Lyon - the French dream

So tomorrow is the big day, I am moving to Lyon in France!!!

It's hard to describe how excited I am about this new chapter in my life. I have wanted to live in France for a few years now, and being one day away from this seems unreal.

There are so many things to look forward to, here are the main reasons I am so excited about this move:

- Living in France
 I have always been interested in France since I was a kid, but never thought of the possibility of living there, or anywhere outside Portugal to be honest. I then surprisingly moved to the UK, and after a few years, I somehow got surrounded with French music, french cinema and a few french friends. The language always fascinated me too so, the thought of maybe living in France one day started to grow on me. The opportunity never arrived until this year, where Di is spending one year in Australia. I decided this was the best opportunity to try and live in France for a year, until she is back, and see what happens. Some money saved, lots of planning and paper work taken care off, and here I am, about to move there!

- Get to know my French cousins 
I have three cousins living in Lyon or close-by (Geneva). The last time I saw them (S and Q) was when I was maybe 10 years old, so 21 years ago, and I really can't remember them, only from pictures. One of my cousins (B) I have seen 12 years ago, so it will be awesome to get to know them better and their children! Can't wait!

- Learn French 
I have been trying to learn French, on and off, for the past 9 years. I have tried books (Tintin, Le petit Prince), Rosetta Stone, Michel Thomas, Skype lessons, movies, etc...always gave up after a few months as progress was always slow, and I was never in France (apart from a couple of visits),so the motivation always died quickly...
This time, I am doing an Intensive French Course for 12 weeks at an International French School in Lyon!
I am also going to be submersed in French everywhere I go, so this should all help me to really make faster progress than usual. I already understand some basics and my reading of basic phrases is OK, the major issue is my listening and speaking! I am quite slow at memorising new words, and usually slow at new languages, but I hope I can have a full and long conversation in French at the beginning of 2017!

- Make friends and meet as many people as possible
I really want to get to know as many great people as possible. I have been told by many that the French are arrogant and hard to make friends with. From what I know from my cousins and some french friends of mine, I think that is a huge generalisation and an outdated cliche!
I love honest and straightforward people and French people are known for these features, whereas British people are usually very kind and diplomatic, but usually never as honest or direct as we Portuguese and the French are. I will need to get used to it but I am confident that I will make friends and even friends for life, so I am really excited!

- Live in a new city, Lyon!
When I made the decision to move to France, one thing I knew was that I would't live in Paris - too busy, too impersonal and too touristy for what I wanted to do.
So, with Paris out of the way, I could have picked anywhere else to go, however, since I wanted to get to know my cousins better, I automatically made up my mind and decided that Lyon had to be choice number one!
I was however clueless about Lyon. The only thing I knew about the city was their football club, the Olympique Lyonnais! That was it...I know, appalling!
I then googled it and couldn't believe how pretty it was and how big it was too! 3rd biggest city in France (after Paris and Marseille), the capital of gastronomy!, sits at the junction of the Rhone and Saone rivers, cinema was invented in Lyon by the Lumiere brothers and is very famous for its Fete des Lumiers (Festival of Lights)!
From what people tell me and from what I see in pictures and articles, I am confident this will be a city I will fall in love with. I really hope so.
A bonus about going to live in a new city is of course...new streets/parks/trails to run in!!
Lyon looks like a fabulous place to run, a few large parks, some trails, lots of hills in the city, so plenty of interesting places to run in.

These are all exciting things and you know I am usually quite positive however, I am also aware that things won't always go smoothly.
Here are some things I already know will make it challenging:

- Not being able to speak much French, I know I will struggle for the first few weeks with everything that I do.

- France is a very bureaucratic country compared to the UK, so this will be tricky for me as I am used to that British efficiency. I will need to be very patient.

- I will be living in a very small room in a student accommodation for the first three months, sharing a kitchen with probably students 10-12 years younger than me. I know I will adapt but will be interesting in the beginning!

- The hardest thing of course will be doing all of these on my own, without Di. It is much easier to move abroad with your other half and go through all the successes and struggles together.

The plan is pretty simple.

1. Learn French
2. Christmas/New Years in Australia with Di
3. Return to Lyon
4. Get a job

Wish me luck :)

PS: Not sure yet how often I will write on here. What I want with this blog, is to report any interesting situations or stories that happen during my time in France, nice places I visit, and just a way to record my thoughts and feelings throughout this journey. This will be interesting for me to look at in a few years and maybe can help others somehow.