Who, me walk?
For someone who will drive around a parking lot for 3 minutes looking for a parking place closer to the front door of a business to avoid walking, I have turned a new page. No need to email me about being bone lazy, someone in this household has already beaten you to it.
Double click on the pic for a spectacular view
I saw a report on TV about how 30% of Americans are obese as opposed to only 10% of the French. Clearly, they are doing something right aside from drinking red wine and eating cheese. It is not unusual to see cycling clubs with 20 to 50 members in their spandex type outfits, hogging the roads as they ‘Lance Armstrong it’ around the countryside.
I had a friend here who asked me if I wanted to join a group who walked once a week to explore new areas. Walk, I asked? On purpose? Surely you jest! I was totally on board with the exploring part but when I found out we couldn’t drive to these areas, I hesitated. Still, the desire to find new cool stuff prevailed. I was in.
Besides, these were mostly old farts who looked like they would soon be needing walkers to get around so how hard could it be? I was also told to bring something to eat as they picnicked along the way. These walks are done along different parts of our coastline as there are hundreds of miles of footpaths that meander everywhere. We set off at 10 AM so it required getting up at O’ dark hundred to participate and I figured we would be back by 2PM so it would be no big deal.
It is only waist deep, so its no biggie
We set off up and down hills, along mountain top ridges, double timing across meadows and freshly plowed fields, through muddy forests past dolmens* and across streams, covering miles of craggy rocky beaches, sometimes in the rain. These old Frenchies could walk my socks off! The last time I walked like this I was carrying an anti tank weapon at boot camp with a drill sergeant yelling “I am going to turn you fat, lazy sissies into soldiers yet!!!” .
* Dolmens are prehistoric burial chambers dated 11 thousand years BC. That would make them considerably older than the Egyptian pyramids, The Great Wall of China or Stonehenge. The stone she is touching is 12 X 15 feet (4X5 M)
This Dolmen is roughly 12 feet wide (4M) and approx 50 feet long (17M) They are found all over Brittany
At 5 PM, some 7 hours and 20Km (13 miles) after our departure they decided to ‘cut it short’ and save the longer walk for the following week. With typical hot air bravado, I insinuated that I thought that we had just warmed up and the walk had yet to start. I have been at it weekly ever since. It’s not easy staying a lean mean loving machine.
A couple of months ago I had posted a video about the Thousand Islands. Now I have something similar below about our neighborhood here. All these pics were taken within minutes of our home and are a very good presentation of life out in the middle of nowhere in France. For the best view, click on the bottom left menu tab below, then full screen. You must advance to the next picture on your own by clicking on the arrows in the center bottom of each picture.
I couldn't hang around for several more hours and I figured that this would give you the general idea anyway. As you can see, it resembles a bathtub where the plug has been removed and the tub drained. This process happens all along our coast twice a day.
Boats lie in the mud at low tide and...
...rise again at high tide
Side note
I recently wrote about our phone number in the US (805-762-4646) you could call where the calls are forwarded to our home here (at our expense). Our kids and family have started using it but others remain wary. Rest assured that it won’t break the bank as it is a fixed cost regardless of how many calls we get. Again, it will only cost you a call to California, you will NOT pay the cost to a call to Europe.
Do know however that we are 6 hours ahead of East Coast times and 9 hours ahead of West Coast callers. Also, the “weird French lady” that answers when we are not home is the French message that says we are not home and to leave a message. After all, we are in France! Please resist any temptation to be cute and leave a message in what only you would think is French.
Entertaining like crazy
We have not entertained at home since Christmas, partially because we were traveling some but mostly because were tore our kitchen up and completed phase two of the remodeling project. Now that that is behind us, we have been making up for lost time.
This past month we have gone on an entertaining frenzy, having two couples over per night (several in a row) each week for dinner parties. We have had so many folks over you would think we were running a soup kitchen. Janice is in her millieux cooking like a madwoman while I clean up the previous mess and prepare for the next.
The French like to think their food is the best in the world and they certainly have some pretty spiffy dishes. Then again, they sometimes eat ‘things’ and ‘parts’ that are unmentionable in a family newsletter. Let’s just say they might not be your favorite either. They get a kick of eating “like Americans”.
Being retired, you realize how much more time you have to make and nourish friendships and we work hard at it.
Gotta go. Two other couples just arrived…
Al Jazeera
I was watching a little TV the other day when I decided to stop and take in some of the other stations we get other than BBC and UK programming. We don’t watch French TV really, as much because the programming doesn’t interest us as because Janice needs a mental break from slogging through all things French all day long.
I have known that we get satellite programs from all over Europe and the Middle East but I have always just surfed by them. Some are from Romania and parts beyond, in languages unknown to me but surprisingly, many are in English. The Russian network for one, the communist Chinese network for another. Best of all, Al Jazeera is broadcast in English also.
Gosh, I thought, I have never seen a beheading before like I had heard they did or listened to an Al Qaeda spokesman rant about American Imperialism or whatever it is those rag heads whine about. Then, to round things out, I could take in some communist propaganda from China or the former USSR. This should be good fun, I thought.
Talk about ruining a perfectly good preconception and prejudice! Al Jazeera was interviewing a number of American officials, giving them more than a fair shake. Their broadcaster was railing against Arab strongmen suppressing their people’s freedom. Huh?
Sensing a trick, I switched to the Russian broadcast. They were doing a program on ecological failures in Russia. Another letdown. Finally, I watched the Chinese Communist official mouthpiece, CCTV. They were doing a program on the American economy, outlining its strengths and weaknesses. Other than the broadcasters eye shape I couldn’t tell the difference in content bias with US network broadcasting.
Hey, I am not saying that these guys never air questionable or even outrageous stuff, but I do feel that I now have a more informed and tempered point of view than I held previously.
Rotheneuf
This month we visited the village of Rotheneuf near St-Malo. The village is famous for its sculpted rocks, "rochers sculptés". After the parish priest suffered a stroke in the mid 1800's, he was left paralyzed on one side and retreated to a life as a hermit in the cliffs of Rothéneuf. He carved over 300 fascinating, grotesque and bizarre faces and figures into the rock. This is the French version of Easter Island.
This is a portion of the cliff side. Click on the
image to see some of the sculptures close up
Yet another low tide shot. When the tide comes in it sometimes laps over the wall by Janice's feet.
See you next month!
