It has been one magical experience, and not finished yet!
So, apart from the Passeurs d'Europe experience, which I talked about in my previous post, what have I been up to?
Soirée Slam
Last month I went to my first Slam evening. Slam consists of french urban poetry, declamed in public places. It can also be declamed to the sound of a rhythm or a beat.
I first got introduced to Slam, by a French teacher who recommended me to listen to the Slam artist "Grand Corps Malade", who is very famous in France. I quickly became a fan and regularly listen to his albums during my runs.
I was very curious to see a live Slam session and I have to say I really liked the vibe.
There was no restriction on who got on stage to declame their own text, the 30 odd Slammers were really heterogenous, from 20yd kids to 60yd mums. Most of them with their words memorized but others reading from a piece of paper or smartphone.
There were of course some better than others, but the community is really supportive of all slammers, as its not easy to go on stage in front of 60 odd people, and read their work, sometimes quite personal pieces of work.
To be honest, I understood only around 30% of what was being said...but I got the vibe and it really inspired me to maybe try and write some sort of slam poem one day and try to slam it on one of these evenings! Really recommend this for people who like poetry and a different sort of evening. They are usually free and at least once a month. The one I went to, took place in the Latino-american bar Macanudo and was organized by La SLAMicale.
Last month I went to my first Slam evening. Slam consists of french urban poetry, declamed in public places. It can also be declamed to the sound of a rhythm or a beat.
I first got introduced to Slam, by a French teacher who recommended me to listen to the Slam artist "Grand Corps Malade", who is very famous in France. I quickly became a fan and regularly listen to his albums during my runs.
There was no restriction on who got on stage to declame their own text, the 30 odd Slammers were really heterogenous, from 20yd kids to 60yd mums. Most of them with their words memorized but others reading from a piece of paper or smartphone.
There were of course some better than others, but the community is really supportive of all slammers, as its not easy to go on stage in front of 60 odd people, and read their work, sometimes quite personal pieces of work.
To be honest, I understood only around 30% of what was being said...but I got the vibe and it really inspired me to maybe try and write some sort of slam poem one day and try to slam it on one of these evenings! Really recommend this for people who like poetry and a different sort of evening. They are usually free and at least once a month. The one I went to, took place in the Latino-american bar Macanudo and was organized by La SLAMicale.
Amigos in Lyon
Last week it was the first time I had friends coming to visit me in Lyon, both Portuguese living in Lisbon at the moment.
After a week of great weather, they were really unlucky as they got some rain and cloudy weather.
They only stayed for a day and a half so, it was hard to see all of Lyon, but we still managed to see the main sites and I think they got a feel for this city too.
We visited the Basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière (took the 250 stairs instead of the funicular, which they hate me for until today!), le Marché de Saint-Antoine, where they got told off by a very annoyed French seller, as they kept feeding themselves from the little cheese/saucisson samples!!
We passed through the Place Bellecour, Place des Jacobins, Place du Terreaux/Opera House and of course Vieux Lyon. We also managed to visit Les Halles Paul Bocuse, which showed us once again how poor we are...
We also had time to have some wine at the bar Café du Rhône (my favourite), and also ended up on a Péniche/Bar (disco boat) at 1am drinking some ponche...
On Saturday evening, we got invited to a house party at Pedro's, and we celebrated there Ana's (Precisoes) birthday with some wine, cheese and chips (a lot of cheese!!).
On Sunday, as we only had half a day and it was sunny, we visited the beautiful Parc de la Téte d'Or and its Zoo.
Last week it was the first time I had friends coming to visit me in Lyon, both Portuguese living in Lisbon at the moment.
After a week of great weather, they were really unlucky as they got some rain and cloudy weather.
We visited the Basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière (took the 250 stairs instead of the funicular, which they hate me for until today!), le Marché de Saint-Antoine, where they got told off by a very annoyed French seller, as they kept feeding themselves from the little cheese/saucisson samples!!
We passed through the Place Bellecour, Place des Jacobins, Place du Terreaux/Opera House and of course Vieux Lyon. We also managed to visit Les Halles Paul Bocuse, which showed us once again how poor we are...
We also had time to have some wine at the bar Café du Rhône (my favourite), and also ended up on a Péniche/Bar (disco boat) at 1am drinking some ponche...
On Saturday evening, we got invited to a house party at Pedro's, and we celebrated there Ana's (Precisoes) birthday with some wine, cheese and chips (a lot of cheese!!).
