Note:
To view these pages, you
must double click on each photo to enlarge them
To view these pages, you
must double click on each photo to enlarge them
StatCounter
September, 2005
Greetings from the retired one (September’s Epistle)
[New and Improved! Now with pictures!!!!
Time is moving on
I called the Red Cross to offer to take in a few refugees from New Orleans (just wanted to help out) but when they found out that we didn't have a flushing toilet, running water (hot or cold) or a working shower, they offered us a bus ticket to Houston so we could get emergency shelter that met the basic UN humanitarian standards. They think that being this poor is funny, those assholes.
And so here we are. I am pleased to announce that my bride is still with me as we have officially gone from refugee status to regular people with flushing toilet. Praise the Lord!!!
This has been quite a productive month with 2 new outside doors installed, 3 new Maple framed living room windows installed, insulation, drywall, paint, slate floor (in the bathroom), bathroom sink and toilet (shower was already in)
Of course the rough plumbing was completed, tested and is in use.
Well, sort of in use.
The system is all running just fine but the only thing that “works” is the toilet, shower, bathroom sink and the outside faucets. That is because……….
The plumbing was quite a bit more involved than what is usually done in a home. For starters, we are not here during winter months and we don’t heat the place. Therefore, everything freezes solid. Frozen pipes with water in them burst. It is not unusual for cottagers to drain their plumbing lines before closing up for the winter and we are no exception. We have however set this up with the idea that an old man will be doing the work in 20 years. So we put air “nipples” in the lines. (Easy cowboy, that’s what they are called…) This compressed air is used to push the water out of the lines ensuring a problem free return. Then we added features that we don’t have in any of our other homes (yet), like re-circulation pumps. This ensures that every faucet has instant hot water without any delay day or night. We are cutting our ties from refugee status with a vengeance…Add to that a greywater system where all water that is not from the toilet or the food disposer side of the kitchen sink is allowed to gravity flow to a mulch field to filter out prior to flowing back to the river and it becomes a split system. If a need arises, a diverter valve can have all drains flow into the black water holding tank for pump out.
Next, we are getting down and dirty and blasting ahead with putting our kitchen together.
We love this place
Months after we have arrived I still occasionally hear Janice outside sitting by the river shouting, “I love the Bee” to no one in particular. Just an uncontrolled exclamation of overwhelming joy at the blessing that this place has brought us. We are thrilled that out “out in the woods” experience has been controlled to the point that we have no mosquitoes and fewer other bugs, creepy crawlers or spiders. We know that without our aggressive efforts to control them we would be over ridden with the little buggers. God bless Monsanto and Agent Orange!
We have found a backwoods one man lumber mill operator. This has allowed us to have a lot of custom cut, milled and processed Maple wood trim made to order for window and door framing, baseboards and general trim pieces including a bookcase I whipped up. This was particularly nice since all our kitchen cabinets and new interior window frames are all Maple also.
It’s a kick to see life on the water. We know it is a weekend if there are boats coming and going all day long. Holliday weekends are a real sight with a boat parade that never ends. During the week though, things are often quieter. The best boats are the ones that cause the whole cabin to vibrate. They go by at about 5 MPH but all 10 gazillion horsepower in their twin engines in these 60 foot long “cigarette” boats purrs with a deep rumble that sounds like the space shuttle warming up for a takeoff. These boats were built for only two things: speed and being 60-foot long “chick magnets”. Invariably, they are piloted by one guy with no less than 3 healthy looking “hood ornaments” laying out on the bow.
Come 6-7 PM though, the day trippers are all gone and we “river rats” are the only ones left. The river is all ours and the dawns and sunsets are the best we have ever seen anywhere. Coming from California, that’s a tall order.
It is a brand new experience for us to see the geese (sometimes referred to as “Canadian” geese but I have never checked their passports) begin to “practice” for their migration. They spend all summer long just hanging around and eating the riverweeds and laying in the sun. But now they fly around the area building up their flying stamina for the long trip and take turns in the lead.
Never a dull moment around here!
A couple of weeks ago we were just returning from a day out shopping when we got home and the phone was ringing. Janice ran up to answer while I docked the boat only to have my cousin in California tell us that Cassie has just undergone emergency gallbladder surgery.
Oookkkkkk………….
Run that by me again?
Cassie had had a couple of episodes of abdominal pains in the previous week, twice having gone to the emergency room. Batteries of tests later she had been released with no cause found. She was seeing a doctor to follow up and try to determine the cause when a dye test determined the culprit. Surgery followed within hours and when we got home it was already a done deal. Since it was a “fait accompli” the outcome was already known and Cassie was doing well. Because of the no fooling around last minute flight logistics involved, we decided that Daddy should go alone.
22 hours later, I was in Los Angeles by the baby’s hospital bedside. I spent a week cooking, driving, settling her in school and generally poor babying her back to health. Once back on her feet, I headed back. I had taken the boat to get back to the marina and driven the car to the airport in Buffalo 4 hours away to catch my flight to LA.
Janice has never been enthusiastic about taking the boat out by herself. It’s an older boat and is too big and awkward to handle alone. So she saw little point in coming to the marina with me. While she had plenty of supplies and had a week off from construction chores she did not miss her chance at a little drama by signing all of her emails with “Robinson Crusoe”. Then she would call our neighbors a hundred yards away and say “ hey, could you pick me up a quart of milk next time you go to the market?”
Meanwhile, I was conjuring up delightful mental images of returning to a woman who had been marooned on an island....
It seems like we have spent more time in California this summer than at the Bee.
Hey, that one looks nice….
Not so coincidentally because of Janice’s inability to pilot our big-o-pickup truck on water and the winding down of having to bring large construction materials in the boat we decided to start looking around for a new boat. Our boat served it’s purpose well but being older it was nickeling and diming us to death on repairs
I don’t want to revisit old wounds but… the price of gas!!!! What is wrong with this world? Now we are paying European prices for gas here. I have been poking fun at people who own motor homes, huge pickups or Hummers. Ha! Meanwhile, we zip about in a boat that gets 1 (not a typo) mile per gallon of gas. (2 liters per Kilometer for our foreign friends and family)
Per mile!
The last straw was when we discovered that it is one of the few boats in existence that does not have an adjustable out drive. That means that you cannot raise the propeller and operate the boat in shallow water where there are rocks.
Ours is white with pinstripes and is a foot shorter than this
That is no small consideration when the river level drops in the fall (as much as 2 feet from summer highs) and we are planning to be here till Nov 1. Add that to the fact that we are no longer novice boaters so we have had a chance to get a better feel for what kind of boating we want to do and what kind of boat best meets our need. Needless to say, the best time to shop for a boat here is in the fall when they are all about to be tucked in for the winter and there are no buyers. We found a 19-foot Rinker bow rider. It is a different color than the one above, a foot shorter and it was previously owned by the proverbial “little old lady from Pasadena”. It is immaculate.
Now wait a minute….
I have noticed recently that different friends and family members have asked “So Michael, what are you going to do with yourself when you are all done with your construction projects?”
The tone is decidedly in the “workaholic” range.
Well boys and girls, I am here to tell you that some of you have me all wrong. My nature is to be as lazy as the best of them. The problem is that our financial resources have always fallen short of our ambitions and the only way we have been able to make the two meet is with sweat equity. Besides, we are way too particular as to how we want things to be to live with someone else’s idea of how our home should be. We were just not genetically cut out for that.
It might come as a big surprise to some that I don’t wake up in the morning and think “oh good, today I get to dig a trench or mix a batch of concrete or lay a slate floor” I would much prefer to do anything else but the only way to have the homes we have chosen to have is to build or remodel the darn things ourselves. Oh sure, there is a sense of satisfaction at doing things but the only thing that motivates us is enjoying the use of the finished product. Not the process.
If we could afford it I would love to pick up the phone and “call the man” to tell him to get his butt over here and get this ‘whatever’ done. In time, I hope to wrap some of the construction (except in California) and diversify my interests in purely decadent pleasurable activities.
I say “except in California” because I don’t think I will live long enough to finish the projects we have in mind for there.
Enough, talk to you next month.
XO Michael
[New and Improved! Now with pictures!!!!
Time is moving on
I called the Red Cross to offer to take in a few refugees from New Orleans (just wanted to help out) but when they found out that we didn't have a flushing toilet, running water (hot or cold) or a working shower, they offered us a bus ticket to Houston so we could get emergency shelter that met the basic UN humanitarian standards. They think that being this poor is funny, those assholes.
And so here we are. I am pleased to announce that my bride is still with me as we have officially gone from refugee status to regular people with flushing toilet. Praise the Lord!!!
This has been quite a productive month with 2 new outside doors installed, 3 new Maple framed living room windows installed, insulation, drywall, paint, slate floor (in the bathroom), bathroom sink and toilet (shower was already in)
Of course the rough plumbing was completed, tested and is in use.
Well, sort of in use.
The system is all running just fine but the only thing that “works” is the toilet, shower, bathroom sink and the outside faucets. That is because……….
The plumbing was quite a bit more involved than what is usually done in a home. For starters, we are not here during winter months and we don’t heat the place. Therefore, everything freezes solid. Frozen pipes with water in them burst. It is not unusual for cottagers to drain their plumbing lines before closing up for the winter and we are no exception. We have however set this up with the idea that an old man will be doing the work in 20 years. So we put air “nipples” in the lines. (Easy cowboy, that’s what they are called…) This compressed air is used to push the water out of the lines ensuring a problem free return. Then we added features that we don’t have in any of our other homes (yet), like re-circulation pumps. This ensures that every faucet has instant hot water without any delay day or night. We are cutting our ties from refugee status with a vengeance…Add to that a greywater system where all water that is not from the toilet or the food disposer side of the kitchen sink is allowed to gravity flow to a mulch field to filter out prior to flowing back to the river and it becomes a split system. If a need arises, a diverter valve can have all drains flow into the black water holding tank for pump out.
Next, we are getting down and dirty and blasting ahead with putting our kitchen together.
We love this place
Months after we have arrived I still occasionally hear Janice outside sitting by the river shouting, “I love the Bee” to no one in particular. Just an uncontrolled exclamation of overwhelming joy at the blessing that this place has brought us. We are thrilled that out “out in the woods” experience has been controlled to the point that we have no mosquitoes and fewer other bugs, creepy crawlers or spiders. We know that without our aggressive efforts to control them we would be over ridden with the little buggers. God bless Monsanto and Agent Orange!
We have found a backwoods one man lumber mill operator. This has allowed us to have a lot of custom cut, milled and processed Maple wood trim made to order for window and door framing, baseboards and general trim pieces including a bookcase I whipped up. This was particularly nice since all our kitchen cabinets and new interior window frames are all Maple also.
It’s a kick to see life on the water. We know it is a weekend if there are boats coming and going all day long. Holliday weekends are a real sight with a boat parade that never ends. During the week though, things are often quieter. The best boats are the ones that cause the whole cabin to vibrate. They go by at about 5 MPH but all 10 gazillion horsepower in their twin engines in these 60 foot long “cigarette” boats purrs with a deep rumble that sounds like the space shuttle warming up for a takeoff. These boats were built for only two things: speed and being 60-foot long “chick magnets”. Invariably, they are piloted by one guy with no less than 3 healthy looking “hood ornaments” laying out on the bow.
Come 6-7 PM though, the day trippers are all gone and we “river rats” are the only ones left. The river is all ours and the dawns and sunsets are the best we have ever seen anywhere. Coming from California, that’s a tall order.
It is a brand new experience for us to see the geese (sometimes referred to as “Canadian” geese but I have never checked their passports) begin to “practice” for their migration. They spend all summer long just hanging around and eating the riverweeds and laying in the sun. But now they fly around the area building up their flying stamina for the long trip and take turns in the lead.
Never a dull moment around here!
A couple of weeks ago we were just returning from a day out shopping when we got home and the phone was ringing. Janice ran up to answer while I docked the boat only to have my cousin in California tell us that Cassie has just undergone emergency gallbladder surgery.
Oookkkkkk………….
Run that by me again?
Cassie had had a couple of episodes of abdominal pains in the previous week, twice having gone to the emergency room. Batteries of tests later she had been released with no cause found. She was seeing a doctor to follow up and try to determine the cause when a dye test determined the culprit. Surgery followed within hours and when we got home it was already a done deal. Since it was a “fait accompli” the outcome was already known and Cassie was doing well. Because of the no fooling around last minute flight logistics involved, we decided that Daddy should go alone.
22 hours later, I was in Los Angeles by the baby’s hospital bedside. I spent a week cooking, driving, settling her in school and generally poor babying her back to health. Once back on her feet, I headed back. I had taken the boat to get back to the marina and driven the car to the airport in Buffalo 4 hours away to catch my flight to LA.
