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
