Greetings from the retired one,
Well it’s been a couple of months since I pulled the retirement plug and I thought I would check in with an update. To be honest, I have not ever woken up even once wondering if today was a workday like I used to occasionally. It is utterly amazing how quickly you adjust to the fact that the only thing you have to do today is what ever you please. No more feelings of “I-better-hurry-up-and-get-whatever-done-because-I-only-have-one-day-left-before-I-have-to-go-back-to-work”
Not that I feel that I can fritter or waste my time, but realizing that the only thing left that you HAVE to do is die sure gives a fellow some breathing room. Our cross-country trip is well behind us and we have surely settled in our new life in Europe. The bottom line? It’s everything we thought it would be and then some. But before I get too far ahead of myself, first the downside…..
The downside
France, like all countries, has it’s ….well, challenging aspects.
It’s expensive, everything is closed for two hours in the middle of the day and you have to pay just to pee. And the drivers…..
First,the costs. Most high-ticket items are not an issue to us anymore. We bought our house when the Euro was relatively lower almost two years ago and our area of France is reasonably priced to start with. We took a bath of sorts though when we got our car considering the Euro was almost at it’s high (making our dollar at a record low) and cars here are about 25% more expensive than in the US.
Food (not just restaurants) and many other day-to-day items (postage, haircuts) are 1/3 to 50% higher than in the US, including the exchange rate, making our cost of living here noticeably higher. We have come to realize that much of this simply reflects the high cost of petrol to transport goods and the 17% tax on everything. The irony that two dyed-in-the-wool-to-our-DNA, George Bush loving Republicans have picked two tax-em-till-they-bleed counties as alternative homes, has not escaped us.
Don’t get me started on the price of gas ($5.25 to $6.00 per gallon US, $1.30 to $1.75 US per liter) Toll roads are everywhere and expensive, and you often have to pay to use a bathroom in a public place (.40 to over a dollar no matter what you do in there…)
Jeeees!
Europe in general has fewer comforts and less luxury than found in America. That is not to say that you can’t have or buy anything here than you can at home. You can. It is just not as widely available or owned by as many people, in general. Some things though, are more sophisticated here and some designs are way ahead of anything I have seen at home. What we sometimes refer to “European styling”. You know it when you see it.
It is certainly a more “relaxed” country and it is reflected in its “laisser faire” (read that to mean “sometimes careless”) attitude. Road signs often direct you to the start of your journey but critical gaps will occur before you see the next directing signs. A GPS system is next on our shopping list.
What do I miss most? Microwavable popcorn, the History Channel and gas at $2.50 a gallon. Did I mention that gas prices are outrageous?
Street signs are not on a pole at any intersection. They are attached to the wall of buildings at some intersections, usually behind a flowerpot or some other obstruction. These so called signs are also miniscule, and you can’t read them properly until you have passed them saying,“ Oh! That’s the one we wanted!” We have noted that while we have traveled all over France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, we have yet to see a single pick up truck. We have seen little cars called “smart” cars. These are about the length of a motorcycle, carry two passengers and NO luggage. It looks like you could fold it in your back pocket and park it almost anywhere.
French driving habits are a subject that could take pages to adequately cover. Suffice it to say that impossibly narrow streets and a crush of vehicles demands creative solutions. But, it takes some getting used to see cars parked on sidewalks and double-parking everywhere. In Paris, traffic is so congested that motorcycles travel in the oncoming lane until the oncoming car is upon them then scoot over into their own lane until the car passes, then move over to get ahead again. Try that in the US !
Parking in Paris is interesting too. The way it works is that a vehicle pulls up to a space that is a few inches shorter than it self and backs in until it gently “bumps” the vehicle behind it to gain an inch or two of space. Then, it moves forward, gently “bumping” the vehicle in front to gain another inch or two. (The degree of gentleness is determined by how much space is needed) This goes on, front and back until the vehicle is parked. We have seen this done here a number of times.
No one here ever uses his or her parking brake….
Janice was quite proud of me and said that I was driving “very French” when I double-parked in a crosswalk, in front of a fire hydrant at the ambulance entrance of the hospital. When I get back to the US, I will surely have to check into the department of motor vehicle’s detox program or re education camp.
The upside
The bread. The churches. The history.
