Life in France

The earth moved

The cracked wall on the front of our house
The cracked wall on the front of our house

We lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years and out there earthquakes seldom make the news, despite their prevalence. I read that there are several small tremors daily but only sensitive scientific instruments, and probably small dogs, can feel them. One morning, however, Bill was having breakfast in a diner when the hanging light fixtures started swaying. At that same instant the building where I worked was also swaying and from the 14th floor, that’s not fun. When we moved to the east coast of the US we thought that we’d left all of that behind only to discover that Atlanta sits beside the New Madrid fault line that’s been shaking buildings since the early 1800s. You’d think that moving another 4500 miles east to France  would get us away from all that. Continue reading “The earth moved”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Life in France

A diversion

Heron in the mill pond
Heron in the mill pond

If you’re the King or Queen and you’re trying to run a castle, it’s going to take a lot of bread to keep everyone fed and a lot of sheets for all of those beds. Why not build a mill that will grind all of that wheat and turn all of those threads into cloth. If you’re lucky enough to have a powerful river running near by, as we do through Carcassonne, you can use that force to run your mills if it doesn’t wash them away in the process. So how can you control a wide and forceful river? You create a diversion. Continue reading “A diversion”

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Life in France

You read that in the paper?

Newspaper shop on the ground floor
Newspaper shop on the ground floor

We can buy 3 daily newspapers in Carcassonne and for a town of 50,000 people, that’s not bad. These are actually regional papers, all owned by the same company, but we still think it’s amazing to have that kind of coverage. Many of their articles are published for free online and that’s one of the ways we find out what’s going on. Here’s a quote from the president of this region’s governing council regarding the upcoming fiscal year’s budget: “A tax increase is the only solution”. Oh, la, la, can you imagine ever reading that in a US newspaper? Continue reading “You read that in the paper?”

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Life in France

Your train is a bus

Bus at stationWe love trains, so much so that over the years many of our European vacations were planned around train schedules and where we could find a station. Once we had settled on France as the country to where we’d be moving, we then had to choose a city or town and one item that was on the must-have list for any final choice was a train station. So then, why do you see a picture of a bus here? Continue reading “Your train is a bus”

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Life in France

Open captioning

The TF1 program "L'addition s'il vous plait
The TF1 program “L’addition s’il vous plait“

Did you ever see the movie “Splash” years ago where Tom Hanks was saved from drowning by mermaid Daryl Hannah? She ends up in his New York apartment watching television to learn English. Through the magic of the movies she becomes fluent in 24 hours, able to quote commercials and soap opera scripts at will. Bill and I are trying to do the same thing with French, minus the mermaid tail and any drama. Continue reading “Open captioning”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Level headed

Sea level marker
Sea level marker

We usually take a couple walks a day plus a few other quick outings down by the river for Heather’s breaks. There are the “must” excursions to the open-air market for fresh produce or the bakery for some croissants, for example and then the pleasure walks that get us out exploring medieval streets, open countryside along the canal, or pathways beside the river. On a recent walk inside the Bastide, the part of Carcassonne that was founded in 1240 and used to be totally encircled by a thick stone wall, we saw the plaque seen here in this picture and wondered what it was. Continue reading “Level headed”

Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment