About six weeks ago Bill said to me, “Christmas has been canceled.” He had just read an article on the city’s website announcing that the annual festival “La Magie de Noël” (The Magic of Christmas) would not take place this year because of current health concerns. Normally in December we are treated to an entire month of daily festivals, markets, parades, concerts, shows, and displays, plus steaming cups of hot chocolate and spiced wine. While most of that isn’t possible this year, the lights in the trees, the squares, the parks, and the shop windows seemed extra bright in keeping with the Mayor’s message: “Bringing a little joy and lightness in this time of crisis is essential, so that children’s eyes continue to shine.” Wishing you a bright and Merry Christmas! Continue reading “Christmas is (not) canceled”

Although the game of cricket isn’t especially popular in France, brushing up on your English certainly is. We both volunteer with neighbors and adult students who want to make conversation in that foreign language they first learned back in middle school but probably haven’t had much opportunity to practice with since then. The BBC is a source that I often consult for classroom ideas and on their Learning English Blog I found the funny and confusing “The Rules of Cricket as Explained to a Foreign Visitor”. It starts with, “Each man that’s in the side that’s in, goes out, and when he’s out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.” Continue reading “When you’re in you’re out”

Every six years French municipal elections are held to choose the local counselors who form the government that then elects the city’s mayor. Any European Union citizen residing in that town can cast a ballot but to vote for the country’s president you need an upgrade to being a full-fledged French citizen. After now living in Carcassonne for almost five years we feel both European and French but we won’t qualify to take that step towards naturalization until we’ve completed that fifth year. In the meantime, we haven’t been totally excluded from voicing our opinion on local issues and just last week we saw the results of one of those votes and we even picked a winner—in fact, four winners! Continue reading “We voted”