Many of you will know by now that our wonderful dog, Heather, died this morning. She got us safely to France and has now sent us on our way. We’ve spent most of the day, laughing and crying, reminiscing the 13 years we had together with her. Tonight we’ll be opening a bottle of the local sparkling wine to celebrate her life. As the French … Continue reading Celebrating Heather!
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”
If you’re a touch typist you probably don’t think much about the placement of the letters on your keyboard. Neither did I. For 50 years I’ve been pressing the same spots on the keyboard to produce the letters that I wanted. The upper left corner started with a Q followed by a W and the M was in the middle of the bottom row. Well, not anymore, at least in our house. Continue reading “QWERTY or AZERTY?”
Heather takes us on daily walks. We generally set the direction but then she determines the destination and speed, pulling on the leash and glancing back to make sure that both of us are keeping up. Since she’s not fond of loud noises we often go along the river where she gets to sniff to her heart’s content, we get glimpses of snow-capped mountains and the occasional passenger train zipping to or from the Mediterranean Sea, and we all three enjoy the tranquility. As long as she’s pulling us along then we keep going. But then on an outing last week she stopped pulling. Continue reading “The vet bill was how much?”
Did you ever watch the PBS television program hosted by Fred Rogers where he invited you on a daily excursion to meet the people around him? In contrast to the fast-paced cartoon entertainment offered at the time on other channels, Mr. Rogers was a kind and gentle man who made you feel comfortable in strange surroundings, emphasized respect for others, and offered reassuring advice that things would work out OK. His Land of Make-Believe even had a castle towering above all the houses below. Guess where we live. Continue reading “Monsieur Rogers’ neighborhood”
We live in a small house. I hadn’t really given it much thought until the other morning when Bill was loading the dishwasher…from his seat at the breakfast table. That’s also where we eat lunch and dinner and from my side of that same table I would be able to load the washing machine which is there in the kitchen too. In US real estate terms that would be called “cozy”. Continue reading “Cozy they call it”
Banks in France are different from what we were used to in Atlanta. Here they have fees for pretty much every service and we understand that it can take at least a couple of weeks to get an account open. It’s not uncommon for your branch to close for lunch, be open on Saturday mornings only, if at all, and not at all on Mondays. Combine that with the US government’s requirement that the Bank of France report all financial activity of any American who has an account here and you start to understand the delays and the challenge. Thanks to the Internet, we may have a solution. Continue reading “You can bank on it”
Let's Live In France 