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