Janice has never been enthusiastic about taking the boat out by herself. It’s an older boat and is too big and awkward to handle alone. So she saw little point in coming to the marina with me. While she had plenty of supplies and had a week off from construction chores she did not miss her chance at a little drama by signing all of her emails with “Robinson Crusoe”. Then she would call our neighbors a hundred yards away and say “ hey, could you pick me up a quart of milk next time you go to the market?”
Meanwhile, I was conjuring up delightful mental images of returning to a woman who had been marooned on an island....
It seems like we have spent more time in California this summer than at the Bee.
Hey, that one looks nice….
Not so coincidentally because of Janice’s inability to pilot our big-o-pickup truck on water and the winding down of having to bring large construction materials in the boat we decided to start looking around for a new boat. Our boat served it’s purpose well but being older it was nickeling and diming us to death on repairs
I don’t want to revisit old wounds but… the price of gas!!!! What is wrong with this world? Now we are paying European prices for gas here. I have been poking fun at people who own motor homes, huge pickups or Hummers. Ha! Meanwhile, we zip about in a boat that gets 1 (not a typo) mile per gallon of gas. (2 liters per Kilometer for our foreign friends and family)
Per mile!
The last straw was when we discovered that it is one of the few boats in existence that does not have an adjustable out drive. That means that you cannot raise the propeller and operate the boat in shallow water where there are rocks.
Ours is white with pinstripes and is a foot shorter than thisThat is no small consideration when the river level drops in the fall (as much as 2 feet from summer highs) and we are planning to be here till Nov 1. Add that to the fact that we are no longer novice boaters so we have had a chance to get a better feel for what kind of boating we want to do and what kind of boat best meets our need. Needless to say, the best time to shop for a boat here is in the fall when they are all about to be tucked in for the winter and there are no buyers. We found a 19-foot Rinker bow rider. It is a different color than the one above, a foot shorter and it was previously owned by the proverbial “little old lady from Pasadena”. It is immaculate.
Now wait a minute….
I have noticed recently that different friends and family members have asked “So Michael, what are you going to do with yourself when you are all done with your construction projects?”
The tone is decidedly in the “workaholic” range.
Well boys and girls, I am here to tell you that some of you have me all wrong. My nature is to be as lazy as the best of them. The problem is that our financial resources have always fallen short of our ambitions and the only way we have been able to make the two meet is with sweat equity. Besides, we are way too particular as to how we want things to be to live with someone else’s idea of how our home should be. We were just not genetically cut out for that.
It might come as a big surprise to some that I don’t wake up in the morning and think “oh good, today I get to dig a trench or mix a batch of concrete or lay a slate floor” I would much prefer to do anything else but the only way to have the homes we have chosen to have is to build or remodel the darn things ourselves. Oh sure, there is a sense of satisfaction at doing things but the only thing that motivates us is enjoying the use of the finished product. Not the process.
If we could afford it I would love to pick up the phone and “call the man” to tell him to get his butt over here and get this ‘whatever’ done. In time, I hope to wrap some of the construction (except in California) and diversify my interests in purely decadent pleasurable activities.
I say “except in California” because I don’t think I will live long enough to finish the projects we have in mind for there.
Enough, talk to you next month.
XO Michael
August, 2005
The retired one’s August Epistle
Honey, were home!!!
Well, It doesn’t get much better than this. Months on end at the Bee.
It was a little schizophrenic at first. We had just arrived from Europe and within days we were off for a 6-week drive around the continent. 10,235 miles later, we were back at the Bee.
But wait.
We were off again. We had arrived just in time to attend my grandfather’s memorial service in Ottawa. He had passed at Christmas but his ashes were only now being interred in a ceremony that was attended by family gathered from all over the country. The ceremony was also attended by a large contingent of veterans and a military honor guard complete with a bagpipe player. It was a dignified, classy, elegant affair that was truly fitting the 6th remaining WW1 Canadian veteran out of 600,000 who fought.
The following day the extended family was invited to a ceremony that the retirement home he had lived in had organized. They were dedicating a wing of the home in his honor and had invited a whole gaggle of guests ranging from the mayor to representatives of government. There were no less than 4 camera crews from local TV stations in attendance.
Wow. I doubt they will make half this much fuss when I go….
Back at the Bee once again, we dug in for the long haul. Unfortunately, the boat had been docked for a while and unbeknownst to us the automatic bilge pump had run down the battery. So, our first bright morning back home we jumped in the boat to go to breakfast and do a little laundry. I turned the key and….nothing. Not a minor issue when you live on an island. I didn’t even have to ask who was going to get in their swimsuit and swim over to our neighbors to borrow a battery charger…
You will no doubt not be surprised to know that Honey Bee Island now sports one of the biggest battery chargers around.
It quickly got better, though. I spent a little extra time setting up my bride’s outdoor kitchen also. We are not just “camping” here for a little while like we have done the past few summers. This time we are here for months so it called for better preparation for the inevitable butt kicking thunderstorms to come. I reinforced the framing below the large tarp so that we can look as well as live like true refugees. The next time you see a news story about the starving Africans under a tarp out in the desert you can say, “hey, Janice has a kitchen like that!” Ironically, this while I am almost feeling guilty about cooking on the BBQ for the stars.
We are finding that it takes us a good week or two to get completely in the swing of things when we arrive either here or in France. It’s like there is a little bit of “ dislocation syndrome” It’s a combination of having to have phones turned back on, relocating tools and just plain re-acquainting ourselves with the project. I spent an hour just looking at my plumbing wondering, “why on earth did I do that?” Then, it finally hit me. “Of course, I thought, that makes perfect sense!” I had finally surmounted my “dislocation syndrome”
One of us has to go…
Janice spotted a squirrel on the loose. Big deal, you say. Well it is when you consider that we are on an island with no way for him to get off and we have an outdoor kitchen, remember?
How did he get here? By crossing over the ice and snow in the winter. It took me forever to trap (and release) him on the mainland.
That done, the waters we swim in near the dock once again became a weed free zone. (Relax my liberal friends, I didn’t “kill” them, I “harvested” them after they grew back from last year) Next, we turned on the propane powered mosquito magnet and sprayed the snot out of the place with bug spray and the Bee became a bug free zone. We have found that many of the effective bug sprays and varmint chemicals available to us in the US are not here. Canada is so green peace lovey dovey liberal that they have ruled “effective” out of the equation. We are beginning to address that deficiency.
Weed and bug free does not mean that we kill everything in sight. The lily pads on the river around the island are in full bloom and their flowers are big and beautiful. Janice has also become our resident bird watcher. It is hysterical to see her sitting on the porch with her binoculars; Oooooing and Aaahhing with her “birds of the North East” book in her lap. Just as long as she doesn’t go out there and start hugging trees……
Finally, we decided that it was high time to go hog wild and get high speed internet and turn Honey Bee Island into a WI-FI hot spot. For you “rubes” out there (non techno types) hot spot means that besides serious whop-de-do, you can operate a wireless laptop to access the Internet from anywhere on the island. (In fact, our closest neighbors in the US can also, on our network) Let it never be said that we don’t have our priorities straight. No flushing toilet yet but wireless Internet and satellite TV.
Are we having fun yet?
We jumped right in on our little remodeling project with Janice painting doors and my getting the last of our living room windows installed. The latter provide a lot of eye candy and give us a much needed sense of “this going somewhere” when weeks can pass with little visible results. Next came the last of the trench digging to complete the grey water plumbing system (I hate digging trenches) and finally hooking up the water pump in the river. Some of this infrastructure is taking longer to install than it normally would in part because we are planning for our being able to operate all of this equipment at an older age. The pump is raised and lowered in the river at the beginning and end of each season by an electrical winch so that an old man wont have to crawl in the river to drag it out by hand in the future.
We were invited to an art show in Clayton (US side). Our friend and neighbor Fran Ferrari had a few of her paintings on display. It was a classy wine and cheese affair and we had a great time. While not the only measure of her talent, the fact that both of her paintings sold for several hundreds of dollars each within minutes of the opening is one indication of our “artist’s” skills. That done, we went out to dinner with her family where they had the chance to show off their brand spanking new, barely-out-of-the-womb grandson.
While we don’t do it on purpose, occasionally we end up back at our marina ready to go home well after dark. Janice used to be much more apprehensive but each time it comes up she is getting more matter of fact about it. We are getting to know the river, shoals, rocky outcrops, islands and buoys like the back of our hand.
Yea, we know. You think, “they have to do this?” We think,” we get to do this!”
We have noticed that since we have arrived we have had little need for clothes. Because of both the heat and the work we do in the river we spend all day in our swimsuits and could reduce our clothing budget to zero. Were it not for the boaters that pass by we could reduce our swimsuit budget to zero but I need to keep a little mystery in this marriage.
Every year I look forward to returning to the Bee. It’s like reporting to the fat farm. I work my buns off in ways that I don’t anywhere else and it is the only way I seem to loose a little bit of the fat man belly and return to being a lean mean loving machine.
Our daily swims are great. Our arrival in early June was an eye opener though. I assumed that since we always swam every day before and the water temperature was always great, I would just run down to the dock and hurl myself into the river to get the season off to a start. Boys and girls, I am here to tell you that the water temperature in early June is….different. I looked like the cartoon character “Roadrunner”. I levitated out of the water and skimmed the surface like a jet ski to the swim ladder on the dock. Janice said that all she could see was a blur of arms and legs flailing towards the shore. But this is August, and the water is heaven.
My poor fishing friends would just cry. I like to swim with a mask to enjoy our aquarium. Under our dock lie a school of pan sized fish that nip at your heels if you stand still. Last summer Cassie used to fish not with a rod and reel, hooks and bait but with a bucket.
A bucket!
She could just throw the bucket in the water, let it sink near the bottom of the side of the dock (the water is so clear you can easily see everything) and wait a moment. Soon, fish would enter to explore and Voila!
Great, but I don’t fish.
It seems like we just got here and we are already planning our next travel cycle. We just finished purchasing all our airplane tickets and booked all our return reservations. There has been a slight change in our plans. Upon further reflection, we decided not to drive back to the West coast before returning to Langoat. We are going to fly to Seattle to see the kids then fly to LA. We will rent a car for the 10 days we will be in Southern California then fly from LA to Paris.
Well I am off. If in September’s Epistle I don’t have a flushing toilet and working kitchen to write about there is going to be a sad boy around here…as I may be here all by myself..
XO Michael
Honey, were home!!!
Well, It doesn’t get much better than this. Months on end at the Bee.
It was a little schizophrenic at first. We had just arrived from Europe and within days we were off for a 6-week drive around the continent. 10,235 miles later, we were back at the Bee.
But wait.
We were off again. We had arrived just in time to attend my grandfather’s memorial service in Ottawa. He had passed at Christmas but his ashes were only now being interred in a ceremony that was attended by family gathered from all over the country. The ceremony was also attended by a large contingent of veterans and a military honor guard complete with a bagpipe player. It was a dignified, classy, elegant affair that was truly fitting the 6th remaining WW1 Canadian veteran out of 600,000 who fought.
The following day the extended family was invited to a ceremony that the retirement home he had lived in had organized. They were dedicating a wing of the home in his honor and had invited a whole gaggle of guests ranging from the mayor to representatives of government. There were no less than 4 camera crews from local TV stations in attendance.
Wow. I doubt they will make half this much fuss when I go….
Back at the Bee once again, we dug in for the long haul. Unfortunately, the boat had been docked for a while and unbeknownst to us the automatic bilge pump had run down the battery. So, our first bright morning back home we jumped in the boat to go to breakfast and do a little laundry. I turned the key and….nothing. Not a minor issue when you live on an island. I didn’t even have to ask who was going to get in their swimsuit and swim over to our neighbors to borrow a battery charger…
You will no doubt not be surprised to know that Honey Bee Island now sports one of the biggest battery chargers around.
It quickly got better, though. I spent a little extra time setting up my bride’s outdoor kitchen also. We are not just “camping” here for a little while like we have done the past few summers. This time we are here for months so it called for better preparation for the inevitable butt kicking thunderstorms to come. I reinforced the framing below the large tarp so that we can look as well as live like true refugees. The next time you see a news story about the starving Africans under a tarp out in the desert you can say, “hey, Janice has a kitchen like that!” Ironically, this while I am almost feeling guilty about cooking on the BBQ for the stars.
We are finding that it takes us a good week or two to get completely in the swing of things when we arrive either here or in France. It’s like there is a little bit of “ dislocation syndrome” It’s a combination of having to have phones turned back on, relocating tools and just plain re-acquainting ourselves with the project. I spent an hour just looking at my plumbing wondering, “why on earth did I do that?” Then, it finally hit me. “Of course, I thought, that makes perfect sense!” I had finally surmounted my “dislocation syndrome”
One of us has to go…
Janice spotted a squirrel on the loose. Big deal, you say. Well it is when you consider that we are on an island with no way for him to get off and we have an outdoor kitchen, remember?
How did he get here? By crossing over the ice and snow in the winter. It took me forever to trap (and release) him on the mainland.