No, you don’t come here for cheap gas. You come here for bread that simply makes you cry. Bread like you have never known existed. Bread with nuts and grains you chew. Bread with crusts like you see on the cover of cooking magazines. Breads like you see photos of but have never actually eaten. Here, we eat them every day. We got off on a screaming start on pastries too, until we noticed we were both getting bigger by the day. So now we save it for special occasions. It seems that almost every day is special for something, real or imagined.
We still laugh at the first time we went into our bakery mouths watering and quickly bought several loaves of different breads, each looking more spectacular than the last. We ran home and put them all in the freezer except the one we would have that day. Then we realized, hey! Why are we freezing bread when we can buy it fresh tomorrow and every day?
Never again!
No matter how many there are, I simply never tire of seeing 800 to 1300 year old churches. Each one draws me like a moth to a flame. Some are bigger than others, some more ornate. The really tiny chapels out in the middle of a field miles from anything hold a special place in my heart. Janice is starting a photo collection of the crosses (all different) that are, yes, at the cross roads of the rural villages.
So much work went into these beautiful chapels and roadside crosses. More work than many of our “major” churches at home. Many have some stained glass windows missing from damage done during earlier wars, but all have more history in their little finger than our cathedrals.
We were in a town church the other day about 30 miles out of Paris. (Provins) Joan of Arc had attended services there with Charles VII after a battle in 1436. As Janice and I walked throughout the church utterly alone, looking at chipped pieces of stone on the walls from WW II machine gun fire, we saw that when they attended services, the church was already 300 years old. Cassie said after seeing Chartres, the cathedral at Reims and then Notre Dame that church would never be the same again, she loved the works of man to the glory of God.
Many times I have had to stop and pinch myself as I look down a cobblestone side street with homes built of stone and wood beams that have long since bowed, just feet apart from each other, reflecting a time when larger “horseless carriages” were not part of the landscape. I have seen all this on TV and in magazines before, but now I live here. Albeit, part time.
There were some other pleasant little surprises along the way also, like DSL internet at half the price of what we pay in California and car registration that gets paid once at purchase and does not need renewing again. Some little creature comforts we had been missing came our way also when we got satellite TV with CNN and the BBC stations. I even got my TIME magazine subscription transferred to Europe and I now get the Time Europe edition.
The kids are coming!
One of the really special things about this Christmas was that two of our kids were able to join us at home in Langoat. We meet them both in Paris, Cassie flying in from school in Canada while Mandy came by train from Germany. We then drove them home. Both kids seemed to be due for a serious Mommy and Daddy fix. Christmas eve was most memorable going to midnight mass at the Treguier cathedral, 900 years old, just 6 km from our house. We spent the next week squiring them around our area until Mandy had to return to Germany to get ready for a school entrance exam. She sure has worked hard this past year.
Cassie sure enjoyed her first European experience, loved the house and her time in France. She so liked the stone houses in Brittany that we have fallen in love with, and our many beaches. During her last week with us, we drove to see the D-Day beaches in Normandy, then on to Vimy where my Grandfather fought during WWI. Janice, Cassie and I were at the base of this massive Canadian monument saying prayers for him at the time of his memorial service in Canada. He had passed just days before, being among the last 6 living WWI Canadian veterans remaining.
When we left, we went through the Netherlands to Brugges in Belgium where Cassie got to ice-skate at night under the holiday lights in the town square across from an 800-year-old gold gilded town hall. The next day we were off to Mandy’s place in Germany to check out her digs and to meet her host parents where she had stayed for a year as an exchange student. We had a great time with them and found them quite charming.
We drove on to Paris for Cassie to get a chance to shop and to visit some sights before her flight home. Yes, we went to the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Arch De Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, the Bastille and walks along the Seine. Just enough to wet her appetite for more, then we put her on the plane to return to –500 degree weather on the Canadian winter plains.
Janice and I then got a chance at spending a week on our own in Paris. Without any adult supervision, whatsoever. J We were able to stay in a time-share at Vincennes, a few blocks from the chateau, and it was a great area to walk about in and have easy access to Paris center.
We went to the Montmartre, the Sacre Coeur Basilica and Napoleon’s tomb. We spent a day at Versaille, strolling though Louis XIV’s bedroom, and soaked up the glory of France in days gone by. The Louvre and the conciergerie were next, where Marie Antoinette got real intimate with the guillotine. On our way back home we stopped by the Normandy beaches again because I wanted to see more.
Well, enough. Next month we will go to Italy for a couple of weeks so I will check back in then.
Bye for now,
Michael & Janice
Well it’s been a couple of months since I pulled the retirement plug and I thought I would check in with an update. To be honest, I have not ever woken up even once wondering if today was a workday like I used to occasionally. It is utterly amazing how quickly you adjust to the fact that the only thing you have to do today is what ever you please. No more feelings of “I-better-hurry-up-and-get-whatever-done-because-I-only-have-one-day-left-before-I-have-to-go-back-to-work”
Not that I feel that I can fritter or waste my time, but realizing that the only thing left that you HAVE to do is die sure gives a fellow some breathing room. Our cross-country trip is well behind us and we have surely settled in our new life in Europe. The bottom line? It’s everything we thought it would be and then some. But before I get too far ahead of myself, first the downside…..
The downside
France, like all countries, has it’s ….well, challenging aspects.
It’s expensive, everything is closed for two hours in the middle of the day and you have to pay just to pee. And the drivers…..
First,the costs. Most high-ticket items are not an issue to us anymore. We bought our house when the Euro was relatively lower almost two years ago and our area of France is reasonably priced to start with. We took a bath of sorts though when we got our car considering the Euro was almost at it’s high (making our dollar at a record low) and cars here are about 25% more expensive than in the US.
Food (not just restaurants) and many other day-to-day items (postage, haircuts) are 1/3 to 50% higher than in the US, including the exchange rate, making our cost of living here noticeably higher. We have come to realize that much of this simply reflects the high cost of petrol to transport goods and the 17% tax on everything. The irony that two dyed-in-the-wool-to-our-DNA, George Bush loving Republicans have picked two tax-em-till-they-bleed counties as alternative homes, has not escaped us.
Don’t get me started on the price of gas ($5.25 to $6.00 per gallon US, $1.30 to $1.75 US per liter) Toll roads are everywhere and expensive, and you often have to pay to use a bathroom in a public place (.40 to over a dollar no matter what you do in there…)
Jeeees!
Europe in general has fewer comforts and less luxury than found in America. That is not to say that you can’t have or buy anything here than you can at home. You can. It is just not as widely available or owned by as many people, in general. Some things though, are more sophisticated here and some designs are way ahead of anything I have seen at home. What we sometimes refer to “European styling”. You know it when you see it.
It is certainly a more “relaxed” country and it is reflected in its “laisser faire” (read that to mean “sometimes careless”) attitude. Road signs often direct you to the start of your journey but critical gaps will occur before you see the next directing signs. A GPS system is next on our shopping list.
What do I miss most? Microwavable popcorn, the History Channel and gas at $2.50 a gallon. Did I mention that gas prices are outrageous?
Street signs are not on a pole at any intersection. They are attached to the wall of buildings at some intersections, usually behind a flowerpot or some other obstruction. These so called signs are also miniscule, and you can’t read them properly until you have passed them saying,“ Oh! That’s the one we wanted!” We have noted that while we have traveled all over France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, we have yet to see a single pick up truck. We have seen little cars called “smart” cars. These are about the length of a motorcycle, carry two passengers and NO luggage. It looks like you could fold it in your back pocket and park it almost anywhere.
French driving habits are a subject that could take pages to adequately cover. Suffice it to say that impossibly narrow streets and a crush of vehicles demands creative solutions. But, it takes some getting used to see cars parked on sidewalks and double-parking everywhere. In Paris, traffic is so congested that motorcycles travel in the oncoming lane until the oncoming car is upon them then scoot over into their own lane until the car passes, then move over to get ahead again. Try that in the US !
Parking in Paris is interesting too. The way it works is that a vehicle pulls up to a space that is a few inches shorter than it self and backs in until it gently “bumps” the vehicle behind it to gain an inch or two of space. Then, it moves forward, gently “bumping” the vehicle in front to gain another inch or two. (The degree of gentleness is determined by how much space is needed) This goes on, front and back until the vehicle is parked. We have seen this done here a number of times.
No one here ever uses his or her parking brake….
Janice was quite proud of me and said that I was driving “very French” when I double-parked in a crosswalk, in front of a fire hydrant at the ambulance entrance of the hospital. When I get back to the US, I will surely have to check into the department of motor vehicle’s detox program or re education camp.
The upside
The bread. The churches. The history.
