were rushing home and I was tempted to do so, but I realized I had no photo to post... so I remember my Nepalese friends' advice and went bistari, bistari thru the "rue piétonne" (pedestrian street) just on the corner from home ...
On my way I tried to capture for you the mixed feeling of the hour, when tired people are returning home.

Four of our favorite spots are located in this street: two stores, the bakery and then the butcher shop, and two bars, one of which is also a restaurant, the other one being our favorite for coffee. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow.

At lunch time, at work, I played the video that Nicole shot during our expedition to the Mera Peak, a 53 minutes film. Initially only a few people were supposed to attend but in fact half of the staff showed up: almost 25 people !!! I will probably play it again next week as a lot of those who couldn't come asked for it.

I really enjoyed these moments for it was a sweet occasion to share the pure delight of the experience and also to be with you all once again.


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Today, a saturday in november

Yesterday morning, as promised the day before, I stopped on my way to work to take pictures of the places we often go in the rue (street) Victor Fort (who was a French congressman living by the the beginning of the 20th century). Then, in the evening,  on my way back, I felt fascinated by the contrast between daylight and the strange combination of the artificial light fighting the darkness away...

"La Brasserie de la Croix-Rousse"is a very typical bar which at lunch and dinner time serves food to mostly regulars.
We like to go there often for it is an easy way to have  dinner at the end of a busy day when you don't feel like fixing a meal!
The owner, who has his favorites, likes us all, Christine, Camille and I.
This is the bakery where we buy most of the bread we're eating. Mainly, three different kind : 'La couronne' when it's overcooked (almost black crust) a bread in the shape of a crown; "la Baguette"a long and rather thin regular french bread (crunchy crust and white inside) or "La Viennoise" (Camille's favourite) a butter based bread.






 
In the morning, the delivery trucks are all over the place, Here you can see the butchers controlling the meat (full halves of beef) before accepting the load.
This is our place for a cup of espresso coffee when we feel like being lazy...
The owner was a basketball player and named his bar after a rule of the game where if you commit five fouls in the same game you get send off.
To forget about it all you go immediately to the closest bar to commit your "sixth foul".


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Today, a sunday in november

 This afternoon I went to my mother-in-law's little country house to check the work which had been done on the roof while I was away in Nepal. The weather was just fine, very warm for the season with a soft honey colored light dripping over the whole landscape.
Last year, at the same time, it was freezing and snowing...

 Here you can see the last crop of the season from my small kitchen garden:.
From left to right :
- red beets. You can eat them raw and grated like carrots or cooked in salad -it's a funny vegetable which tints everything it gets in contact with of a deep persistent red (even your own urine !!!)
- colocynth (or gourd), decorative marrows we arrange in large plates in the living room and which last months without any deterioration
- quinces, related to the apple family, but with a tougher flesh and a strong but sweet smell. We cook them to make preserves or stewed fruits. To me they are like the smell of the past...

 

 My mother-in law's house is located in the Charolais, an area which is about an hour and a half drive from Lyon heading north. It is famous for its cattle and the very
tasty and tender meat you get from it. Here's a one-year old heifer


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Today, a wednesday in november

Yesterday and today were hard working days and the place I spent most of the last 48 hours is my office.

This is my desk, from where I monitor almost all the activity of our company network. I work on two computers and the bulk of my occupation is to maintain the ERP -Enterprise Resource Planning- software which is the backbone of all economic operations. This is a big responsibility for if this software stop more than a few hours, it would be increasingly difficult for our business to sustain its activity.
To help me with it, I have the little pink thing on the top of the black monitor: my old friend the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

 

This is what I see from my desk
On the wall is the map of the Mera Peak trek, a print of the photo which Nicole took on the summit on which Philippe and I are the happiest people in the world, the postcard of the high camp that I sent from Namche Bazar to my colleagues and a picture of Sagamartha altogether with a map of the eastern map of Nepal
The other desk that you see on the right is more a working space to dismantle and repair computers, monitors, printers and the like.
The pink, green and orange folders contain all the specifics of the three main problems which kept me busy recently : a mistake of one of our employee which affected the cost price of several articles, the bugs contains in the new version of the accounting software which have serious consequences on the way we import sales data in the accounting data, and finally the replacement of a server dedicated to the analysis of our economic statistics.
It's a very demanding job which keeps you dynamic if you want to keep it with it!!!

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Today, a saturday in december

Here we are in the TGV (Train à grande vitesse = High Speed Train) going to Paris to see a play et the Theatre du Rond Point.
The people in line are waiting to get sandwiches or a drink.
I was there for two cups of coffee as Christine and I were getting
lulled to sleep by the gentle swaying of the ride.
It doesn't show, but we are rocketing through the landscape at a speed of more than 200 miles per hour (350 kilometers per hour) as it takes now less than 2 hours to go from Lyon to Paris (450 kilometers).
We stayed two days in Paris. It rained several times but the weather was really warm and we did a lot of walking and a lot of shopping.
Paris is a nice town for a visit, but we were glad not to stay long, and really enjoyed going back home to Lyon

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Today, a wednesday in december

Today, I took the métro home directly from my work (usually I take a bus then the metro) The name of the metro station is "Stade de Gerland" as it is located very close to the soccer stadium where the OL (Olympique Lyonnais) is playing its home games.
Our team has won the French championship for the last five years (which is unique in the history of French soccer) and is bound to win it again this year...
but its real ambition is to win the European Championship!
As a matter of fact, tonight OL is meeting a team from Bucarest to get into the round before the quarter finals.
The building you see here houses the main office, the ticket booths and a merchandising store.