Another Saffa in Lyon

I wasn’t working today but I offered to come in and help Alexandre with whatever he needed to get done. Yan whom Alexandre calls “sac de merde” a lot was also working, but the slow sack of shit didn’t really do much. He just made the doughs and weighed off the flour. Alexandre baked off the viennoisserie, did the deliveries with me and I washed the mixers and helped clean up. Normally Alexandre does everything on his own and still sweeps and mops the floor and is done by 8...we only left after 9am.

It was cool though because I really enjoy talking to Alexandre, just sharing experiences and knowledge. He will be presenting a display this coming sat for some sort of organisation which is a very elite group of craftsmen from different trades, with a table of goods 2mx50cm long. Its flippen interesting because he was telling me there are different levels and for the final stage, you present a table 5m long...but if you use saucisson for instance, you need to have made the saucisson so you will have to go and work in a boucherie for like 5 months and stuff like that. He told me some people almost view it as a sect but once you are a part, you have access to this treasure trove of knowledge as you have the top guys in any and every trade there so if you need advice or help then you can find it there. For example, with the saucisson en croute, the saucisson usually sinks to the bottom, so Alexandre asked a friend in the organisation who is a metal-worker to create a mould that would allow you to skewer the saucisson and place it in the tin so that it will stay in the middle all the way form the proving to the baking...stuff like that. Flippen next level.

Afterwards I went to visit Marie in Debourg which is on the B line so from Croix Rousse, I used the C, A, D and then finally B line to get to her. The area she is staying in is a low rent, industrial area in the 7e (septieme arrondissement, seventh district) and it isn’t that great as there are a lot of homeless people around and she can hear all conversations outside and her room doesn’t have heating either...but she’s paying a lot for where she is so she will move in a few months and get a place closer to the city centre and also with people her age.

We went to vieux Lyon and visited the cathedral (again, I’m kinda sick of seeing it by now lol) and had some coffee at the cafe there where I heard a lady speaking in a strange accent...I listened closer and recognised another saffa!!!  (South African)

So I approached her and asked her where she was from and turns out she was from Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein, South Africa

...she and her friends were cabin crew, taking a 2 day break in Lyon.

Afterwards Marie and I went to the Galileo Roman Archaeological Museum (this whole weekend was some cultural celebration weekend in France so all museums were free to visit)...it was really cool and housed some things excavated from the area near to the amphitheatre and had some cool bronze swords and chariots and stone altars and jewellery and mosaics and stuff..the place was massive though and we walked around for almost 1 hour and by then I was so over it and just wanted to get out.

After seeing the museum and amphitheatre we went back into vieux Lyon where there was some sort of flea market which only happens twice a year in Lyon (I spoke to some old lady in French...boom!)

and I had a crepe with jambon, fromage & oeufs

...but it wasn’t as greasy as I had hoped for and the pre grated emmental that some people use is really shit and has almost no flavour. I saw one stall selling canes with very cool albeit blunt swords in them...OMG pimping baby. I would’ve liked to have bought one with like a talon holding an orb but you can imagine trying to explain that to customs...

We also saw a guy working metal in a fire and hammering and shaping it on an anvil and he had some of his creations on display which was pretty sick. The market had some cool stuff but most of it was the usual flea market crap.

Then I felt like something sweet so we went to this Italian ice-cream place called something like Andissimo and I had a “chocolat chaud” or hot chocolat but it was steamed milk with a gianduja flavoured chocolat powder...that’s the Italian hot chocolat...hot and thick almost like pudding if you leave it to sit for long enough. Gianduja is a chocolate hazelnut flavour.

Then I felt like a beer so we went to an Irish pub and I had a panache (shandy) which went down so well I pretty much downed the first one and then had another. The lemonade they use here isn’t sprite which contains a lot of aggressive, large gas bubbles and minimal flavour, but a slightly sweeter, less carbonated lemonade which makes it taste so good. It was getting late and I was sleepy so we said bye and I headed home to have a burger from Quick which I only didn’t wait long for because it was already prepared but whatever. Tasted good though.

Carlotte bought some wine so we ended up chatting for a long time, later with Fatiha as well, so I only ended up going to be closer to 10pm.