The Eagle has landed
It didn’t take long to settle back into village life here. Except for the 9 hour time change which we deal with by simply taking sleeping pills at night for the first week, we quickly got back into the groove. Janice ran off to rejoin her art class, I headed to the blacksmith to order up some metal for a project or two and we got back in touch with our friends and neighbors here. Dinner invitations started flying back and forth with plans being laid for upcoming outings.
The first was returning to a monthly dinner club that some friends belong to. The meals are great but the focus of the club is French viticulture. You know, the practical study of the art and science of winemaking. Everything from the tannins to soil compositions are explained. Every meeting covers a small but different part of France with producers of that area providing wines from their viniards. Throughout the 4 hour dinner, we sampled 8-9 wines (I was so thrirsty, I lost count) from the area just north of Avignon in Provence.
As hard as it may be for you to believe, we have no plans for any major projects or travel this winter. There is little of any significance to do to this house and we are trying to set an example of fiscal discipline for our president by “saving” for the major works we will need to do upon our return home in California next year as opposed to borrowing from the Chinese.
The blacksmithing project will involve forging a substantial support for a large flower pot which will hang from a post I installed on the dock at the island last summer. I will also forge a set of doors for our wine storage area here. Unlike many of the locals who have wine cellars, we fake it by having an area in our garage where we store ours. Amateurs by their standards, we store a modest 250 bottles or so.
This, mind you, is the St. Emilion Bordeau wine and cider I help bottle with the local fellas every winter. Up till this year, we had to remove it all to a secret hiding place during our 7 month absence, while rental and home exchange guests were here. Now, we will simply lock the mediaeval looking doors and all will be secure. OK, so have one project to do..
Helping Loic build his carport
Not one to sit on my thumbs, I have the opportunity to step up to the plate and offer to help some folks who have been so kind to us in the past. We have a few friends who are doing modest projects of their own so I have stopped by, hammer in hand, to see just how much damage I could do.
Helping Thierry insulate a wall
They do things differently here
Every year I note some of the different ways of seeing and doing things here. Sometimes impressive, sometimes humorous, sometimes aggravating but always something that adds to the flavor of our time in France. Here are some latest observations.
President Sarkozy recently said that the French ways of retiring early and working 35 hour work weeks with 5 to 6 weeks’ vacation for all was unsustainable and that the country was- and would continue- paying a heavy price for it. Predictably, it was largely meet with derision by those who have a well develloped sense of entitlement.
In these economic times he often seems like the only adult in the room while some seem more like school kids who are thrilled that the school is closed for the day because of a snowstorm, completely clueless as to the long term consequences of their short term gain. I would trade his more realistic, no-nonsense, tough love economic approach for Obama in a New York minute. But that is just me.
France will stop writing paper medical prescriptions within two years. They are digitizing the entire system where the doctor ‘writing’ the prescription will not only send it directly to the pharmacy but to a central records keeping database. This will eliminate massive amounts of paper record keeping and personnel, thus achieving huge savings. Absolutely brilliant!
I mentioned earlier that we settled in quickly. Truth is, we sort of did. When we arrive, there is always a substantial delay in getting our phone and internet up and running. You would think that after doing this for 8 years we could simply call ahead and say “Dude, you are killing me here, turn everything back on!” You would be wrong.
Every year, we have to physically go to the local phone company office and re-invent the wheel. We must provide proof of having a residence here (home insurance docs) and a copy of our US tax returns (proving that we are foreigners with a second residence here) I could easily have dispelled any doubts on that subject by sharing my political predilections but that’s another matter. Time in the office to reorder the activation of our phone and internet? 2 ½ hours.
Four or five days later the phone was turned on, but for reasons known only to God and the phone company, the internet took a full two weeks to be activated. Speedy efficient service is not one of the strengths here. Still, when the lights finally blinked on my modem, my hands shook with excitement like an alcoholic with DT’s going cold turkey.
Within a few days of our return, we discovered that the main power breaker to the house tripped 4 times in the first 5 days. With some kind of delay mechanism built in, it took nearly 2 hours to re-set itself each time, invariably in the evening after dark. We suspected that there was inadequate power being supplied to our home as we had added a number of electric radiators, the sauna as well as other appliances not always found here. You see in America the standard home power supply is 200 Amps. You use whatever you want and you pay based on your consumption. What is ‘available’ is irrelevant; it’s what you use that counts.
Here, you pay based on how much power is available to you (with substantial increases in cost for each step up) plus whatever power you consume. When we bought the house years ago, it had 30 Amps of ‘available’ power. (about as much as a motorhome) We quickly raised it to 45 Amps until we had the problems when we arrived this year and raised it again to 60 Amps. You hardly want to run around turning the coffee pot off so you can run the dishwasher. Time to upgrade? 3 weeks.
Still, the bread here makes up for any other shortcomings.
Merry Christmas!