That done, the waters we swim in near the dock once again became a weed free zone. (Relax my liberal friends, I didn’t “kill” them, I “harvested” them after they grew back from last year) Next, we turned on the propane powered mosquito magnet and sprayed the snot out of the place with bug spray and the Bee became a bug free zone. We have found that many of the effective bug sprays and varmint chemicals available to us in the US are not here. Canada is so green peace lovey dovey liberal that they have ruled “effective” out of the equation. We are beginning to address that deficiency.
Weed and bug free does not mean that we kill everything in sight. The lily pads on the river around the island are in full bloom and their flowers are big and beautiful. Janice has also become our resident bird watcher. It is hysterical to see her sitting on the porch with her binoculars; Oooooing and Aaahhing with her “birds of the North East” book in her lap. Just as long as she doesn’t go out there and start hugging trees……
Finally, we decided that it was high time to go hog wild and get high speed internet and turn Honey Bee Island into a WI-FI hot spot. For you “rubes” out there (non techno types) hot spot means that besides serious whop-de-do, you can operate a wireless laptop to access the Internet from anywhere on the island. (In fact, our closest neighbors in the US can also, on our network) Let it never be said that we don’t have our priorities straight. No flushing toilet yet but wireless Internet and satellite TV.
Are we having fun yet?
We jumped right in on our little remodeling project with Janice painting doors and my getting the last of our living room windows installed. The latter provide a lot of eye candy and give us a much needed sense of “this going somewhere” when weeks can pass with little visible results. Next came the last of the trench digging to complete the grey water plumbing system (I hate digging trenches) and finally hooking up the water pump in the river. Some of this infrastructure is taking longer to install than it normally would in part because we are planning for our being able to operate all of this equipment at an older age. The pump is raised and lowered in the river at the beginning and end of each season by an electrical winch so that an old man wont have to crawl in the river to drag it out by hand in the future.
We were invited to an art show in Clayton (US side). Our friend and neighbor Fran Ferrari had a few of her paintings on display. It was a classy wine and cheese affair and we had a great time. While not the only measure of her talent, the fact that both of her paintings sold for several hundreds of dollars each within minutes of the opening is one indication of our “artist’s” skills. That done, we went out to dinner with her family where they had the chance to show off their brand spanking new, barely-out-of-the-womb grandson.
While we don’t do it on purpose, occasionally we end up back at our marina ready to go home well after dark. Janice used to be much more apprehensive but each time it comes up she is getting more matter of fact about it. We are getting to know the river, shoals, rocky outcrops, islands and buoys like the back of our hand.
Yea, we know. You think, “they have to do this?” We think,” we get to do this!”
We have noticed that since we have arrived we have had little need for clothes. Because of both the heat and the work we do in the river we spend all day in our swimsuits and could reduce our clothing budget to zero. Were it not for the boaters that pass by we could reduce our swimsuit budget to zero but I need to keep a little mystery in this marriage.
Every year I look forward to returning to the Bee. It’s like reporting to the fat farm. I work my buns off in ways that I don’t anywhere else and it is the only way I seem to loose a little bit of the fat man belly and return to being a lean mean loving machine.
Our daily swims are great. Our arrival in early June was an eye opener though. I assumed that since we always swam every day before and the water temperature was always great, I would just run down to the dock and hurl myself into the river to get the season off to a start. Boys and girls, I am here to tell you that the water temperature in early June is….different. I looked like the cartoon character “Roadrunner”. I levitated out of the water and skimmed the surface like a jet ski to the swim ladder on the dock. Janice said that all she could see was a blur of arms and legs flailing towards the shore. But this is August, and the water is heaven.
My poor fishing friends would just cry. I like to swim with a mask to enjoy our aquarium. Under our dock lie a school of pan sized fish that nip at your heels if you stand still. Last summer Cassie used to fish not with a rod and reel, hooks and bait but with a bucket.
A bucket!
She could just throw the bucket in the water, let it sink near the bottom of the side of the dock (the water is so clear you can easily see everything) and wait a moment. Soon, fish would enter to explore and Voila!
Great, but I don’t fish.
It seems like we just got here and we are already planning our next travel cycle. We just finished purchasing all our airplane tickets and booked all our return reservations. There has been a slight change in our plans. Upon further reflection, we decided not to drive back to the West coast before returning to Langoat. We are going to fly to Seattle to see the kids then fly to LA. We will rent a car for the 10 days we will be in Southern California then fly from LA to Paris.
Well I am off. If in September’s Epistle I don’t have a flushing toilet and working kitchen to write about there is going to be a sad boy around here…as I may be here all by myself..
XO Michael
June / July, 2005
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Back in America.
Back to big juicy hamburgers eaten without sneers, jeers and raised eyebrows from all a sundry. Back to a country that serves breakfasts that are fit for someone with an appetite bigger than a bird. Back to being able to get something to eat anywhere, anytime at any hour of the day or night. Back to being able to shop 24/7/365. Back to not having to hold the gas pump handle the whole time your refueling. Back to $20. oil changes ($75. in Europe), $1. sodas in machines ($3.00 in la belle France), $7.00 drinks with dinner styled hors d’oeuvres with ocean view at our favorite haunt –and that’s for two people-($30.+++) Back to great TV, 4 Euro haircuts In Canada ($30. you know where) Dairy Queens, highways that don’t charge tolls and especially being able to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Ahhhhhh!
Unfortunately, as we have been driving about we have not seen a single Roman ruin. When we first got back, Janice even managed to tick off the gas station attendant by walking in and saying “Wow!. You sure sell your gas cheap here!” to a jeering crowd of customers.
.
No sooner were we back at the Bee that we found ourselves getting into old habits and getting up at 6 AM. The early sunrise and the noisy geese see to that. Janice is also back with her ongoing demands for yet another bathroom. “We already have 5 bathrooms,” I told her. It is just that none of them happen to be in Canada.
We attended Cassie’s high school graduation in Saskatchewan. It was great to see our baby walk across the stage to get her diploma. In a separate talent show intended as a tribute to parents, Cassie also performed one of my signature magic illusions in front of 600 parents and graduates. It was flawless and it brought the house down and has raised the question as to who is the better performer…….
It was great seeing the kids and grandchildreen in Montana and Seattle and we had wonderful visits with them. They are growing like weeds and thay are a real souce of pride for us. We have decided though that we are all done with the Canadian plains. This is the second time in 6 months we have crossed Canada to get there and it is not like the northern US states such as Montana. We found it too stark and boring. It does not look like prosperous farming to us.
Our stop at home in Arroyo Grande was reassuring as we found the house in pristine condition. Our renters are young guys who, according to the neighbors, don’t have friends come over, don’t party and by our reckoning have never cooked a single meal in the house. Their furniture is exquisite and tasteful. We hope these guys stay for a long time.
. Within the past few days we have left Southern California and are heading back to the Bee. (We are in Nebraska as I write this) While there, we drove back and forth to San Diego, LA and Arroyo Grande to pick up a boat outboard motor from a friend, Cassie’s stuff at home and visited family in Hemet outside of LA. As planned, we settled Cassie in school and an apartment and she got her car. We decided to stick around for a few extra days though to help her adjust to the big city. It was a godsend that her roommate turned out to be a 29-year-old professional who worked for LAPD for 2 years. and just bought a lovely 2 story townhouse. Cassie is set.
Incredibly, we had estimated that we would cover 7-8,000 miles on this particular trip. We now know that we will tip the scale at over 10,000 miles by the time we pull up to the marina. I wish I could add it to our frequent flyer miles. The fun and games will soon be over though and I will have to buckle down to a work project the likes of which I have not had to deal with since I built our house in California 20 years ago.
Bring it on!
Meanwhile, are are continuously amazed that day after day brings yet another day of doing what ever we want without any concern that this vacation will soon be over and we will have to go back to work. This retirement gig is truly amazing.
This will be a combination June / July newsletter. Being on the road just makes keeping up very hard
Au revoir for now.
Michel & Janice
Back to big juicy hamburgers eaten without sneers, jeers and raised eyebrows from all a sundry. Back to a country that serves breakfasts that are fit for someone with an appetite bigger than a bird. Back to being able to get something to eat anywhere, anytime at any hour of the day or night. Back to being able to shop 24/7/365. Back to not having to hold the gas pump handle the whole time your refueling. Back to $20. oil changes ($75. in Europe), $1. sodas in machines ($3.00 in la belle France), $7.00 drinks with dinner styled hors d’oeuvres with ocean view at our favorite haunt –and that’s for two people-($30.+++) Back to great TV, 4 Euro haircuts In Canada ($30. you know where) Dairy Queens, highways that don’t charge tolls and especially being able to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Ahhhhhh!
Unfortunately, as we have been driving about we have not seen a single Roman ruin. When we first got back, Janice even managed to tick off the gas station attendant by walking in and saying “Wow!. You sure sell your gas cheap here!” to a jeering crowd of customers.
.
No sooner were we back at the Bee that we found ourselves getting into old habits and getting up at 6 AM. The early sunrise and the noisy geese see to that. Janice is also back with her ongoing demands for yet another bathroom. “We already have 5 bathrooms,” I told her. It is just that none of them happen to be in Canada.
We attended Cassie’s high school graduation in Saskatchewan. It was great to see our baby walk across the stage to get her diploma. In a separate talent show intended as a tribute to parents, Cassie also performed one of my signature magic illusions in front of 600 parents and graduates. It was flawless and it brought the house down and has raised the question as to who is the better performer…….
It was great seeing the kids and grandchildreen in Montana and Seattle and we had wonderful visits with them. They are growing like weeds and thay are a real souce of pride for us. We have decided though that we are all done with the Canadian plains. This is the second time in 6 months we have crossed Canada to get there and it is not like the northern US states such as Montana. We found it too stark and boring. It does not look like prosperous farming to us.
Our stop at home in Arroyo Grande was reassuring as we found the house in pristine condition. Our renters are young guys who, according to the neighbors, don’t have friends come over, don’t party and by our reckoning have never cooked a single meal in the house. Their furniture is exquisite and tasteful. We hope these guys stay for a long time.
. Within the past few days we have left Southern California and are heading back to the Bee. (We are in Nebraska as I write this) While there, we drove back and forth to San Diego, LA and Arroyo Grande to pick up a boat outboard motor from a friend, Cassie’s stuff at home and visited family in Hemet outside of LA. As planned, we settled Cassie in school and an apartment and she got her car. We decided to stick around for a few extra days though to help her adjust to the big city. It was a godsend that her roommate turned out to be a 29-year-old professional who worked for LAPD for 2 years. and just bought a lovely 2 story townhouse. Cassie is set.
Incredibly, we had estimated that we would cover 7-8,000 miles on this particular trip. We now know that we will tip the scale at over 10,000 miles by the time we pull up to the marina. I wish I could add it to our frequent flyer miles. The fun and games will soon be over though and I will have to buckle down to a work project the likes of which I have not had to deal with since I built our house in California 20 years ago.
Bring it on!
Meanwhile, are are continuously amazed that day after day brings yet another day of doing what ever we want without any concern that this vacation will soon be over and we will have to go back to work. This retirement gig is truly amazing.
This will be a combination June / July newsletter. Being on the road just makes keeping up very hard
Au revoir for now.
Michel & Janice
May, 2005
Greetings from France. (May’s epistle)
Well, the visiting onslaught has come and gone, and we survived it unscathed. It was every bit as much fun as we hoped it would be and we are now accepting reservations for the 2006 season (Dec- May). FYI: Book early for the best dates.
We are back at work on our final house project for this year (putting the laundry room / 2nd bathroom together from scratch) and think we just might pull it off before we turn into pumpkins and leave to catch our flight to JFK on May 28th. I have finished my stonework for this year. It was tricky figuring out how to get odd sized and shaped stones to fit together. But, following the advice of my mentor who would say “let the stones talk to you, they will tell you where they should go” I got it done. Now I think I better get out of here because I think I am beginning to hear what they have to say.
No sooner did I get the stone work done and began on the rest of the bathroom project that my “teacher” casually mentioned to Janice one day that at one time our house had two full sized fireplaces, one at each end of our living / dining rooms. Janice’s eyes lit up and she began to salivate. The house only had the fireplaces for heat before the latest remodel, when they were removed and filled in, covering a 3-foot deep cavity in thes tonewalls at each end of the rooms. The flue is still there because they installed a potbelly type fireplace in its place for efficiency even though the charm has been lost. Francois has promised her that he will find traditional fireplace stones (no, not little stones like our fireplace at the Bee, but a 500-600 pound stone mantle and oversized side support stones from an old historical salvaged fireplace. I see more stonework in my future.
