Tuesday 23 May 2017

Sunday in Lyon

Sunday in Lyon was just great! I decided to go to church in the morning. The Diocese of Europe is just like a diocese in the UK such as in Oxford or Gloucester. It is very large because there are very many Anglican churches in Europe. By "church", I mean it in the sense of a community because many Anglican groups "borrow" a local Roman Catholic church when it is not being used for services if they don't have one of their own. The church in Barcelona is an Anglican church, not borrowed!

In Lyon, the Anglican community borrows a centre of worship with many rooms and a church space. I looked up the service on the internet and went along at 10.30am. The church is close to the Confluence of the two rivers in Lyon, the Saone and the Rhone. They are what makes the city so attractive, one is never far away from water!

This is my third time in  Lyon and my second time visiting the church and I remember Ben, the priest, from the last time I came. He is English as one would guess. The service was very informal and, being a sound guy, I noticed that the sound was not too good! There are two loudspeakers at the front but very high up and the acoustic of the space is very reverberant. So that when Ben was speaking, his voice actually appeared as an ethereal voice from above although he was only a few metres from me. Ben used a hand-held microphone and I thought I would ask him later why he didn't use a small eletret clip-on microphone but I never got the chance to speak to him on Sunday. But then I didn't need to!

After the service, coffee and tea were served and later a meal was prepared by a charitable group which the church runs in order to help people in the community in Lyon. I also met two students who had been helped by the group. There was one young girl from Mosul in Iraq and she gave me advice on my French accent because she had trouble understanding me. I hesitated to comment on the fact that there is probably very little of Mosul left.

Then I got chatting to a young woman, Natalie, who seemed to share all the same interests as me, everything from quantum computing to sound. And when I said that my original job was as a sound engineer, she asked for my help in improving the sound in church. This, of course, I was happy to do. We exchanged details and she said that she would speak to Ben. More about that later because I ended up going back to the church on Tuesday (today, as I write this on the train going home).

It was a beautiful day and I walked back to Bellecour along the river. The water is remarkably clear as you can see in the first photo. And then I made a great discovery! A swimming pool - outdoors and very close to Bellecour. I had bought my swimming costume and goggles so a visit there was placed on the agenda for next day.

 I had a tea and cake outside McDonalds and returned to the hotel. I did some catching up on my blog and I went for a walk around the local area. 

In the evening I had a terrible meal but it was my own fault because it was evident from the photo in the menu that the chicken was pre-cooked. And you know what happens? It ends up solid and tasteless. The half bottle of acidy red wine was 14 euros. The bill was 33 euros! In general as I said before, France is very expensive to visit but I am sure that to live here would be much cheaper. Prices in supermarkets are more or less the same as in Spain, it's the bars and restaurants which mark up the prices horribly!

Monday, I went to le Musée des Beaux-Arts. I have promised myself for a long time to go back there. Part of the reason is the chapel which is full of beautiful and amazing sculptures, this time, I took my Nikon camera. But I will write about that tomorrow afternoon (Weds) when I can upload lots of photos!

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