On Sunday, as we only had half a day and it was sunny, we visited the beautiful Parc de la Téte d'Or and its Zoo.
We had a great time and wished they could have stayed for a bit longer!
Even though Lyon isn't a big city, a minimum of 2 full days is needed to enjoy it properly, 3 days ideally!!
Even though Lyon isn't a big city, a minimum of 2 full days is needed to enjoy it properly, 3 days ideally!!
Ciné-concert
Last week I went to my first Ciné-concert and I really enjoyed it.
I went with Katherine, one of my colleagues from Passeurs d'Europe. We decided to go because another Passeurs d'Europe friend (Théo) invited us all to come, as he was going to be singing, as part of his studies.
The best students from the class are grouped together, and form l'Orchestra Percussion du CRR de Lyon (directed by Muguette Rimey-Meille), who then played a different piece to each short-movie that was showed...it was just awesome and full of energy,
The day after, I went to a Fado evening with Puri, another Passeur d'Europe friend, who is Spanish but is really into Portuguese music.
This event took place in KoToPo, a very cool multicultural/language exchange bar, which I've mentioned here previously.
The group is called "Eufrasia Grupo" and it consists of a female singer and her husband, who plays classic guitar. The portuguese guitar (essential instrument when playing Fado), wasn't played live but played by their sound mixer (was slightly dissapointed).
The group played around 15 of the most famous Portuguese fados. Some songs better sang than others, but overall, a very enjoyable evening!
It is very interesting to listen to Fado in a different country with the audience not being Portuguese in its majority. The songs were well appreciated and ultimately I felt proud to be Portuguese.
Manon's movie
A few days ago, I was invited by my friend Marie Christine, to watch Manon's movie, a friend in common. I had no idea she had made a movie nor that she was showing it!! I was curious!
The movie showing took place at the Goethe Institut and there were around 40 people there to watch it.
The movie shows her travels in Vietnam et Laos with Stella, her friend and colleague, which they did last year for 7 weeks.
The really interesting thing about this trip, is that they decided (on the plane on the way there), that they would NOT use or look at any type of map...for 7 weeks...without having any idea of how the country is set up and where the major cities or sights were, this was a massive challenge and adventure! I was hooked!!
They decided to ask the locals (and sometimes to other fellow travellers) to draw a map of where they were, on their little notebook, and if possible with some useful places/villages/cities around to visit...
This way, they kept travelling but using the eyes of the locals and not actually knowing where this would lead, or if they would miss any major sights or not!
They were never influenced by any maps, they never made decisions based on what was closer by or any major sights that had to visit!
I loved the movie, and was really impressed by their persistance, their resolve on keeping true to their idea, even though being really hard at times.
It was a really inspiring way to show that there is always a new way of travelling. They kept interacting with the locals, with fellow travellers and they got to know both countries in a very unusual way, not necessarily the best way, but surely a much more interesting way, in my eyes.
If any of you is interested in their story, check out their blog where they talk about their adventure, who they are, and why they did this in the first place!
It is in French, but I guess that's why we have google translate! The little trailer gives you a good idea of this great adventure!
https://pierrefeuilleciseauxsite.wordpress.com/
The movie showing took place at the Goethe Institut and there were around 40 people there to watch it.The movie shows her travels in Vietnam et Laos with Stella, her friend and colleague, which they did last year for 7 weeks.
The really interesting thing about this trip, is that they decided (on the plane on the way there), that they would NOT use or look at any type of map...for 7 weeks...without having any idea of how the country is set up and where the major cities or sights were, this was a massive challenge and adventure! I was hooked!!
They decided to ask the locals (and sometimes to other fellow travellers) to draw a map of where they were, on their little notebook, and if possible with some useful places/villages/cities around to visit...
This way, they kept travelling but using the eyes of the locals and not actually knowing where this would lead, or if they would miss any major sights or not!
They were never influenced by any maps, they never made decisions based on what was closer by or any major sights that had to visit!
I loved the movie, and was really impressed by their persistance, their resolve on keeping true to their idea, even though being really hard at times.
It was a really inspiring way to show that there is always a new way of travelling. They kept interacting with the locals, with fellow travellers and they got to know both countries in a very unusual way, not necessarily the best way, but surely a much more interesting way, in my eyes.
If any of you is interested in their story, check out their blog where they talk about their adventure, who they are, and why they did this in the first place!
It is in French, but I guess that's why we have google translate! The little trailer gives you a good idea of this great adventure!
https://pierrefeuilleciseauxsite.wordpress.com/
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