Weekend away Part 2

Date: 05 September 2012 14:45:13

So, it's Sunday now, and MrD was off on his bike ride - he's been rather dissappointed by his "form" recently, because he's not ben able to cycle as regularly as he could before he started his job. So this was an opportunity to challenge himself in unfamiliar landscape. Me, I was chilling out: I'd booked a massage, which was relaxing and worked on my sciatica a bit, and spent the rest of the morning reading. While I thought about going for a stroll, the weather was grey and murky, and unconducive to suh things.

When Mr D got back, he had a sauna (the Chambres d'Hotes had a little Salle d'etente - a relaxation room - where I had my massage, and where there was a sauna and a shower) to relax his muscles and warm up a bit too. Then we drove over to Annecy. The weather really perked up on the way over, and by the time we arrived, the sun was shining brightly!

We bought a sandwich and sat in the park to eat it. Then we wandered around the streets of the old town. It really is a beautiful town.

After a walk around the streets, we headed down towards the lake - the largest natural lake in France - which has beautiful clear blue water. We strolled along, admiring the boats, watching people, and enjoying the sunshine.

[caption id="attachment_1459" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The fence around this flower bed is made up of skis![/caption]

Mr D particularly liked these boats, on which you could take a trip on the lake - much more "civilised" than the fibreglass motorboats.

so we went on one!

It was a 35-minute voyage on the lake - great fun, with the wind whipping through our hair. The pilot gave us a little bit of information, but generally just left us to enjoy the sunshine sparkling on the waves and the views of mountains, and lakeside homes.

[caption id="attachment_1462" align="aligncenter" width="300"] this is actually a posh hotel, rather than someone's residence![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1465" align="aligncenter" width="300"] the town from the lake[/caption]

We resisted the lure of ice cream, and drove back over the mountains to another delicious meal (see this post for further details) and an evening spent around the table chatting in a mixture of French and English.

On Monday, I had an appointment in Lyon, so we left soon after breakfast - but not before I'd taken some photos of the garden from our room. Again, the weather was misty and murky, but you can get an idea of the lovely garden from these shots

You can see more photos of this charming B&B at the website which you can find here. I would most heartily recommend it - the hosts were really friendly, and spoke English ( should you wish it!), the rooms are beautifully decorated, with thoughtful little touches, all of them different, and the area itself is also absolutely gorgeous! Really relaxing - we felt like we'd been away for more than a few nights.

Of course, we found a good restaurant in Lyon to have lunch, and after my appointment, took the tram to the Confluence. This is a newly renovated, trendy area of Lyon, where the two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone converge. It used to be industrialised but new, smart housing and a shopping centre have been built, with bars, restaurants, cinemas and a gym. It is becoming "the" place to go. I didn't take many pictures, but here's one of the modern housing

I still haven't quite decided if I like it...

And then it was home to the realities of life once more - work for Mr D, and not-much-work for me. Unfortunately, my language school has lost the English teaching contract with Michelin - very unexpectedly, it must be said - and about 45% of our work came from this contract. My hours have gone from an average of 20 hours a week to about 4 - eeeeeeeeeeeeep! This is disastrous, as I'm sure you can imagine. We very much hope that new work will be coming in, but it's not looking very likely.

I am therefore thinking of ways of pushing up my private teaching - I need to start putting up posters, and developing some group lessons, perhaps. I've applied to a couple of other places for work - not much luck so far, one rejection and two no responses.

Thankfully, Mr D got his job just before this happened to me: if he hadn't, then we really would have been in deep do-do. But, at the moment, at least, we are in shallow do-do!!

Still, onward and upward!!! We shall try to stay positive and hope for the best. At least I'll have more time to blog! ;-)