Did you ever see the movie The Forgotten or one of the similar stories where the main character grieves a dead relative but no one else seems to remember this person ever existing? Even the photographs of the family have a mysterious gap where someone’s smiling face might have been. That’s how I felt today when looking at Google maps. Continue reading “Now you see us…”
We got a message of congratulations over the weekend from WordPress, the company that hosts this blog. It said “Your stats are booming! Let’s Live in France is getting lots of traffic.” You were probably part of that frenzy, so thank you. It started when Bill posted on both the blog and Facebook that we were clearing out the basement with lots of things going to charity or the dumpster if they weren’t otherwise claimed. The response was overwhelming, so now there’s much less to give/throw away, but there’s still more….
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”
The thought had crossed my mind that I might have saved a bit too much wood and drywall from our basement build out but then again I was not thinking that there was a move coming in our future and someone else might not appreciate the bits and pieces stored in the basement. Yesterday I headed into the back storeroom of the basement and started emptying all the one gallon milk jugs of water that were for emergency use “in case of a hurricane”. Well then I started to look around and next to the shelving unit there are carpet remnants that we saved to use as door mats and they work very well but who needs enough to last 20 years? There are also oriental rugs with their pads that should make their way to Goodwill for someone else to use and camping equipment that we will never use but we kept just for that emergency that has never happened (thank goodness). The same room has much more “stuff” that will not be going to France and so it must be thrown out or given away.
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”
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?”
The final outdoor project on this house is now complete: the back deck has a new floor. Fortunately the structure itself was sound (which is a good thing since it’s 20 feet above the ground) but the flooring definitely needed replacing. Bill has had to pull too many splinters out of my bare feet not to change those out. It took several days, separated by a … Continue reading All decked out
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