Then there is the question of that cute little sauna we saw that….ah, forget it. You wouldn’t believe me anyways…
I must admit that these past 5 months here have been everything we had hoped for (and expected), so we are leave with a real feeling of satisfaction regarding our decision to make living here part of the year part of our retired lifestyle. It has been quite an education. I know that I have casually mentioned once or twice that the price of gas here is only 2 1/2 times that of current prices in the US. People visiting us here didn’t seem to mind much, partly because they don’t always fully understand the relationship between a currency they are not familiar with (the Euro) and gasoline quantities that they may or may not be familiar with (liters). But mostly they are only here for a week or two so it is only short term anyway so they don’t really care. They just see it as part of the cost to take a vacation here. Boys and girls, I am here to tell you that it is different when you live here.
I have mentioned before that some things are not terribly high priced but that most things are about 30-50% higher. Yes, it’s partly due to the weak dollar, but many things are just more expensive. Sometimes, outrageously so. I paid $90. (60 Euros) the other day to have the oil changed in our little Toyota, something that would have cost $25. at home. Then, walking through a store I saw a $2000. stainless steel BBQ that was half the size of the one we bought for the Bee that we paid almost half as much for. When I reacted in horror to the prices, locals shrugged and told me “ that’s how much it costs here”. Fine, but that’s why the standard of living here is lower. Things cost more. Period.
These people are such a trip…..
The government here recently decided to have everyone in the country work a legal holiday and to not be paid for it. Last years heat wave in Europe left 15,000 elderly people dead in France alone so the government wanted to raise money for elder care and other social programs and decided that this would be the best way to do it. Sure there would be protests from malcontents but like democrats at home, this government has never seen a giveaway program it didn’t love.
The rail workers union here came up with the most innovative solution of all. They said that they would take the day off as planned but would make it up to the government by working an extra minute and fifty two seconds per work day for the next year. Turns out that it will add up to exactly one extra workday…….
More travels…….
We just got back from another jaunt to Germany to spend a week with Mandy before our return to the US. It was fun to see new stuff along the way like some of the religious relics at some of the cathedrals. I was not aware of how many important relics are preserved and it has been quite an experience getting up close and personal with them. In Amiens for instance, we say the scull of St. John de Baptist in a silver display container. http://leonardfrank.com/Worldheritage/Amiens.html On June 24th every year, the people of Quebec in Canada have a parade and waive flags in his honor, in Amiens they have a parade with his head on a platter.
In Koln we saw the gold casket that reportedly contains the bones of the 3 wise men. Now for you pagans this is not Mo, Curly and Larry. Nor is it Lenin, Marx and Engels. These people take their relics seriously and hang onto them for a long time. (These were first brought to the cathedral in the early 1200’s) They keep them in a 3 foot X 3 foot X 5 foot long elaborately carved gold container within a 2” thick bullet proof glass case rigged with alarms. They swear to the authenticity, carbon dating and the whole shooting match. http://taylorrhome.dyndns.org/Germany/kolnex.htm
Finally, we stopped at the American Cemetery at Aisne Marne where the WW1 battle at Belleau Woods took place.
I know. I never heard of it either, but Janice had and so we stopped….something about all the books she reads…
We have seen the American cemetery in Normandy at Utah Beach and it was incredible. But we expected that. We also expected that this WW1 relic out in the middle of nowhere in France would be little more than a weeded field with rusted barbed wire around it. Yikes!
Instead, we found a pristine 42-acre monument that is on par with Arlington. This is not an “also ran”. http://www.abmc.gov/am.htm In fact, we found out that the US government maintains 21 overseas cemeteries all over the world on a total budget of $24 million for the whole lot. Very impressive.
Next year….
We are beginning to plan next year’s European travels. We are thinking that perhaps when we return to see Mandy in Germany, we might just continue into Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Venice in Italy before coming home. This would be in keeping with our plan to use our European based home as a springboard to travel to different parts of the continent each year without it being simply a quick “trip” from the US.
But first…..
Back to the Bee. Back to having to carry buckets of water from the river to flush the toilet, a kitchen under a tarp on the deck and a place that generally looks like a cross between a refugee camp and a warehouse. Or worse. My poor wife.
But not for long…..
See ya next month.
Michael
Well, the visiting onslaught has come and gone, and we survived it unscathed. It was every bit as much fun as we hoped it would be and we are now accepting reservations for the 2006 season (Dec- May). FYI: Book early for the best dates.
We are back at work on our final house project for this year (putting the laundry room / 2nd bathroom together from scratch) and think we just might pull it off before we turn into pumpkins and leave to catch our flight to JFK on May 28th. I have finished my stonework for this year. It was tricky figuring out how to get odd sized and shaped stones to fit together. But, following the advice of my mentor who would say “let the stones talk to you, they will tell you where they should go” I got it done. Now I think I better get out of here because I think I am beginning to hear what they have to say.
No sooner did I get the stone work done and began on the rest of the bathroom project that my “teacher” casually mentioned to Janice one day that at one time our house had two full sized fireplaces, one at each end of our living / dining rooms. Janice’s eyes lit up and she began to salivate. The house only had the fireplaces for heat before the latest remodel, when they were removed and filled in, covering a 3-foot deep cavity in thes tonewalls at each end of the rooms. The flue is still there because they installed a potbelly type fireplace in its place for efficiency even though the charm has been lost. Francois has promised her that he will find traditional fireplace stones (no, not little stones like our fireplace at the Bee, but a 500-600 pound stone mantle and oversized side support stones from an old historical salvaged fireplace. I see more stonework in my future.
Then there is the question of that cute little sauna we saw that….ah, forget it. You wouldn’t believe me anyways…
I must admit that these past 5 months here have been everything we had hoped for (and expected), so we are leave with a real feeling of satisfaction regarding our decision to make living here part of the year part of our retired lifestyle. It has been quite an education. I know that I have casually mentioned once or twice that the price of gas here is only 2 1/2 times that of current prices in the US. People visiting us here didn’t seem to mind much, partly because they don’t always fully understand the relationship between a currency they are not familiar with (the Euro) and gasoline quantities that they may or may not be familiar with (liters). But mostly they are only here for a week or two so it is only short term anyway so they don’t really care. They just see it as part of the cost to take a vacation here. Boys and girls, I am here to tell you that it is different when you live here.
I have mentioned before that some things are not terribly high priced but that most things are about 30-50% higher. Yes, it’s partly due to the weak dollar, but many things are just more expensive. Sometimes, outrageously so. I paid $90. (60 Euros) the other day to have the oil changed in our little Toyota, something that would have cost $25. at home. Then, walking through a store I saw a $2000. stainless steel BBQ that was half the size of the one we bought for the Bee that we paid almost half as much for. When I reacted in horror to the prices, locals shrugged and told me “ that’s how much it costs here”. Fine, but that’s why the standard of living here is lower. Things cost more. Period.
These people are such a trip…..
The government here recently decided to have everyone in the country work a legal holiday and to not be paid for it. Last years heat wave in Europe left 15,000 elderly people dead in France alone so the government wanted to raise money for elder care and other social programs and decided that this would be the best way to do it. Sure there would be protests from malcontents but like democrats at home, this government has never seen a giveaway program it didn’t love.
The rail workers union here came up with the most innovative solution of all. They said that they would take the day off as planned but would make it up to the government by working an extra minute and fifty two seconds per work day for the next year. Turns out that it will add up to exactly one extra workday…….
More travels…….
We just got back from another jaunt to Germany to spend a week with Mandy before our return to the US. It was fun to see new stuff along the way like some of the religious relics at some of the cathedrals. I was not aware of how many important relics are preserved and it has been quite an experience getting up close and personal with them. In Amiens for instance, we say the scull of St. John de Baptist in a silver display container. http://leonardfrank.com/Worldheritage/Amiens.html On June 24th every year, the people of Quebec in Canada have a parade and waive flags in his honor, in Amiens they have a parade with his head on a platter.
In Koln we saw the gold casket that reportedly contains the bones of the 3 wise men. Now for you pagans this is not Mo, Curly and Larry. Nor is it Lenin, Marx and Engels. These people take their relics seriously and hang onto them for a long time. (These were first brought to the cathedral in the early 1200’s) They keep them in a 3 foot X 3 foot X 5 foot long elaborately carved gold container within a 2” thick bullet proof glass case rigged with alarms. They swear to the authenticity, carbon dating and the whole shooting match. http://taylorrhome.dyndns.org/Germany/kolnex.htm
Finally, we stopped at the American Cemetery at Aisne Marne where the WW1 battle at Belleau Woods took place.
I know. I never heard of it either, but Janice had and so we stopped….something about all the books she reads…
We have seen the American cemetery in Normandy at Utah Beach and it was incredible. But we expected that. We also expected that this WW1 relic out in the middle of nowhere in France would be little more than a weeded field with rusted barbed wire around it. Yikes!
Instead, we found a pristine 42-acre monument that is on par with Arlington. This is not an “also ran”. http://www.abmc.gov/am.htm In fact, we found out that the US government maintains 21 overseas cemeteries all over the world on a total budget of $24 million for the whole lot. Very impressive.
Next year….
We are beginning to plan next year’s European travels. We are thinking that perhaps when we return to see Mandy in Germany, we might just continue into Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Venice in Italy before coming home. This would be in keeping with our plan to use our European based home as a springboard to travel to different parts of the continent each year without it being simply a quick “trip” from the US.
But first…..
Back to the Bee. Back to having to carry buckets of water from the river to flush the toilet, a kitchen under a tarp on the deck and a place that generally looks like a cross between a refugee camp and a warehouse. Or worse. My poor wife.
But not for long…..
See ya next month.
Michael
April, 2005
Greetings from the retired one, (AKA April’s epistle)
5 months into this and I am really getting into the groove of things. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this. We celebrated our 21st anniversary the other day and we are extremely grateful for our health, our wealth and not getting emergency phone calls at 3 AM from any of the kids.
We are mindful that in just 6 more weeks we will be on our way back to the Island for just a few days before starting an 8,000 mile round trip journey that will take us to Saskatchewan to go to Cassie’s graduation, then on to Montana to see Wesley, shoot over to Seattle to see my favorite son in law, daughter and grandkids before dropping down to California to do a little work on our house and see my in laws before driving to Los Angeles to see Kami who is our rising star in the entertainment industry and set Cassie up in an apartment before she starts her Mortuary Science degree at Cyprus College in September. Then, after a stop to see friends in San Diego and family in Hemet we will drive back across the country to the Bee to play for the summer and fall.
Whew. I need a drink.
As for Mandy, she is doing great at Koln University in Germany. She passed the German language entry exam and is completing the required German “pre university” course. She will then be eligible for several German Universities depending on her choice of international law or psychology.
Or both. You go girl.
Life here continues to educate
I was starting to work on remodeling our 2nd bathroom / laundry room when I discovered a small leak out of our hot water heater safety valve. Thinking that it had a little piece of sediment stuck in the valve I purged it to clear it of any debris. Of course this only made it much worse, causing a stream of water to run non-stop out of the valve into the drain. The best part was that we were expecting 4 women to come spend 5 days with us within hours.
It was impossible to deal with the problem until they left, but then I had to pull out the water heater to replace the valve. Everything went well except that when I was done the tank was too big and heavy to put back on its support stand (me alone or with Janice). Thinking about my situation, I dashed across the street to our grocer to get some milk and mentioned my dilemma. He called to the only customer in the back of the store;
“Hey Marguerite, mind the store. I have to give Michel a hand”. With that, we walked across the street, put the tank up and it was a done deal. Very French.
Speaking of remodeling…..
My great, great, great, great, great grandfather would be proud
One of the reasons we picked Brittany to make our European home away from home was because of all the stone homes. Since we have been here, I have been wanting to do some stonework in our remodeling and some re-pointing of some of the existing stonework in the house. Recently I found someone in our village that was doing some of his own work so I befriended him only to find out that he has been a stonemason for 30 years. After being thoroughly trained by him, he turned me loose to do my own work. So I set about the task and it has worked out great.
I have been thinking about offering to do minor repairs on the stonewalls to both of our village chapels. These are the little chapels that are circa 1300, no longer used but stand as memorials of times gone by. The repairs would be in keeping with the adage that “a stitch in time, saves nine” What a privilege it would be to be allowed to work on something so historical. We want to invest a little something into our village and help break down the last barriers that may exist as to our being outsiders.
The kicker is that our genealogical family tree lists that the oldest known Laprade in the woodpile dates from the mid 1600’s and that his occupation was that of a French stonemason. Give you the willies, doesn’t it?
Anything else new?
It’s kind of cute to see how often the French use English in their common day usage. I have mentioned in a past Epistle that English music is heard everywhere in stores, etc. But a surprising number of stores and commercial establishments sport English names too. “Baby World, Super Sport, Best Of, Week End, Hamburger World,”
Get the idea?
European TV is different too. We have forsaken French TV because watching it in English gives Janice a respite from ‘all things French, all the time’. So, we had both of our satellite dishes pointed to British networks. Overall, it has been better than I expected. I am still not fond of British humor (Oh, pleaaase!) but there are many new dramas we have taken to that were previously unknown to us.
