Ten Francophone Global Voices members, whose work involves translation as well as editing and writing new content, gathered in Lyon for a meeting on the 26 and 27th of May 2018. The meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on the reasons that tie us to Global Voices, those that encourage us to translate and write, on top of sharing practices and tools. We discussed how to better organize our time and work and why we write and contribute.

We were all pleased to see the result of the Irish referendum on abortion. We discussed with fresh indignation and concern the fate of refugees arriving at Europe's borders and within Europe, talking about existing actions that involve them. We also spoke of the heated debate in France on inclusive writing, what this means regarding translation and writing but also regarding women's rights. We asked ourselves many questions and were able to answer some of these.

We also:

- wrote haikus and created artwork

- ate Senegalese and Guinean cuisine

- sampled “saucisse sèche”, a cured sausage, and drank local beers

- listened to rugby fans singing and football fans cheering

- cooked together

- relished the summer sunshine and just managed to dodge the rain and storms

We thought of those who weren't with us, other French speakers of course but also all Global Voices contributors. The sense of belonging to this shared, diverse family whose opinions can differ and who are scattered across every time zone in the world remains the key reason why we all continue to be a part of Global Voices.

Here are some photos of our time together as well as a playlist of songs that have stayed with us and that we would like to share with you.

Lastly, our thanks once again to Élise for this excellent event that was impeccably organized!

GV Francophone, meet up in Lyon (Photo Marie Bohner)

Élise, organisation mastermind (Photo Marie Bohner)

Abdoulaye, the most photogenic GVer (Photo Marie Bohner)

Thalia, never seen without her panda (Photo Marie Bohner)

Maud, a new-comer listening intently to the insightful questions (Photo Marie Bohner)

Pauline, the sassy Swiss (Photo Marie Bohner)

Ibtihel, a Tunisian friend of GV, passing through the meet-up (Photo Marie Bohner)

Jade, amongst our artwork (Photo Marie Bohner)

Claire, Abdoulaye, Julien: meeting (Photo Marie Bohner)

Julien, a stakeboarder and Latino at heart (Photo Marie Bohner)

Suzanne and Abdoulaye, looking dubious (Photo Marie Bohner)

After the effort comes the reward! (Photo Élise Lecamp)

Suzanne, always up to date, with some street art in Lyon (Photo Marie Bohner)

And to delight your ears over the coming weeks here is a playlist lovingly complied by Suzanne through collecting some songs chosen by the music lovers who gathered in Lyon: