Moving Again......

Wow, just 5 months after moving to Marseille, here we are moving again. I have a job in Lyon which started last week. I am 1 week in and have already written one press release and am working on the corporate brochure. Not bad. However as I write it is snowing pretty hard. It has snowed about 3 out of the 8 days I have been here. Surprisingly it doesn’t bother me too much. It snows constantly all day long when it snows but it really doesn’t stick for long since we are in the middle of the city.

The Apartment
We, actually I for the moment, since Valerie is still living in Marseille, found a place in Lyon on the Presque’ile. The Presque’ile is considered an island bordered by two rivers called the Saone and the Rhone in the center of Lyon. The area of Lyon is considered to be one of the most desired areas to live in Lyon. Not saying we have a nice apt by any means but we do have a great location. We walk out the door and there is a square one block down with a few trendy restaurants. One of the main pedestrian shopping areas of Lyon extends from the square to the center of the Presque’ile called Bellecour. Around the corner from our apt is a small grocery market and the boulanger is right on the corner. A 10 minute walk and we can eat in on Rue Mercier which is probably the most-trendy (very touristic) area to eat in all Lyon. In the same area there are all types of pubs and bars to have a drink at. Across the Saone is Old Lyon. I have yet to explore it but once again it isn’t more than a 15 minute walk. Across the Rhone is where I work. Did I mention the metro takes from my apt to work in less than 15 minutes. No complaints there.

The apt is not glamorous but it works. There is a view of the Rhone and at night it is beautiful. You can see the tall buildings with there blue lights lining the roofs and the ultra modern tramway traversing the city. The river is quiet and flows quickly through the all the edge of the Presque’ile.

The only bad part about the apartment is the bathroom is quite small and we must climb 6 floors which Valerie conveniently counted out to be 125 steps to our apt. It is hell to move into but once moved in I feel content. I get lots of exercise climbing the steps.

Working in France
Working is very different in France. So far I really like it. My company offers several benefits but I think there are two that really stick out. First, there is something called RTT, which I am still not sure what it stands for. The normal work week is supposed to be 35 hours however, no one really finishes their work in 35 hours so the govt fashioned a term called RTT to take care of the extra hours worked. At the end of the year you basically end up averaging the 38 hours a week which comes out to be 17 days of overtime. So RTT allows you to take those days anytime during the year. There are some stipulations however. You can only take 3 days in one month once during the year. You can take 0 days in one month once during the year. So ideally you should take 1 to 2 days per month throughout the year. Anyway, these 17 days are given on top of the 4 weeks and the 10 or so holidays per year. So I have about a total of about 7-8 weeks per year of vacation. Ouch!!!!

The second benefit I am enjoying is the Ticket Restaurant. These are checks each worth €7,50. You receive around 20-25 a month so you can use one a day while you work and you are only required to pay 30% of the cost which comes out of your paycheck. It is inherent in the culture at least, nowadays, to go have a long lunch during the work day. Most people head to the restaurant for a full meal and the average meal costs around €10-12. So you use the check to pay for most of the meal and then you pay cash for the leftover. Most restaurants and some grocery stores accept these checks. You are not supposed to use these checks at night but it seems that most restaurants still accept them.

Otherwise, there is also what is called a Comité d’enterprise. The purpose of this organization is to provide leisure benefits to the employees such as, weekends skiing, hiking, etc for a deep discount. For example, we are going snowshoeing next weekend which includes all the equipment, guide and a Fondue Savoyard for lunch. This will cost 15 euros per person. I don’t know about the snowshoeing but I LOVE the fondue.

All other options are typical to the US, stock options, medical, bonus plan and so on….