For all the talk of American loss of morals and sexual content of our commercial programs, we don’t hold a candle to the Europeans. Here they don’t skip a beat with full nudity as part of family hour programming.
You’re going to love this….
We have been surprised by the quality of the medical care in France. We have each had the odd ailments that have required us to see a doctor once or twice. While our medical insurance is valid anywhere in the world, French health care is socialized (like Canada) so local health care providers do not have a clue what it is, requiring us to pay up front then get reimbursed by our insurance ourselves. It was hysterical to be seen by the doctor and have him charge me 20 Euros for the visit adding that I could send my receipt in for reimbursement. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his total fee was less than my co pay.
The best part was when I went to see the pharmacist to get a little medication for a sore throat and she brought out a box of suppositories.
Suppositories?
I apologized and said that clearly I had not explained myself properly because what ailed me was at the other end. It was my throat that was irritated, not my..…. Well you know. “Yes” she said, “ this is exactly what you need”. O KKK…….
Bigger than life, the box said “For treatment of sore throats”. I tried it and within hours I was noticeably better. It’s a little like many of the medications here; few are in gelatin capsules. Most are in a powder form to be mixed in water. At first we thought “gimme a break, can’t they figure out how to put this stuff in capsule form”? But then we realized that there are many advantages to this. It’s cheaper to manufacture, faster acting and like the suppositories, goes straight to the bloodstream. Maybe that’s why the WHO rates France as the #1 country for quality of medical care (USA is # 6)
Hey, this really worked out…..
When we decided to buy a home here, our plan was that it would be a financial wash over the expected 20-year timeline we hope to have this place. That is, if we were to vacation in Europe for some time each year for 20 years the cost would be a wash with the cost of owning our home here. In year 2 since we bought the house, it has turned out to be a much better investment than we had hoped. Property prices have gone up 25% each year since our purchase, something that has not happened in Brittany in several generations.
Well that’s all for now,
Regards to all from our side of the world.
Michael
5 months into this and I am really getting into the groove of things. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this. We celebrated our 21st anniversary the other day and we are extremely grateful for our health, our wealth and not getting emergency phone calls at 3 AM from any of the kids.
We are mindful that in just 6 more weeks we will be on our way back to the Island for just a few days before starting an 8,000 mile round trip journey that will take us to Saskatchewan to go to Cassie’s graduation, then on to Montana to see Wesley, shoot over to Seattle to see my favorite son in law, daughter and grandkids before dropping down to California to do a little work on our house and see my in laws before driving to Los Angeles to see Kami who is our rising star in the entertainment industry and set Cassie up in an apartment before she starts her Mortuary Science degree at Cyprus College in September. Then, after a stop to see friends in San Diego and family in Hemet we will drive back across the country to the Bee to play for the summer and fall.
Whew. I need a drink.
As for Mandy, she is doing great at Koln University in Germany. She passed the German language entry exam and is completing the required German “pre university” course. She will then be eligible for several German Universities depending on her choice of international law or psychology.
Or both. You go girl.
Life here continues to educate
I was starting to work on remodeling our 2nd bathroom / laundry room when I discovered a small leak out of our hot water heater safety valve. Thinking that it had a little piece of sediment stuck in the valve I purged it to clear it of any debris. Of course this only made it much worse, causing a stream of water to run non-stop out of the valve into the drain. The best part was that we were expecting 4 women to come spend 5 days with us within hours.
It was impossible to deal with the problem until they left, but then I had to pull out the water heater to replace the valve. Everything went well except that when I was done the tank was too big and heavy to put back on its support stand (me alone or with Janice). Thinking about my situation, I dashed across the street to our grocer to get some milk and mentioned my dilemma. He called to the only customer in the back of the store;
“Hey Marguerite, mind the store. I have to give Michel a hand”. With that, we walked across the street, put the tank up and it was a done deal. Very French.
Speaking of remodeling…..
My great, great, great, great, great grandfather would be proud
One of the reasons we picked Brittany to make our European home away from home was because of all the stone homes. Since we have been here, I have been wanting to do some stonework in our remodeling and some re-pointing of some of the existing stonework in the house. Recently I found someone in our village that was doing some of his own work so I befriended him only to find out that he has been a stonemason for 30 years. After being thoroughly trained by him, he turned me loose to do my own work. So I set about the task and it has worked out great.
I have been thinking about offering to do minor repairs on the stonewalls to both of our village chapels. These are the little chapels that are circa 1300, no longer used but stand as memorials of times gone by. The repairs would be in keeping with the adage that “a stitch in time, saves nine” What a privilege it would be to be allowed to work on something so historical. We want to invest a little something into our village and help break down the last barriers that may exist as to our being outsiders.
The kicker is that our genealogical family tree lists that the oldest known Laprade in the woodpile dates from the mid 1600’s and that his occupation was that of a French stonemason. Give you the willies, doesn’t it?
Anything else new?
It’s kind of cute to see how often the French use English in their common day usage. I have mentioned in a past Epistle that English music is heard everywhere in stores, etc. But a surprising number of stores and commercial establishments sport English names too. “Baby World, Super Sport, Best Of, Week End, Hamburger World,”
Get the idea?
European TV is different too. We have forsaken French TV because watching it in English gives Janice a respite from ‘all things French, all the time’. So, we had both of our satellite dishes pointed to British networks. Overall, it has been better than I expected. I am still not fond of British humor (Oh, pleaaase!) but there are many new dramas we have taken to that were previously unknown to us.
For all the talk of American loss of morals and sexual content of our commercial programs, we don’t hold a candle to the Europeans. Here they don’t skip a beat with full nudity as part of family hour programming.
You’re going to love this….
We have been surprised by the quality of the medical care in France. We have each had the odd ailments that have required us to see a doctor once or twice. While our medical insurance is valid anywhere in the world, French health care is socialized (like Canada) so local health care providers do not have a clue what it is, requiring us to pay up front then get reimbursed by our insurance ourselves. It was hysterical to be seen by the doctor and have him charge me 20 Euros for the visit adding that I could send my receipt in for reimbursement. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his total fee was less than my co pay.
The best part was when I went to see the pharmacist to get a little medication for a sore throat and she brought out a box of suppositories.
Suppositories?
I apologized and said that clearly I had not explained myself properly because what ailed me was at the other end. It was my throat that was irritated, not my..…. Well you know. “Yes” she said, “ this is exactly what you need”. O KKK…….
Bigger than life, the box said “For treatment of sore throats”. I tried it and within hours I was noticeably better. It’s a little like many of the medications here; few are in gelatin capsules. Most are in a powder form to be mixed in water. At first we thought “gimme a break, can’t they figure out how to put this stuff in capsule form”? But then we realized that there are many advantages to this. It’s cheaper to manufacture, faster acting and like the suppositories, goes straight to the bloodstream. Maybe that’s why the WHO rates France as the #1 country for quality of medical care (USA is # 6)
Hey, this really worked out…..
When we decided to buy a home here, our plan was that it would be a financial wash over the expected 20-year timeline we hope to have this place. That is, if we were to vacation in Europe for some time each year for 20 years the cost would be a wash with the cost of owning our home here. In year 2 since we bought the house, it has turned out to be a much better investment than we had hoped. Property prices have gone up 25% each year since our purchase, something that has not happened in Brittany in several generations.
Well that’s all for now,
Regards to all from our side of the world.
Michael
March, 2005
Greetings from the retired one. (AKA Michael’s Epistle for March)
Well 4 months into this retirement gig and I am getting the hang of it. My boss hasn’t called once for me to get back to work so I am beginning to really think I am home free and will continue to be paid for doing what ever my wife want’s.
It’s not all been wine and roses. California has had torrential rains this winter and our house there had our first renter in one month when a sewer line settled, clogger and caused backflow into the house. It took days for them to determine that it was not a backed up septic tank, water seeping up through the slab from all the rains or a cracked pipe in a wall.
They finally found the problem when they ran a robotic camera through the drain line…..chaching $$$$, chaching $$$$. To add insult to injury, the tile lifted in both downstairs bathrooms and the metal flange had rusted out at the cement line below one toilet, requiring them to jackhammer out the concrete under the toilet so they could replace it with a stainless steel one, then cut through the driveway pavement to run a new sewer line.
Our one month old renter was less than impressed considering that he had replaced the carpets in the house at his expense when he move in and they were now all contaminated with sewer….eh…..stuff. As it continued to rain nonstop, there were long delays in the plumber’s ability to do the work, making it simply impossible for our renter to actually live in the house so he had to move in with a friend nearby until it was back under control.
The good news is that we are smart enough to carry the best insurance that money can buy. We have the ‘super duper homeowners plus premium extra coverage’ type of policy. The bad news is that the first line in our coverage guide says that the only two things it will not cover are acts of God and water backing up into the house.
Sucks to be us.
This $10,000. hit will slow our projects down a little, but as my grandfather used to tell me, “it only hurts for a little while”
Duck, incoming……
We have sent out invitations far and wide believing (but not hoping) that with the distance and all few would actually take us up on it. We either seriously underestimated the powerfull draw of our magnetic personalities, or the number of pandering relatives, hangers on and leaches we know.
Seriously, we are excited that we are beginning an almost 3 month period of wall to wall visitors (If you don’t have a confirmed reservation by now, fuhgeddaboutit) Hopefully, they wont feel that we oversold them on the area and will leave with the same longing we have to return. (If not, we will settle for them just leaving!! J ) We have outings planned for all types depending on interests, age and ability. This is going to be fun.
Why can’t they just be like us…..
Surprisingly, driving here continues to require some of the biggest ongoing adjustments. It’s not hard in most ways. We didn’t have to get French licenses so there was no test to pass and getting insurance was just a matter of paying the bill. The laws, by and large are the same or at least quite similar. A few interesting exceptions are if you are:
· Caught driving 30MPH over the speed limit, it is a $2,000. fine
· No drivers license? $20,000. fine (no, it is not a typo)
· No insurance? $5,000. fine
So what’s the issue?
Well, the little things. Everyone knows that the streets in Europe are narrower than ours at home. The towns especially were all built eons ago so there was no traffic plan. Most roads travel willy nilly where ever there was the smallest or easyest obstacle, paying no mind to anyone being able to find their way around, much less vehicular traffic. It is not uncommon to find a large tree seriously impeding traffic flow or the corner of a buiding being out a foot into your lane forcing you to drive around it. They make it work alright but in a way we would never see or accept at home. Sure we have places like old town Boston where the streets are similar to here (non standard and narrow) and it is cute. But here it’s everywhere all the time and if the same conditions existed at home, a liability lawyer would feel like he has died and gone to heaven.
It is not at all uncommon for people or cars to pull over to let people or cars by before they continue on their way. The ‘roadway’ is simply not wide enough. The rule of thumb seems to be if the roadway is unbelievably narrow, it is designated as a two way street with parking allowed on both sides and drivers are to suck it up and get a life. If the coblestone street is ridiculously narrow it is still a two way street with drivers working it out among themselves as to who will pull over until the other passes (you are to fold in your mirrors to fit, if required). If the laws of physics preclude two golf carts being side by side then it’s a one way street with parking permited wherever. I am not complaining, I just said it takes adjusting to.
Speaking of parking, it is always amusing to ask an officer almost anywhere in Europe if it is OK to park in a certain spot, only to be politely told “no, you may not park there”. Fair enough, except that as the officer is telling me this, there are no less than a dozen other cars parked in the same area with no consequences. For anyone who has not seen the parking situation themselves it is almost not believable. Cars will park in ways that would cause instant road rage at home. I don’t know if the officers have simply given up or realise that there is simply no place for anyone to park and so ‘go along to get along’.
Interestingly, most businesses or private parking facilities have but one entry and exit to their parking area. That means that when you enter and drive all over kingdom come to find a parking place, the real fun is when you try to leave. You are now in a rats maze that allow you to drive up and down rows of cars often ending at a dead end where you have to back up to try another aisle only to suffer the same outcome. Hey, this doesn’t make them bad people, just not real Americans! I said I was adjusting……
An asside of sorts are the coblestone streets. Everyone knows that there are lots of them in Europe and they are ‘cute’. The truth is that as you would expect, the highways and country roads are all paved, as are some town and city streets. But an awfull lot of the rest of the town and city streets are coblestone (I figure about 50%) – and that includes some 10 lane main boulevards in Paris by the ‘Arch De Triomphe’. That, boys and girls, is a lot of coblestone. They are noisier, rougher, and when they settle unevenly they are often left with their deep ruts in the streets. But, they are so cute and last f o r e v e r… many I suspect are hundreeds of years old.
One key and serious difference in driving laws is that in France drivers have different rights of way. In America, drivers driving through on a road (going straight) have the right of way. Another driver coming from a driveway or side street must yield to through traffic and may only proceed after, when it it is safe.
But nooooooooooo, not in ‘La Belle France’. Here, the driver entering on the right, has right of way. No matter if from a driveway or side street, if he is not at a stop sign he is free to jump right in and God help you if you hit him.
It took me a full three months to stop slamming on the brakes everytime I approached a driveway or side street where I could not see if there was a vehicle coming. One more thing for which I will have to check myself into the DMV’s detox program or re education camp when I get back.
We had planned to insure our car only for the 6 months that we are here. Kind of like we do with our car in the States. Recently though, we found out that the law in France requires that if you own a vehicle here you must have liability insurance on it, period. If you lock your car in your garage and someone breaks in, steals it and damages something or hurts someone, YOU are compleately liable.
Finally on the driving subject, they have a really great system here that when you are listening to CD’s or the radio in the car, your radio is automaticaly redirected to the emergency chanel (without you doing a thing) to broadcast weather, accident or other emergency driving messages. When the announcement is over, your CD or radio station goes back on by itself. Neat, huh?
And another thing…
I am simply blown away by the front entrance and garage doors to many homes and businesses throughout a lot of Europe. I am astounded by the sheer number that have high-end hardwood, ellegant as all get out, natural finish (varnished or stained but not
painted) wood doors. They are the type one would expect to see on very expensive homes or corporate headquarters offices.
No, not everyone has them and there is plenty of ratty junk to be seen also but there is a disproportionate number of homes and businesses that do have them, including a number that I question if the appearance of the home itself justify’s them. Bear in mind that many businesses have double doors that lead into these old stone buildings and the doors can be 8-10 feet wide and 12-14 feet tall and some are 3-4 inches thick! $hopped for a set of those, lately?
The more we have traveled throughout Europe, the more I realise how many medieval towns there are still in existance. I remember the first one we found (Provins) on a previous trip. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A no fooling around, moat surrounded, William Tell looking, 1000 year old, still lived in to this day, town.
Wow.
Now, dozens of medieval towns later, I know that there are hundreeds more. Oh, some are older than others and some are bigger. Some are better preserved. Some are more what (in my minds eye) they should look like
http://www.prolocosoriano.it/En/galleria_foto_eng.htm But they all have history dripping all over them and I have come to realise that there is not enough money on the planet to save and preserve them all. It seems ironic to me that what many generations built and re-built after wars and fires, todays generation is unable to even maintain.
I promise not to be a potty mouth, but I do have something to say about them. (Potty’s, that is) They are different. No, I am not going to bore you with banalities that are similar as to what we find at home (some are clean, some aren’t) or that some cost up to a $1.50 to use.
What does make them really different is that in some places like department stores, they are located in an ‘open to the world’ recessed space facing the row of cash registers and everyone in line. There are knee to shoulder privacy partitions allowing men to use the urinals while otherwise being in full view of of God and everybody.
Other bathrooms are co-ed. Everyone walks in togeather to an area that has the sinks and towels. Then, within this room are separate cubicles that have toilets in them. In this configuration there are usually no urinals.
Our favorite are what we have heard refered to as Greek bathrooms. (No slur intended) The, eh….’toilet’ area looks like the ceramic base of a shower stall with a 3 inch hole in it, like a shower drain.
Don’t ask.
I have elected not to participate, so I don’t know.
A final general observation is that I have noticed that almost everywhere where ‘mood’ music is played (department stores, gas stations, elevators, hardware and grocery stores) it is almost invariably soft American rock music. English singing (obviously) artists. Oh, it may have interspersed French, German or Italian artists depending on the country you are in, but by far most of the music is American. Hmmm…
We have recently returned from a trip to Italy and the south of France. I was pretty miffed at the number of toll roads and have precviously written about our unsuccessfull attempt at avoiding them. Well, as is often the case, things are not always what they appear to be.
Don’t get me wrong. The toll roads that criss cross the continent are in super condition. Call me naïve, but I think that with the fuel taxes we all pay (on both continents) we should have the right to expect great roads without the need for additional tolls.
With perhaps one exception.
The roads we drove from ‘Cannes’ to ‘Pisa’, a 6 hour drive, is spent almost in it’s entirety either on bridges or in tunnels. Big deal, you’re thinking. There are bridges and tunnels everywhere. Yes, but the topography in this area is such that you are driving across craggy cliffs, like fingers pointed to the sea. You are either in tunnels (some many kilometers long through rock) or you are on bridges spanning the ravines between.
For 6 hours.
At first, it’s kinda cool. But after several hours it occurred to me that “ hey, this must have been verrrrrrrrrrrrry expensive to build and maintain”. OK, I’ll pay the toll.
We are thrilled that we have put enough time be-bopping about that we are wearing out our first set of maps of some areas. How fun is that?.
Is today Monday?
People often assume that retired people don’t care what day it is. Well, by and large, it’s true. The only reason we give a hoot is to make sure we don’t miss church on Sunday, we don’t show up at stores when they are closed or worse, have friends show up on our doorstep to visit and have lost track of their arrival date.
One thing we do keep close track of is our current project. While we were quick to tell everyone that our house here was ‘turnkey’ finished, I have come to realise that our little projects will add about 35% more living space to the house bringing it up to 2500 sq ft. The good news is that we will then have 3 bathrooms. The bad news is that we currently only have one.
And, we have lots of company coming…….
I am always amused at people asking “is everything finished yet” ? I can remember for years my mother asking if our first house was ‘finished’. This, while Janice and I were working full time and with 5 kids at home. I guess building homes are often equated to hanging curtains or putting up wallpaper in the back room.
Don’t get me wrong, we are moving forward. I have finished insullating our master bath and bedroom. I have made a passthrough from a hall closet into an unfinished, uninsulated laundry room. (Yes mom, I have finished insulating it also)
A Passthrough? “You mean all you did is cut a doorway in a wall” ?
Well,…….. yea.
This wall though, was 24” thick stone. Nothing that a jackhammer, 5 days and 130 bucket fulls of debris carried down a flight of stairs to the car in the garage and driven to the dump couldn’t take care of. But now the fun part; converting it into a full second bathroom with laundry facilities –with separate entrance. The current configuration allows entry into the laundry room -from our existing bathroom. Not cool.
Lets get together in April and do this again.
Michael
PS: If you are going to drive here, bring all the gold bars you have because when you get to the gas stations, your going to need them.......
Well 4 months into this retirement gig and I am getting the hang of it. My boss hasn’t called once for me to get back to work so I am beginning to really think I am home free and will continue to be paid for doing what ever my wife want’s.
It’s not all been wine and roses. California has had torrential rains this winter and our house there had our first renter in one month when a sewer line settled, clogger and caused backflow into the house. It took days for them to determine that it was not a backed up septic tank, water seeping up through the slab from all the rains or a cracked pipe in a wall.
They finally found the problem when they ran a robotic camera through the drain line…..chaching $$$$, chaching $$$$. To add insult to injury, the tile lifted in both downstairs bathrooms and the metal flange had rusted out at the cement line below one toilet, requiring them to jackhammer out the concrete under the toilet so they could replace it with a stainless steel one, then cut through the driveway pavement to run a new sewer line.
Our one month old renter was less than impressed considering that he had replaced the carpets in the house at his expense when he move in and they were now all contaminated with sewer….eh…..stuff. As it continued to rain nonstop, there were long delays in the plumber’s ability to do the work, making it simply impossible for our renter to actually live in the house so he had to move in with a friend nearby until it was back under control.
The good news is that we are smart enough to carry the best insurance that money can buy. We have the ‘super duper homeowners plus premium extra coverage’ type of policy. The bad news is that the first line in our coverage guide says that the only two things it will not cover are acts of God and water backing up into the house.
Sucks to be us.
This $10,000. hit will slow our projects down a little, but as my grandfather used to tell me, “it only hurts for a little while”
Duck, incoming……
We have sent out invitations far and wide believing (but not hoping) that with the distance and all few would actually take us up on it. We either seriously underestimated the powerfull draw of our magnetic personalities, or the number of pandering relatives, hangers on and leaches we know.
Seriously, we are excited that we are beginning an almost 3 month period of wall to wall visitors (If you don’t have a confirmed reservation by now, fuhgeddaboutit) Hopefully, they wont feel that we oversold them on the area and will leave with the same longing we have to return. (If not, we will settle for them just leaving!! J ) We have outings planned for all types depending on interests, age and ability. This is going to be fun.
Why can’t they just be like us…..
Surprisingly, driving here continues to require some of the biggest ongoing adjustments. It’s not hard in most ways. We didn’t have to get French licenses so there was no test to pass and getting insurance was just a matter of paying the bill. The laws, by and large are the same or at least quite similar. A few interesting exceptions are if you are:
· Caught driving 30MPH over the speed limit, it is a $2,000. fine
· No drivers license? $20,000. fine (no, it is not a typo)
· No insurance? $5,000. fine
So what’s the issue?
Well, the little things. Everyone knows that the streets in Europe are narrower than ours at home. The towns especially were all built eons ago so there was no traffic plan. Most roads travel willy nilly where ever there was the smallest or easyest obstacle, paying no mind to anyone being able to find their way around, much less vehicular traffic. It is not uncommon to find a large tree seriously impeding traffic flow or the corner of a buiding being out a foot into your lane forcing you to drive around it. They make it work alright but in a way we would never see or accept at home. Sure we have places like old town Boston where the streets are similar to here (non standard and narrow) and it is cute. But here it’s everywhere all the time and if the same conditions existed at home, a liability lawyer would feel like he has died and gone to heaven.
It is not at all uncommon for people or cars to pull over to let people or cars by before they continue on their way. The ‘roadway’ is simply not wide enough. The rule of thumb seems to be if the roadway is unbelievably narrow, it is designated as a two way street with parking allowed on both sides and drivers are to suck it up and get a life. If the coblestone street is ridiculously narrow it is still a two way street with drivers working it out among themselves as to who will pull over until the other passes (you are to fold in your mirrors to fit, if required). If the laws of physics preclude two golf carts being side by side then it’s a one way street with parking permited wherever. I am not complaining, I just said it takes adjusting to.
Speaking of parking, it is always amusing to ask an officer almost anywhere in Europe if it is OK to park in a certain spot, only to be politely told “no, you may not park there”. Fair enough, except that as the officer is telling me this, there are no less than a dozen other cars parked in the same area with no consequences. For anyone who has not seen the parking situation themselves it is almost not believable. Cars will park in ways that would cause instant road rage at home. I don’t know if the officers have simply given up or realise that there is simply no place for anyone to park and so ‘go along to get along’.
Interestingly, most businesses or private parking facilities have but one entry and exit to their parking area. That means that when you enter and drive all over kingdom come to find a parking place, the real fun is when you try to leave. You are now in a rats maze that allow you to drive up and down rows of cars often ending at a dead end where you have to back up to try another aisle only to suffer the same outcome. Hey, this doesn’t make them bad people, just not real Americans! I said I was adjusting……
An asside of sorts are the coblestone streets. Everyone knows that there are lots of them in Europe and they are ‘cute’. The truth is that as you would expect, the highways and country roads are all paved, as are some town and city streets. But an awfull lot of the rest of the town and city streets are coblestone (I figure about 50%) – and that includes some 10 lane main boulevards in Paris by the ‘Arch De Triomphe’. That, boys and girls, is a lot of coblestone. They are noisier, rougher, and when they settle unevenly they are often left with their deep ruts in the streets. But, they are so cute and last f o r e v e r… many I suspect are hundreeds of years old.
One key and serious difference in driving laws is that in France drivers have different rights of way. In America, drivers driving through on a road (going straight) have the right of way. Another driver coming from a driveway or side street must yield to through traffic and may only proceed after, when it it is safe.
But nooooooooooo, not in ‘La Belle France’. Here, the driver entering on the right, has right of way. No matter if from a driveway or side street, if he is not at a stop sign he is free to jump right in and God help you if you hit him.
It took me a full three months to stop slamming on the brakes everytime I approached a driveway or side street where I could not see if there was a vehicle coming. One more thing for which I will have to check myself into the DMV’s detox program or re education camp when I get back.
We had planned to insure our car only for the 6 months that we are here. Kind of like we do with our car in the States. Recently though, we found out that the law in France requires that if you own a vehicle here you must have liability insurance on it, period. If you lock your car in your garage and someone breaks in, steals it and damages something or hurts someone, YOU are compleately liable.
Finally on the driving subject, they have a really great system here that when you are listening to CD’s or the radio in the car, your radio is automaticaly redirected to the emergency chanel (without you doing a thing) to broadcast weather, accident or other emergency driving messages. When the announcement is over, your CD or radio station goes back on by itself. Neat, huh?
And another thing…
I am simply blown away by the front entrance and garage doors to many homes and businesses throughout a lot of Europe. I am astounded by the sheer number that have high-end hardwood, ellegant as all get out, natural finish (varnished or stained but not
painted) wood doors. They are the type one would expect to see on very expensive homes or corporate headquarters offices.
No, not everyone has them and there is plenty of ratty junk to be seen also but there is a disproportionate number of homes and businesses that do have them, including a number that I question if the appearance of the home itself justify’s them. Bear in mind that many businesses have double doors that lead into these old stone buildings and the doors can be 8-10 feet wide and 12-14 feet tall and some are 3-4 inches thick! $hopped for a set of those, lately?
The more we have traveled throughout Europe, the more I realise how many medieval towns there are still in existance. I remember the first one we found (Provins) on a previous trip. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A no fooling around, moat surrounded, William Tell looking, 1000 year old, still lived in to this day, town.
Wow.
Now, dozens of medieval towns later, I know that there are hundreeds more. Oh, some are older than others and some are bigger. Some are better preserved. Some are more what (in my minds eye) they should look like
http://www.prolocosoriano.it/En/galleria_foto_eng.htm But they all have history dripping all over them and I have come to realise that there is not enough money on the planet to save and preserve them all. It seems ironic to me that what many generations built and re-built after wars and fires, todays generation is unable to even maintain.
I promise not to be a potty mouth, but I do have something to say about them. (Potty’s, that is) They are different. No, I am not going to bore you with banalities that are similar as to what we find at home (some are clean, some aren’t) or that some cost up to a $1.50 to use.
What does make them really different is that in some places like department stores, they are located in an ‘open to the world’ recessed space facing the row of cash registers and everyone in line. There are knee to shoulder privacy partitions allowing men to use the urinals while otherwise being in full view of of God and everybody.
Other bathrooms are co-ed. Everyone walks in togeather to an area that has the sinks and towels. Then, within this room are separate cubicles that have toilets in them. In this configuration there are usually no urinals.
Our favorite are what we have heard refered to as Greek bathrooms. (No slur intended) The, eh….’toilet’ area looks like the ceramic base of a shower stall with a 3 inch hole in it, like a shower drain.
Don’t ask.
I have elected not to participate, so I don’t know.
A final general observation is that I have noticed that almost everywhere where ‘mood’ music is played (department stores, gas stations, elevators, hardware and grocery stores) it is almost invariably soft American rock music. English singing (obviously) artists. Oh, it may have interspersed French, German or Italian artists depending on the country you are in, but by far most of the music is American. Hmmm…
We have recently returned from a trip to Italy and the south of France. I was pretty miffed at the number of toll roads and have precviously written about our unsuccessfull attempt at avoiding them. Well, as is often the case, things are not always what they appear to be.
Don’t get me wrong. The toll roads that criss cross the continent are in super condition. Call me naïve, but I think that with the fuel taxes we all pay (on both continents) we should have the right to expect great roads without the need for additional tolls.
With perhaps one exception.
The roads we drove from ‘Cannes’ to ‘Pisa’, a 6 hour drive, is spent almost in it’s entirety either on bridges or in tunnels. Big deal, you’re thinking. There are bridges and tunnels everywhere. Yes, but the topography in this area is such that you are driving across craggy cliffs, like fingers pointed to the sea. You are either in tunnels (some many kilometers long through rock) or you are on bridges spanning the ravines between.
For 6 hours.
At first, it’s kinda cool. But after several hours it occurred to me that “ hey, this must have been verrrrrrrrrrrrry expensive to build and maintain”. OK, I’ll pay the toll.
We are thrilled that we have put enough time be-bopping about that we are wearing out our first set of maps of some areas. How fun is that?.
Is today Monday?
People often assume that retired people don’t care what day it is. Well, by and large, it’s true. The only reason we give a hoot is to make sure we don’t miss church on Sunday, we don’t show up at stores when they are closed or worse, have friends show up on our doorstep to visit and have lost track of their arrival date.
One thing we do keep close track of is our current project. While we were quick to tell everyone that our house here was ‘turnkey’ finished, I have come to realise that our little projects will add about 35% more living space to the house bringing it up to 2500 sq ft. The good news is that we will then have 3 bathrooms. The bad news is that we currently only have one.
And, we have lots of company coming…….
I am always amused at people asking “is everything finished yet” ? I can remember for years my mother asking if our first house was ‘finished’. This, while Janice and I were working full time and with 5 kids at home. I guess building homes are often equated to hanging curtains or putting up wallpaper in the back room.
Don’t get me wrong, we are moving forward. I have finished insullating our master bath and bedroom. I have made a passthrough from a hall closet into an unfinished, uninsulated laundry room. (Yes mom, I have finished insulating it also)
A Passthrough? “You mean all you did is cut a doorway in a wall” ?
Well,…….. yea.
This wall though, was 24” thick stone. Nothing that a jackhammer, 5 days and 130 bucket fulls of debris carried down a flight of stairs to the car in the garage and driven to the dump couldn’t take care of. But now the fun part; converting it into a full second bathroom with laundry facilities –with separate entrance. The current configuration allows entry into the laundry room -from our existing bathroom. Not cool.
Lets get together in April and do this again.
Michael
PS: If you are going to drive here, bring all the gold bars you have because when you get to the gas stations, your going to need them.......
February, 2005
Greetings from the retired one (February)
Well the hollidays are over and the kids are all back at school. For some people that means they won’t be back till dinner but for us it means we won’t see them for months. But with a stiff upper lip, we are determined to suck it up and deal with it.
We are going to travel.
Rise and shine….
But first,we gotta get our act togeather. We have noticed that being at a different latitude means that it is darker later in the morning than we are accustomed to. That, coupled with the fact that I have always abhored getting up when it is still dark has meant that we are never up before 9:30 AM
I know this because our village does not leave the street lights on all night. They go out at 10:30 PM and don’t come back on until 7AM and then go out again at 8:30AM when it finally gets light enough.
So, if we wake up and the streetlights are on we know that a) it is too darn early to get up and b) it is not 8:30 yet.
We know it is 9AM if the lights are out and we can hear the schoolteacher in the schoolyard next door ring one of those old fashioned handheld bells, calling the kids in for their classes. After that, we have to rely on the town churh bell ringing every half hour. We soon realise that if we don’t hurry up and get up to have breakfast, we will be late for lunch.
I have vowed that come the next New Years, my resolution will be to discipline myself to get my act together and get up earlier.
Life here continues to facinate….
We always get a kick out of discovering new facets of life in Europe. One that we discovered was when we recently took a friend out for lunch. After the meal was over I still had a fair amount left on my plate (a great chicken dish) so I asked the waiter to have it wrapped so that I could take it home. Our friend started to laugh saying “oh, you are such a kidder, Michel” When she realised that I was serious, she informed me that in France, it is considered quite gauche to take any left overs from your meal with you.except in rare cases, for your dog. (Oh that’s why it’s called a doggie bag!!!)
Well, excuuuuuuuuuuse me! That might be the case at the hoity toyty places where you eat out at but us poor unemployed would rather eat lunch left overs than to dumspter dive for dinner any time.
Speaking of food, an interesting thing about it is how you get it. When you grocery shopping, all the shopping carts are chained togeather outside in the parking lot. To get yours, you have to stick a one euro coin or token in a locking mechanism to release your cart. Then to get your coin back you have to return the cart to its proper place and relock it, releasing your coin. It’s a clever way to insure compliance but somehow it’s so un-American.
The kicker is that when you get through the check out line you are left standing there looking quite stupid because you have a $100. of groceries on the conveyer belt and no place to put them. You see, none of the stores have bags (grocery or other).
France, (and all of Europe really, are full of ‘fruits-and-nuts-Greenpeace-Kyoto treaty-loving-tree-huggers’) You are supposed to bring your own bags with you into the stores. They sell multiple use canvas bags for this use and will often replace them for free to encourage you to be “green”. We still only remember to bring ours in half the time, so one of us (guess who) has to quickly go back to the car while the other is in the chekout line.
After two months here, I still can’t get over the number of stone buildings that look like they could be great homes or what ever but are deteriorating into ruins. The problem is that when the roof collapses on these old derelict buildings, you would think that the stone walls would continue to stand for almost ever but they don’t. The thick stone walls are made of a solid outer and inner layer. But between them lies a fill of smaller stone, mud and whatever “filler”, like icing between two layers of a cake. When the rain gets into this layer from the top after the roof opening has exposed it, it washes away and expands and contracts untill it collapses. I would love to see them all salvaged because they are soooooooo beautiful, but there are thousands of them..
By the way, that’s why if they gave you one of the hundreeds of private chateaux’s in France you would loose it. The upkeep alone would be astronomical. Still, they look great in the pictures and even better in person.
The price of gas is outrageous…
Sometimes I wish Liberals had a clue as to what they were talking about and were right when they say that the reason we went to war in Iraq was for the darn oil. What this country needs is a regime change to bring about needed reforms in their gas taxation policies.
Some of the new obsevations we have had was to notice that the traffic signal lights are not quite at the corner of the intersections. This means that they are not on the oposite side of the street when you come to a stop. Also, the pedestrian crosswalks are prior to the streetlights. What this means in practice is that if you come to an intersection as you do at home, you now find that a) you have driven through the crosswalk and that b) the signal lights are now above and behind your line of sight (over the roof of the car), making it ackward to know when the light is green and you can go.
I found this out in Paris, when I was pulled over by an angry ‘Gendarme’. After eh…., inadvertedly identifying myself with what within the family is fondly refered to as ‘Masterbadge” the officer pointed out that as colleagues of sorts, surely we could reason togeather.
We did.
Probably due in part to my not pointing out the shortcomings of their system, I was on my way.
Having traveled an average of 1000 km per week since we have arrived Dec 1, we are starting to get a real good feel for driving conditions. One of the things we have noticed is that frequently you will find a large, clear sign indicating the road you wish to take. Then, a mere hundred yards up the road will be a fork in the road of equal size and importance, clearly dividing the road in two very distinct directions without as much as a hint as to which one goes where. Even after you have made your choice, there will be no signage of any kind as to what road you are now actually on.
As you have already surmised, it doesn’t matter which one you choose because you eventually determine you are going the wrong way and you get to pay the toll going back to where you should have gone in the first place.
Most major highways in Italy are toll roads and if you decide to bypass them to “see the country and it’s people” you will. …..every town and hamlet in the country. Trying to find your way through every city in the country without maps (you can’t have detailed street maps of every city in the country with you) in a language you don’t speak or read (except France) is quite daunting. So in practice, it’s back to the toll roads.
Who among us has not noticed at one time or another the highway crosses on the roadside marking the place where fatal traffic accidents have occurred. Well here it is no different except that in some places the state has taken matters in it’s own hands. They place a completely black almost lifesize silhouette outline of a person (kind of like a target without the bullseye) on the roadside where the accident occurred. In the center of the chest, they paint a red heart with a crack in it (like a broken heart). Sometimes there are several togeather. They sure make a point.
Did I mention that the price of gas is outrageous?
And the truth shall make you free….
Part of making part of our life here is trying to truly understand the French mindset. We have traveled around the country and seen many WWI and WWII memorials “to the heros who fell to free the country”. What is unmistakable though, is that these town memorials are almost always shared. That is the names of the fallen from both wars are inscribed on the same memorial. The problem is that there is a long list of names under the WWI side of the monument (when the French actually fought) and very few names on the WWII side (when the French gave up and sat out the war being occupied by the Germans) Few French died in actual combat.
Particularly gauling (no pun intended) was seeing a monument at the D-Day beaches in Normandy next to the Canadian landing area on the beach stating that:
At this place, our glorious president Charles DeGaule
began the liberation of France and Europe
Yea, right. This while leading the fight from London where he hid out the entire war until it was safe for him to return.. I expect that the Brits, Americans and Canadians on the beaches were just his ‘back up’ in case they were needed…..
We visited the war museum in Paris where we heard an explanation that the ‘Maginot’ line had worked!
www.maginot-line.com/ang/c_forum_base.htm
The explanation was that since the Germans never breached it, therefore, it worked. This, completely ignoring the fact that the Germans simply went around it or flew over it, ignoring it altogether.
When we talk to older people here in our village about the war they have great stories to tell, but to listen to them, everybody was part of the resistance. There is a marker in front of a house near the beach here that indicates that it had been used as a refuge for resistance fighters during the war. One sometimes wonders just who they were resisting.
It seems to us that the French are simply delusional regarding their participation in the war and will continue to be in order to keep any sense of national pride.
Next stop, Italy…..
As I write this we have just returned from being on the road for over 2 weeks for a side trip to Italy. I think I had previously mentioned that one of the great things about having a home here was being within 1 days drive of 8 countries. I was wrong. Closer inspection of driving distances revealed that we could actually reach 13. Within 2 days drive we could reach 23. This in the time we could drive to Oregon from home.
