Category: Life in France

Life in France

Go towards the light

View at the end of our street
View at the end of our street

The house that we’ve rented for our first year in France was advertised as une petite maison which can translate as a little house or even a cottage. What I have yet to discover is a French word that means “home” in the sense that we normally use it as being a warm and welcoming place. That certainly is not to say that it doesn’t exist considering how welcome we have always felt there and the fact that their culture values friendship to the point that they have divided it into seven levels. We just have to keep looking. Continue reading “Go towards the light”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

Bathrooms and ice trays

Mini ice trays
Mini ice trays

It’s all a matter of interpretation or translation. Before we knew for sure that we were moving to Carcassonne, we rented an apartment there for a couple of weeks so that we could explore the area. Although the listing for the place said that there were two bathrooms, we contacted the owner just to make sure. He reassured us, in perfect English, that the listing was correct and he answered another question in the affirmative concerning ice trays. You’re getting an insight into our priorities, aren’t you? Continue reading “Bathrooms and ice trays”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

What’s the pont?

Pont Vieux, Carcassonne
Pont Vieux, Carcassonne

There are two pedestrian bridges (pont in French) that connect the old and new cities in Carcassonne. As in most places in Europe, those two words are relative here as well. The foundations of the old city upon which the castle sits above are from around 100 BC (with evidence of settlements there beginning in 3500 BC) while the new town below was founded in 1258. The old bridge, Pont Vieux, was built in 1359 and provides a great vantage point of the castle and of the Pyrenees mountains. The new footbridge, built in the 1960’s (I’m guessing), gives quick access from the park below the castle where we’ll be living to the heart of the city where we’ll be walking at least 3 days a week to the market. Continue reading “What’s the pont?”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Back from the future

Bill between the cité (castle) above and the city below
Bill between the cité and the city

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks in Carcassonne and if this is any indication of what life is going to be like there, we’re in for a real treat! As on numerous previous vacations, we rented an apartment through a holiday home agency so that we could pretend that we lived in whatever location we had chosen as our base for the vacation. When we first booked this trip the purpose was to find a place to live. Since that had been taken care of weeks prior to our departure, we were free to pursue an even more personal goal of meeting up with people. Continue reading “Back from the future”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Life in France

We converted

Metric to English
Metric to English

When we were first setting up this blog I was hoping to find an app for the sidebar where you could easily convert metric measurements into those more commonly used in the UK and US. Since that hasn’t shown up yet, there’s a chart below where you’ll find some shortcuts. It’s what we use when we’re on the continent to figure out a more familiar amount. To make it easy, though, here are the four that I’ll mention the most:

  • Euro to Dollar: don’t bother (see why below)
  • Kilometer to Miles: just halve the km
  • Kilograms to Pounds: just double the kg
  • Degrees C to F: double the degrees C and add 30

These are not exact but will give you a general idea without having to consult your smart phone.
Continue reading “We converted”

Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment
Life in France

The electric vampire

French electrical outlet
French electrical outlet

This morning I was in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee when I heard Bill talking. I knew that it was way too early for him to have telephoned anyone so naturally I was curious. When I walked back to the office he was there in front of the computer talking to it. What?? You may remember that a few weeks ago we got a new large laptop computer to replace a smaller one that was on its last legs plus our big desktop, neither of which were going to go with us to France. The new machine has Windows 10 with your own personal assistant called Cortana that understands spoken commands. (Yes, yes, Apple users, Siri was years ahead.)

When I asked Bill if he were talking to me he replied, “No, I was asking Cortana to turn on the computer and open up the email. I didn’t want to have to push a button.” Continue reading “The electric vampire”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments