Tag: Life in France

Before leaving the US

Patience

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Broken garage door spring

On several blogs written by Americans living in France there have been references to how long it takes to get things accomplished in their new home country versus in the US. In other words, this experience has taught them patience. When I looked up the etymology for that word, unsurprisingly it originated in Latin, moved on to Old French, before being adopted by Middle English. What did surprise me is that in the UK it’s the name of a card game that we call solitaire. Continue reading “Patience”

Unknown's avatarBob
Before leaving the US

Ghost of Christmas past

Boxed up ChristmasHere’s a photo of what 60 years’ worth of Christmas decorations looks like all boxed up. Some of you will note that Bill and I have been together only 30 years; therefore, some of this has to be from a long time ago, right? Not so much.

First off, that stack of blue containers on the left is full of lights, both indoors and out, so you know those can’t be too old . There are wreaths we got for specific doors in our current house. The same is true for the miniature trees that go on either side of the front door. There’s a mantle cover that Bill made and custom fit to put over the fireplace where logs are burning nicely right now as I type. Continue reading “Ghost of Christmas past”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

What price art?

Exterior of house for sale in Carcassonne
Exterior of house for sale in Carcassonne

Each year on July 14, Bastille Day, Carcassonne goes all out with a non-stop 50 minutes of fireworks over the castle. The spectacle attracts 700,000 people to a town of 50,000 and there’s a link here in the right hand column to a 4-minute video of the highlights. I still get goosebumps when I watch it. As you can imagine, coping with the influx of that many people in less than one day is quite the challenge for the government. Streets have to be closed, parking spaces created, extra security provided, restroom facilities put in place, on and on. That got me to wondering: who pays for all of this? Continue reading “What price art?”

Unknown's avatarBob
Travel in France & beyond

Feels like home

Medieval village of Camon. France city walls
Medieval village of Camon, France city walls

If you’ve read the posts over the past few weeks you’ll know that we made a lot of day excursions by car on this most recent trip to Carcassonne. Although we won’t have a car once we move, we did this time because the original plan was to use what has now become our new home town as a base to explore the area to find a place to live. Surprising what you find in your own backyard, so to speak. Continue reading “Feels like home”

Unknown's avatarBob6 Comments
Travel in France & beyond

In the market for a smile

Narbonne wine bar photo by Pete
Narbonne wine bar photo by Pete

On Tuesday we went to see Narbonne, a former Mediterranean seaport about 30 minutes by train from Carcassonne. The two towns have the similarities of population, Roman historical connections, Canal du Midi links, and being on our original list of places where we might move. Bill had done some advance planning on what parts of the city we’d probably want to visit with the first stop being the covered market. It was lively, clean, and despite having all the usual vendors of breads, pastries, fruits, vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, and fish, the only smells we detected were good ones. But that was not why we were there. Continue reading “In the market for a smile”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Keeping with tradition

Bill's shoes to go
Bill’s shoes to go

This morning on their way over to our vacation apartment, Gaynor said that they walked by a trash bin on top of which was a shoe box with a pair of creme colored high heels inside. Upon closer examination of the soles it was clear that these had been worn maybe once if at all. So why were they being thrown away? Did they not fit, were they a one-time-only indulgence for a wedding, was somebody moving to America and downsizing? I had another idea. Continue reading “Keeping with tradition”

Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment