May, 2023

Incoming....

This month we had a guest from Canada who came to visit for a week. Marlene, who is an island friend, was game to be drug all over the area, taking in all of our favorite haunts. One of the mandatory stops was "Les Carrieres de Lumieres" (Translation: "Quarry of Lights") in the mediaeval hilltop town of Les Beaux de Provence. Impossible to describe, it has to be experienced to be  understood. Briefly, it is an old underground quarry that has been equipped with the latest in video, audio and laser equipment. What they did was to project art from De Vermeer and Van Gogh. 

Big deal, right? Well, they project this on all the walls, ceiling and floor over the entire quarry. The quarry is about 300 feet (100M) long and has columns that range from 30 feet to 80 feet in height (10-27M) .  It is about the size of a Walmart super center, but I managed to snag this very short promo video of the interior. Note the size of the people in the video contrasted to the size of the interior of the quarry. Obviously best seen on a computer (not your phone) full screen, its pretty amazing.

On another day, we also visited a few medieval towns and the Fragonard perfume factory in the city of Grasse, known as the perfume capital of the world. A family owned business for the past 4 generations, named after the their favorite artist. 

End of each day, relaxing

        Money, money Money!

A while back I wrote about how in France, the government regulates your withdrawal of cash out of your account. Here is a re-cap. You can deposit any amount into your account and you can charge whatever you buy at the store on your debit card or your credit card or write a check. Unless you are in Germany who has not used checks in over 25 years.

But try to withdraw cash out of your account and the party is over. Cash maybe king but not in France. The government abhors it because it cannot be traced, tracked or controlled. They have recently clamped down on its use even more. Now, we can withdraw 300 Euros a day (about the same as a US dollar) or 500 Euros a week. Any more requires 'permission' from the bank, as in you providing 'justification' for what you want to spend it on.

Excuse me?

I have to explain what I plan to spend it on? My money? From my account?

Have you bumped your head?

The idea, allegedly, is to prevent the purchase of weapons, drugs or financing nefarious activities. So how am I supposed to buy guns, drugs or finance nefarious activities if I can't access my money? Seriously, you can withdraw up to a limit of 3000 Euros a week (no more) if you can provide  a plausible yarn (I have many) for what you 'need' the money for. The solution as I see it, is to exchange US dollars for Euros before we come, stuff it in our underwear when we fly over, then hide it under our mattress when we arrive. We can still keep a reasonable amount in our account to pay bills and make customary purchases.

We are not in Kansas anymore.

 Driving and parking

For years I have been writing about the all but impossible parking situation in France. Not just in Paris (the worst) but almost anywhere. I have written that it is so bad that it is not unusual to see cars parked on sidewalks, in the center divide on boulevards, in front of fire hydrants, in crosswalks and all manner of inappropriate parking situations. I have even seen them parked in ambulance entrances at the hospital. Some drivers park in the driveway entrance of a parking lot or 'just off to the side' somewhere, anywhere. You might think that the police are having a heyday with towing and citations but no, it is so prevalent that it is pretty much unenforceable. There is simply no place to park. Anywhere.

Over the years, the number of cars keeps growing so the problem only gets worse. For many, the solution is to get a motorbike. There are thousands of them everywhere. The bonus is that not only can they park in smaller inappropriate locations but they are virtually lawless. They will pass between two oncoming cars on the center divider and drivers push over to their side to avoid a collision. They will pass cars on curves, in tunnels and anywhere they can scoot by a line of cars to get ahead. The kicker is that it is legal for them and our idea of lawless traffic control is non existent. Fail to make way and some will kick your car door to get your attention. Motorcycles do cut down on a lot of cars on the road but even that has failed to solve the problem. It has only delayed the day of reckoning.

Bicycles are all the rage here. People ride them all the time but week-ends are something else. As seen above they just occupy the road as though it was all theirs and cars can line up behind them for as long as it takes to find a safe place to pass them. In case you didn't catch it, they don't care.

The latest thing is to ride scooters. They are electrified skateboard looking things with a handle to control it. Little kids have the non motorized version and push themselves forward. But these are for adults who want to go up to 20 miles (32 Km) at about 20 MPH (32K/p/h), zipping through traffic. Of course some suicide hot rod models can travel up to 50 miles (80 Km) at up to 60 MPH (100K/P/H) Typically, they range from $500 to $1000 so they are certainly affordable and you can fold them up to take on the bus, in your car, boat, dorm, apartment or next to your desk at work.

Of course, as they have gained in popularity (there are thousands of them here all over) they have created issues. Unlicensed and largely unregulated to date, they run amuck on sidewalks, on pedestrian pathways and anywhere they can squeeze though. The next big thing was to have a passenger aboard so the two of you can save the walk. Paris had to ban their rentals because people would crash into pedestrians at speed and caused many injuries. Eminently handy and practical, they are incredibly dangerous.

Only flying cars will save us now.

Project updates

Last month I shared pictures of a nice big hole I made in our lower laundry wall and I finally figured what to do with it. Since we bought the property next door, Janice thought it would be a good idea for me to put a door in to make access to the pool-to-be-built next year a lot easier and more practical from the rest of the house. 

Inside before

and after

Outside before

and after

Meanwhile, 48 hours before we were to close on the purchase of the property next door to us, our lawyer called to say "Opps!, sorry, my bad but one of the governmental authorisations requires that a permit request be posted publicly for anyone who wishes to contest it." The permit must be posted for 60 days before any work can proceed. A Sherriff must photograph it when posted, again a month later and finally after 2 months to certify it was up, visible and for the full duration. Cost for the 3 pictures and the 'service'? $500.  I could have offered the below pic for free. So, here we sit having jumped through every hoop since last August and will now be gone before we can get any work done this year. 

France is special....

Bits and Bobs and this months travels

Lunch with friends

French postman

Visiting Castle "Mandalieu de La Napoule"

The French don't like short names

And you wonder why she love' it here...

Wouldn't "KEEP OUT" be sufficient?

On another day....

We then traveled a few hours from home to the village of Le Baroux where we had witnessed the monks from the Traditionalist Benedictine Abbey chanting one of their 7 daily prayers in the monastery in Gregorian Latin. This was our second visit.  (See The Epistle June 2019)

They rise at 3:20 AM and within 10 minutes are down in the church to start their day of prayers. At first I thought, "What a drag, interrupting your life 7 times a day to rush to the next payer time". Then I had an epiphany.... They don't interrupt their day to pray, their life is a prayer from the time they wake up to the time they fall asleep. Their day long prayer is interrupted by life....having to eat, doing laundry, clean the place and the daily work they must do to support themselves. They bake bread for sale, press olive oil from their grove, make wine and package lavender. Prince Charles spent time for a little R&R there a few years ago.