No, you don’t come here for cheap gas. You come here for bread that simply makes you cry. Bread like you have never known existed. Bread with nuts and grains you chew. Bread with crusts like you see on the cover of cooking magazines. Breads like you see photos of but have never actually eaten. Here, we eat them every day. We got off on a screaming start on pastries too, until we noticed we were both getting bigger by the day. So now we save it for special occasions. It seems that almost every day is special for something, real or imagined.
We still laugh at the first time we went into our bakery mouths watering and quickly bought several loaves of different breads, each looking more spectacular than the last. We ran home and put them all in the freezer except the one we would have that day. Then we realized, hey! Why are we freezing bread when we can buy it fresh tomorrow and every day?
Never again!
No matter how many there are, I simply never tire of seeing 800 to 1300 year old churches. Each one draws me like a moth to a flame. Some are bigger than others, some more ornate. The really tiny chapels out in the middle of a field miles from anything hold a special place in my heart. Janice is starting a photo collection of the crosses (all different) that are, yes, at the cross roads of the rural villages.
So much work went into these beautiful chapels and roadside crosses. More work than many of our “major” churches at home. Many have some stained glass windows missing from damage done during earlier wars, but all have more history in their little finger than our cathedrals.
We were in a town church the other day about 30 miles out of Paris. (Provins) Joan of Arc had attended services there with Charles VII after a battle in 1436. As Janice and I walked throughout the church utterly alone, looking at chipped pieces of stone on the walls from WW II machine gun fire, we saw that when they attended services, the church was already 300 years old. Cassie said after seeing Chartres, the cathedral at Reims and then Notre Dame that church would never be the same again, she loved the works of man to the glory of God.
Many times I have had to stop and pinch myself as I look down a cobblestone side street with homes built of stone and wood beams that have long since bowed, just feet apart from each other, reflecting a time when larger “horseless carriages” were not part of the landscape. I have seen all this on TV and in magazines before, but now I live here. Albeit, part time.
There were some other pleasant little surprises along the way also, like DSL internet at half the price of what we pay in California and car registration that gets paid once at purchase and does not need renewing again. Some little creature comforts we had been missing came our way also when we got satellite TV with CNN and the BBC stations. I even got my TIME magazine subscription transferred to Europe and I now get the Time Europe edition.
The kids are coming!
One of the really special things about this Christmas was that two of our kids were able to join us at home in Langoat. We meet them both in Paris, Cassie flying in from school in Canada while Mandy came by train from Germany. We then drove them home. Both kids seemed to be due for a serious Mommy and Daddy fix. Christmas eve was most memorable going to midnight mass at the Treguier cathedral, 900 years old, just 6 km from our house. We spent the next week squiring them around our area until Mandy had to return to Germany to get ready for a school entrance exam. She sure has worked hard this past year.
Cassie sure enjoyed her first European experience, loved the house and her time in France. She so liked the stone houses in Brittany that we have fallen in love with, and our many beaches. During her last week with us, we drove to see the D-Day beaches in Normandy, then on to Vimy where my Grandfather fought during WWI. Janice, Cassie and I were at the base of this massive Canadian monument saying prayers for him at the time of his memorial service in Canada. He had passed just days before, being among the last 6 living WWI Canadian veterans remaining.
When we left, we went through the Netherlands to Brugges in Belgium where Cassie got to ice-skate at night under the holiday lights in the town square across from an 800-year-old gold gilded town hall. The next day we were off to Mandy’s place in Germany to check out her digs and to meet her host parents where she had stayed for a year as an exchange student. We had a great time with them and found them quite charming.
We drove on to Paris for Cassie to get a chance to shop and to visit some sights before her flight home. Yes, we went to the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Arch De Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, the Bastille and walks along the Seine. Just enough to wet her appetite for more, then we put her on the plane to return to –500 degree weather on the Canadian winter plains.
Janice and I then got a chance at spending a week on our own in Paris. Without any adult supervision, whatsoever. J We were able to stay in a time-share at Vincennes, a few blocks from the chateau, and it was a great area to walk about in and have easy access to Paris center.
We went to the Montmartre, the Sacre Coeur Basilica and Napoleon’s tomb. We spent a day at Versaille, strolling though Louis XIV’s bedroom, and soaked up the glory of France in days gone by. The Louvre and the conciergerie were next, where Marie Antoinette got real intimate with the guillotine. On our way back home we stopped by the Normandy beaches again because I wanted to see more.
Well, enough. Next month we will go to Italy for a couple of weeks so I will check back in then.
Bye for now,
Michael & Janice