This time though we drove through ‘Tours’, a city that had suffered a lot of bombing damage,‘Bourges’
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.bourgestourisme.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbourges%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
in the Loire valley with yet another spectacular cathedral, ‘Luynes’ an entire village built in the Limestone cliffs,
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.luynes.fr/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dluynes%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
‘Lyon’ and ‘Vichy’ where the French government was run for the better part of the war when the armistace was signed.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWvichy.htm
When we reached the south of France we drove through the French / Italian Alps down the Mediteranean to Pisa (tower) and to ‘Soriano nel Cimino’,
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.prolocosoriano.it/&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSoriano%2Bnel%2BCimino%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
a midieval village an hour out of Rome where we based ourselves for a week in a 17th century ‘Palazzo’ (palace). Boy, was it ever. Our bedroom had a coffered ceiling and a Jacuzi in our bathroom. The lobby had a fresco painted on the ceiling and our living room had a huge fireplace, stone floors, ornately painted walls and a 14 foot ceiling with a spectacular eye level view of a 700 year old castle on the opposing hilltop.
Bitching!
We spent the week visiting Rome (The Colloseum, Pantheon, Trivoly fountain, Spanish steps, ect) and the entire area before heading back home (!) (Our return trip consisted of driving to Siena in Tuscany,
http://www.knowital.com/Towns/sienandsan/html/siena_images_thumbmenu.html
‘Lubriano’ a tiny villvage of 30 families buit on a mountain peek, accessibly only by a pedestrian walkway,
http://www.lagodibolsena.org/images/album/altri_paesi/lubriano/lubriano_cat.html
the Italian and French Riviera, by way of Monte Carlo (Monaco), Nice, Cannes and St Tropez on the ‘Cotes d’Azur’. I wore my sunglasses the whole time so I could fit in with the beautiful people…..
Outside of ‘Nimes’ in Provence, we saw ‘Le pont du Gard’, the best preserved 3 level Roman aqueduct in existance today.
http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/pays/30-uzege/pont-gard/gb/
In ‘Millau’ we drove over the current record holder for the world’s tallest bridge (it was just opened a month ago).
http://www.viaducdemillaueiffage.com/
Well, on our last travel day on our way home we stopped by ‘Oradour-sur-Glane’ While hardly a ‘fun’ visit it was as educational as my visit to ‘Dachau’, the German extermination camp. The story is horrific but simple. June 10, 1940 the Nazi’s came into this little French town to retaliate for German losses. They gathered 642 people (192 kids) put the women and kids in the church, the men in barns and set the entire town on fire killing them all.
Every house and business was burned.
To this day, burned out baby carriages, pots and pans and all remain just where they layed after the attack. The entire town is preserved as a memorial and you walk the empty streets from house to house. The new ‘town’ was rebuilt nearby.
http://www.softadventure.net/oradour.htm
Enough.
A bientot!
Michael & Janice
Well the hollidays are over and the kids are all back at school. For some people that means they won’t be back till dinner but for us it means we won’t see them for months. But with a stiff upper lip, we are determined to suck it up and deal with it.
We are going to travel.
Rise and shine….
But first,we gotta get our act togeather. We have noticed that being at a different latitude means that it is darker later in the morning than we are accustomed to. That, coupled with the fact that I have always abhored getting up when it is still dark has meant that we are never up before 9:30 AM
I know this because our village does not leave the street lights on all night. They go out at 10:30 PM and don’t come back on until 7AM and then go out again at 8:30AM when it finally gets light enough.
So, if we wake up and the streetlights are on we know that a) it is too darn early to get up and b) it is not 8:30 yet.
We know it is 9AM if the lights are out and we can hear the schoolteacher in the schoolyard next door ring one of those old fashioned handheld bells, calling the kids in for their classes. After that, we have to rely on the town churh bell ringing every half hour. We soon realise that if we don’t hurry up and get up to have breakfast, we will be late for lunch.
I have vowed that come the next New Years, my resolution will be to discipline myself to get my act together and get up earlier.
Life here continues to facinate….
We always get a kick out of discovering new facets of life in Europe. One that we discovered was when we recently took a friend out for lunch. After the meal was over I still had a fair amount left on my plate (a great chicken dish) so I asked the waiter to have it wrapped so that I could take it home. Our friend started to laugh saying “oh, you are such a kidder, Michel” When she realised that I was serious, she informed me that in France, it is considered quite gauche to take any left overs from your meal with you.except in rare cases, for your dog. (Oh that’s why it’s called a doggie bag!!!)
Well, excuuuuuuuuuuse me! That might be the case at the hoity toyty places where you eat out at but us poor unemployed would rather eat lunch left overs than to dumspter dive for dinner any time.
Speaking of food, an interesting thing about it is how you get it. When you grocery shopping, all the shopping carts are chained togeather outside in the parking lot. To get yours, you have to stick a one euro coin or token in a locking mechanism to release your cart. Then to get your coin back you have to return the cart to its proper place and relock it, releasing your coin. It’s a clever way to insure compliance but somehow it’s so un-American.
The kicker is that when you get through the check out line you are left standing there looking quite stupid because you have a $100. of groceries on the conveyer belt and no place to put them. You see, none of the stores have bags (grocery or other).
France, (and all of Europe really, are full of ‘fruits-and-nuts-Greenpeace-Kyoto treaty-loving-tree-huggers’) You are supposed to bring your own bags with you into the stores. They sell multiple use canvas bags for this use and will often replace them for free to encourage you to be “green”. We still only remember to bring ours in half the time, so one of us (guess who) has to quickly go back to the car while the other is in the chekout line.
After two months here, I still can’t get over the number of stone buildings that look like they could be great homes or what ever but are deteriorating into ruins. The problem is that when the roof collapses on these old derelict buildings, you would think that the stone walls would continue to stand for almost ever but they don’t. The thick stone walls are made of a solid outer and inner layer. But between them lies a fill of smaller stone, mud and whatever “filler”, like icing between two layers of a cake. When the rain gets into this layer from the top after the roof opening has exposed it, it washes away and expands and contracts untill it collapses. I would love to see them all salvaged because they are soooooooo beautiful, but there are thousands of them..
By the way, that’s why if they gave you one of the hundreeds of private chateaux’s in France you would loose it. The upkeep alone would be astronomical. Still, they look great in the pictures and even better in person.
The price of gas is outrageous…
Sometimes I wish Liberals had a clue as to what they were talking about and were right when they say that the reason we went to war in Iraq was for the darn oil. What this country needs is a regime change to bring about needed reforms in their gas taxation policies.
Some of the new obsevations we have had was to notice that the traffic signal lights are not quite at the corner of the intersections. This means that they are not on the oposite side of the street when you come to a stop. Also, the pedestrian crosswalks are prior to the streetlights. What this means in practice is that if you come to an intersection as you do at home, you now find that a) you have driven through the crosswalk and that b) the signal lights are now above and behind your line of sight (over the roof of the car), making it ackward to know when the light is green and you can go.
I found this out in Paris, when I was pulled over by an angry ‘Gendarme’. After eh…., inadvertedly identifying myself with what within the family is fondly refered to as ‘Masterbadge” the officer pointed out that as colleagues of sorts, surely we could reason togeather.
We did.
Probably due in part to my not pointing out the shortcomings of their system, I was on my way.
Having traveled an average of 1000 km per week since we have arrived Dec 1, we are starting to get a real good feel for driving conditions. One of the things we have noticed is that frequently you will find a large, clear sign indicating the road you wish to take. Then, a mere hundred yards up the road will be a fork in the road of equal size and importance, clearly dividing the road in two very distinct directions without as much as a hint as to which one goes where. Even after you have made your choice, there will be no signage of any kind as to what road you are now actually on.
As you have already surmised, it doesn’t matter which one you choose because you eventually determine you are going the wrong way and you get to pay the toll going back to where you should have gone in the first place.
Most major highways in Italy are toll roads and if you decide to bypass them to “see the country and it’s people” you will. …..every town and hamlet in the country. Trying to find your way through every city in the country without maps (you can’t have detailed street maps of every city in the country with you) in a language you don’t speak or read (except France) is quite daunting. So in practice, it’s back to the toll roads.
Who among us has not noticed at one time or another the highway crosses on the roadside marking the place where fatal traffic accidents have occurred. Well here it is no different except that in some places the state has taken matters in it’s own hands. They place a completely black almost lifesize silhouette outline of a person (kind of like a target without the bullseye) on the roadside where the accident occurred. In the center of the chest, they paint a red heart with a crack in it (like a broken heart). Sometimes there are several togeather. They sure make a point.
Did I mention that the price of gas is outrageous?
And the truth shall make you free….
Part of making part of our life here is trying to truly understand the French mindset. We have traveled around the country and seen many WWI and WWII memorials “to the heros who fell to free the country”. What is unmistakable though, is that these town memorials are almost always shared. That is the names of the fallen from both wars are inscribed on the same memorial. The problem is that there is a long list of names under the WWI side of the monument (when the French actually fought) and very few names on the WWII side (when the French gave up and sat out the war being occupied by the Germans) Few French died in actual combat.
Particularly gauling (no pun intended) was seeing a monument at the D-Day beaches in Normandy next to the Canadian landing area on the beach stating that:
At this place, our glorious president Charles DeGaule
began the liberation of France and Europe
Yea, right. This while leading the fight from London where he hid out the entire war until it was safe for him to return.. I expect that the Brits, Americans and Canadians on the beaches were just his ‘back up’ in case they were needed…..
We visited the war museum in Paris where we heard an explanation that the ‘Maginot’ line had worked!
www.maginot-line.com/ang/c_forum_base.htm
The explanation was that since the Germans never breached it, therefore, it worked. This, completely ignoring the fact that the Germans simply went around it or flew over it, ignoring it altogether.
When we talk to older people here in our village about the war they have great stories to tell, but to listen to them, everybody was part of the resistance. There is a marker in front of a house near the beach here that indicates that it had been used as a refuge for resistance fighters during the war. One sometimes wonders just who they were resisting.
It seems to us that the French are simply delusional regarding their participation in the war and will continue to be in order to keep any sense of national pride.
Next stop, Italy…..
As I write this we have just returned from being on the road for over 2 weeks for a side trip to Italy. I think I had previously mentioned that one of the great things about having a home here was being within 1 days drive of 8 countries. I was wrong. Closer inspection of driving distances revealed that we could actually reach 13. Within 2 days drive we could reach 23. This in the time we could drive to Oregon from home.
This time though we drove through ‘Tours’, a city that had suffered a lot of bombing damage,‘Bourges’
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.bourgestourisme.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbourges%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
in the Loire valley with yet another spectacular cathedral, ‘Luynes’ an entire village built in the Limestone cliffs,
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.luynes.fr/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dluynes%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
‘Lyon’ and ‘Vichy’ where the French government was run for the better part of the war when the armistace was signed.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWvichy.htm
When we reached the south of France we drove through the French / Italian Alps down the Mediteranean to Pisa (tower) and to ‘Soriano nel Cimino’,
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.prolocosoriano.it/&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSoriano%2Bnel%2BCimino%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
a midieval village an hour out of Rome where we based ourselves for a week in a 17th century ‘Palazzo’ (palace). Boy, was it ever. Our bedroom had a coffered ceiling and a Jacuzi in our bathroom. The lobby had a fresco painted on the ceiling and our living room had a huge fireplace, stone floors, ornately painted walls and a 14 foot ceiling with a spectacular eye level view of a 700 year old castle on the opposing hilltop.
Bitching!
We spent the week visiting Rome (The Colloseum, Pantheon, Trivoly fountain, Spanish steps, ect) and the entire area before heading back home (!) (Our return trip consisted of driving to Siena in Tuscany,
http://www.knowital.com/Towns/sienandsan/html/siena_images_thumbmenu.html
‘Lubriano’ a tiny villvage of 30 families buit on a mountain peek, accessibly only by a pedestrian walkway,
http://www.lagodibolsena.org/images/album/altri_paesi/lubriano/lubriano_cat.html
the Italian and French Riviera, by way of Monte Carlo (Monaco), Nice, Cannes and St Tropez on the ‘Cotes d’Azur’. I wore my sunglasses the whole time so I could fit in with the beautiful people…..
Outside of ‘Nimes’ in Provence, we saw ‘Le pont du Gard’, the best preserved 3 level Roman aqueduct in existance today.
http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/pays/30-uzege/pont-gard/gb/
In ‘Millau’ we drove over the current record holder for the world’s tallest bridge (it was just opened a month ago).
http://www.viaducdemillaueiffage.com/
Well, on our last travel day on our way home we stopped by ‘Oradour-sur-Glane’ While hardly a ‘fun’ visit it was as educational as my visit to ‘Dachau’, the German extermination camp. The story is horrific but simple. June 10, 1940 the Nazi’s came into this little French town to retaliate for German losses. They gathered 642 people (192 kids) put the women and kids in the church, the men in barns and set the entire town on fire killing them all.
Every house and business was burned.
To this day, burned out baby carriages, pots and pans and all remain just where they layed after the attack. The entire town is preserved as a memorial and you walk the empty streets from house to house. The new ‘town’ was rebuilt nearby.
http://www.softadventure.net/oradour.htm
Enough.
A bientot!
Michael & Janice
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)